“From all these circumstances it is as clear that the action of Count Beust is guided by hostile intentions towards us as that Lord Granville’s attitude is based on good will. We wonder if the Vienna Chancellor well considered the possible consequences of this new manœuvre. It is not probable after the fall of Metz that the attempt made by Austria to hinder Germany in the complete attainment of that peace which we have in view with the object of securing a safe Western frontier will be successful. But we shall remember that attempts to prejudice our interests and the good impression made in Germany by the previous neutrality of Austria-Hungary will be destroyed, and a friendly _rapprochement_ with the dual monarchy, a basis for which was being laid, will be postponed--probably for a considerable time. But let us consider another possibility. Take it that through the intervention of Count Beust the demands which we make upon France are curtailed, and that we are actually obliged to renounce a portion of the old and new debts which we are on the point of collecting--does the Chancellor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire believe that we shall not remember at the first opportunity to make our ill-disposed neighbour on the South-East compensate us for what he helped to deprive us of in the West? Does he believe that we shall foolishly put off the day of reckoning with a neighbour who takes every opportunity of displaying his hostility, until his French _protégé_ has recovered sufficiently to give him the support of a more valuable alliance in gratitude for the assistance given against Germany?” _Tuesday, November 1st._--At dinner Bohlen reported that the Coburger is doing his utmost to create a feeling of discontent--he says nothing happens, nothing is being done, no progress is being made. “What! He!” exclaimed the Chief, with an indescribable expression of contempt on his features. “He should be ashamed of himself. These Princes that follow the army like a flight of vultures! These carrion crows, who themselves do nothing whatever except inspect the battle-fields, &c.” Some one then spoke of the last engagement, and said that a portion of the 1200 prisoners that had been taken were franctireurs. “Prisoners!” broke in the Chief, who still seemed to be extremely angry. “Why do they continue to make prisoners? They should have shot down the whole 1200 one after the other.”