Page:The guilt of William Hohenzollern.djvu/83

Rh attacking. Finally, on July 13th, the inert mass of Austria seems to be in motion. Tschirschky reports:

"“The Minister [Berchtold.—K.] is now himself convinced that what is now required is action of the speediest kind. [Doubly underlined by William.—K.] He hopes to settle with Tisza to-morrow as to the wording of the Note to be presented to Serbia, and would then submit it on Wednesday, July 15th, to the Emperor at Ischl, upon which its transmission to Belgrade could take place without delay, and consequently before the departure of Poincaré to St. Petersburg.”"

As chance would have it, just at this time the President of the French Republic was paying the Tsar a visit in his capital. The Note was to be dispatched to Serbia before Poincaré started (he left Paris on the evening of July 15th).

But, for all that, the Austrians were not able to shoot so quickly. Meanwhile Berchtold and William first noted down the triumph of having converted Tisza to their views.

Tschirschky telegraphed on July 14th, “strictly private”:

“Count Tisza called on me to-day, after his conference with Count Berchtold. The Count said: Up to now he had always been the one who had urged the necessity of caution, but every day had confirmed his opinion that the Monarchy must come to an energetic decision [Absolutely!—W.], to prove that it had vital energy, and to put an end to the untenable state of things in the