Page:The guilt of William Hohenzollern.djvu/66

62 hints from Serajevo had inspired him with the fear that a horde of Serbian assassins awaited him in the Austrian capital?

The instant he heard of the crime, he sprang without the least hesitation to the same conclusion as that which Francis Joseph expressed in his personal letter to William, received by the latter on July 5th:

"“It must be the future task of my Government to bring about the isolation and diminution of Serbia.”"

And it closed with the words:

"“You also will, after this last and most terrible occurrence in Bosnia, have come to the conclusion that there can be no longer any thought of a reconciliation of the opposition between Serbia and ourselves, and that the continued peace-policy of all European monarchs will be threatened so long as this horde of criminal agitators in Belgrade are allowed to live unpunished.”"

But even before this letter had reached Potsdam, William had decided that, whatever the consequences might be, Serbia must be laid low. By the shots at Serajevo his monarchical sympathies had been inflamed into a stormy passion for mortal vengeance on this race of murderers. Prince Lichnowsky was in Berlin during the days following the outrage. He reports a conversation with Zimmermann, who was then representing Jagow in the absence of the latter:

“One would gather from his words an unmistakably unfriendly feeling towards Russia, which