"I have never thoroughly liked this Italian alliance," said the king, "though I own its great usefulness. Oh! that it might have been otherwise, and that, as in my youth, conjointly with Austria we might have turned our arms in another direction."
The minister studied the king's face with anxious eyes.
"And if it had been otherwise," he cried, with animation, "your majesty would never have been able to free Prussia, our glorious, rising country, the creation of your great ancestor, from the chains with which the envy and malice of the great European powers fettered her, by the suggestion and guidance of Austria,--this Austria who never was German, who used Germany only as a footstool for her ambition in Europe, and who was always ready to sell, to betray, to divide it. No, your majesty, I rejoice that we are forced to act, and that at last the royal eagle may spread his wings freely in the air. 'Nec soli cedit' is his motto, and he will fly to the sun, though the way be through thunder-clouds. I see before me the great and brilliant future of Prussia and of Germany, and I am proud and happy that it has been granted to me to stand beside the king, who is the creator of this future."
King William's clear gaze rested thoughtfully on the excited, enthusiastic face of his minister. His own eyes had sparkled at the words of the bold statesman who stood before him confident of victory, but he raised his looks to heaven, and said quietly and simply--
"As God wills!"
Count Bismarck looked with emotion at his royal master as he stood before him in such simple greatness, and an expression of astonishment crossed his features, as the mighty sovereign, on the eve of a fearful war, which must have so great an influence on the future, laid aside all his hopes, all his ambition, all his misgivings, in these three simple words.
"Has your majesty any further commands?" he asked, in a voice which still showed traces of his former excitement.
"No," replied the king, "hasten to send off the despatches."
And with a friendly nod he dismissed the minister-president.
Count Bismarck left the king's cabinet and the palace, and walked back quicker than he had come, to his own house in Wilhelmsstrasse, and he heeded even less than before the angry looks cast at him as he walked along under the lime trees. His face expressed proud satisfaction, and his manner joyful confidence. The great war, which his feelings and his convictions showed him to be unavoidable and necessary, was to begin, and he believed in its happy termination with a firmness and security, which excluded all doubt and hesitation.