“Moreover, another dark rumour is gaining more form and consistence from day to day, and cannot be ignored much longer. We regret to say authentic reports agree in representing the Empress Augusta as the centre of that coalition which desires to stay the hand that Bismarck has raised to strike. We grant that the rumour sounds ludicrously improbable, yet in presence of the letters that represent the facts as fully authenticated, we have no alternative but to set aside all such denials as futile, and--taking the matter as it stands, for good or for evil--endeavour to explain it and to consider its consequences. We must confess that we have only two very commonplace explanations to offer, which may nevertheless suffice. These are the spiritual requirements of increasing piety, so common in energetic women who are advancing in years (the Empress will soon have completed her sixty-first year) and the desire to play a political part, which likewise grows upon them with age. It is scarcely necessary to recall special instances in history to show how easily and frequently these tendencies have combined, and how ladies of the highest station have thereby become the most convenient and effective instruments of pietistic schemes. The Empress, who has been at all times of an aspiring and ambitious mind, but who has never exercised much political influence over her consort, was obliged to seek a lever elsewhere. That is the simple solution of the problem, but it must not be dismissed merely because of its simplicity. Other ladies in a similar position follow the dictates of their hearts when, influenced by their innate piety, they devote their whole energy to promoting the interests of the Church.