Page:Readings in European History Vol 2.djvu/620

 582 Readings in European History Let it be so. The fault is not mine should my people have hard battles to fight and mayhap heavy burdens to bear. No alternative is any longer left us. We must fight for our very existence. We must engage in a life-and-death struggle with those who would cast down the Prussia of the Great Elector, of Frederick the Great ; the Prussia which emerged victorious from the War of Liberation, from the position to which the skill and strength of her princes and the bravery, devotion, and character of her people have raised her. Let us petition Almighty God, the director of the history of nations, the disposer of battles, to bless our arms. Should he grant us the victory, we shall then be strong enough to renew, in a firmer and more beneficent manner, the bonds which have so loosely bound the German lands together, in name rather than in fact, and which have now been torn asunder by those who fear the right and might of the na- tional spirit. May God be with us. William. Berlin, June 18, 1866. Count Bismarck was able to write to his wife on July 9, three days after the great and decisive victory of Prussia at Koniggratz, as follows : Hohenmauth, Monday, July 9. 486. Bis- ... It goes well with us — at least, if we are not exces- marck writes s [ ve [ n our demands and do not think that we have conquered about the the world, we shall achieve a peace that is worth while. But battle of we are as easily elated as we are cast down, and I have the Komggratz. thankless task of pouring water into the intoxicating wine, and making it plain that we do not live alone in Europe but with three neighbors. The Austrians have taken a stand in Moravia, and we are at present so rash as to propose that to-morrow our headquarters shall be on the spot they now occupy. Pris- oners are still coming in, and one hundred and eighty cannon