CHAPTER XX.
There was a man in France to whom these overturnings were especially distasteful. Napoleon III., sitting in brand-new splendor upon his newly created throne, was industriously engaged in building up an empire and a reputation upon Napoleonic lines. These lines of course were despotic. So the triumph of liberalism in Germany, the creation of a new political power with Austria and despotism cast out, was a severe blow to his policy and to his prestige. It weakened him in Europe, where he aspired to headship, and at home, where he should be considered invincible, not alone in arms, but in statecraft.
The Crimea, Magenta, and Solferino had been splendid decorations to his reign; but they looked tame and insignificant since this transforming Seven Weeks' War. Then, too, his magnificent scheme of an empire in Mexico, with a Hapsburg ruling under a French protectorate—that had miserably failed. And now there had suddenly arisen, as if out of the ground, a new political Germany, which rivaled France in strength. Frenchmen began to ask whether this man was, after all, such a great leader, and destined to wear the mantle of his uncle!
Obviously the thing to do was to recover his waning prestige by a splendid victory over this new power of which Prussia was the head.
If the Emperor had any misgivings they were swept away by the beautiful Empress Eugénie, who, intensely Catholic, saw in the ascendency of Protestant Prussia, and the humiliation of Catholic Austria, an impious blow at the Catholic faith in Europe.
So the war was determined upon. Only one obstacle existed. There was nothing to fight about! But that could be overcome, and in 1870 a pretext was found.
Queen Isabella had been expelled from Spain, and there existed that perennial source of disturbance in Europe, a vacant Spanish throne. From among the several candidates, Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern, a relative of William I. of Prussia, was chosen.
The French ambassador Benedetti received instant orders to demand of King William that he should prohibit Prince Leopold from accepting the offer.
The King made answer that "not having advised it, he could not forbid it." However, to the disappointment of the Emperor, the Hohenzollern prince voluntarily declined, and the way to a war seemed closed again.
But the Empress Eugénie was intent upon her object, and the war-fever had taken deep hold upon the people of France. So the fateful dispatch was sent to Benedetti—"Be rough to the King."