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 IX THE WAR AGAINST RUSSIA. 135 would seem that Austria, tormented by the pres- chap. eiice of the Russian forces on her southern frontier, ^^' was more prone to encourage tlian to restrain the imprudence of her old ally. These were the faults with which Austria may in other fairly be charged. In other respects she was not Austiiu forgetful of her duty towards herself and towards iiei-auty. Europe ; and it has been seen that, from the day when the Czar crossed the Pruth down to the time when he was obliged to relinquish his hold, Austria persisted in taking the same view of the dispute as was taken by the Western Powers, and was never at all backward in her measures for the deliverance of the Principalities. In the nature and temperament of the King of share wiik-h Prussia there was so much of weakness that his ii'caus'iDa' Imperial brother-in-law was accustomed to speak of him in terms of ruthless disdain ; and it seems that this habit of looking down upon the King caused the Czar to shape his policy simply as though Prussia were null When he found his Eoyal brother-in-law engaged against him in an offensive and defensive alliance, he perhaps under- stood the error which he had committed in assum- ing that the policy of an enlightened and high- spirited nation would be steadily subservient to the weakness of its Sovereign ; but, until lie was thus undeceived, or, at all events, until the failure of Baron Budberg's mission in the beginning of 1854, he seems to have closed his eyes to all the long series of public acts in which Prussia had engaged, and to have cheated himself into the