To this Bismarck replied on the 3rd of September: “Honoured Count,--Yesterday evening I received your letter of the 1st instant, which is a source of much pleasure and satisfaction to me. I hasten to send you a provisional answer. And, first, I beg you to convey to his Majesty the Emperor my respectful thanks for the gracious manner in which he has referred to my intention to come to Vienna. I am pleased to see from your letter that his Majesty (unser Herr) has one foot in the stirrup, and do not doubt that our united efforts will succeed in placing him firmly in the saddle. Unfortunately, from the nature of things, geographical and political, my task cannot be so speedily completed as yours. A verbal report has not only the advantage of saving time, but also that of confining the replies to such questions as are actually raised in the most exalted quarter. In a written report I must, as a measure of precaution, discuss all the misunderstandings of which I may apprehend the possibility. It has, therefore, come to pass that I have been obliged to dictate to my son (who, with your kind permission, also writes this letter) sixty pages, the contents of which I was further obliged to expand in detail by telegraphic and other additions. Nevertheless, I have not succeeded, in spite of all my pains, in entirely removing the apprehension that our peaceful scheme may conceal some secret views of an aggressive character. This idea is unwelcome to a gentleman of over eighty-two years of age, but I hope I may be able to dispel it altogether, even if it costs me a somewhat lengthy postscript to those sixty pages. My master’s disinclination to a speedy acceptance of new situations, which is a feature of his character, offers less scope for my activity. For his Majesty, the attitude recently adopted by the Emperor Alexander has for the first time illuminated, as with a lightning flash, a situation which I have been repeatedly obliged to recognise during the past few years. It will be a matter of extreme difficulty for his Majesty to find himself forced into making a choice between the two neighbouring empires, and he will therefore close his mind as long as possible to the conviction that the moment has come for such a course. In our Royal House habit exercises an enormous power, and the instinct of persistence grows stronger with age, and resists the recognition of undoubted changes in the outer world. Besides, the Emperor Alexander (I do not know whether it be due to the influence of others, or to his own determination) now endeavours to force the Jupiter Tonans into the background by a rapid transition to sunshine. In this sense the last threatening utterances were followed within a week by a friendly invitation to send a Prussian officer to Warsaw. This was accepted by my Emperor, who announced the despatch of Field-Marshal Manteuffel and suite, without my previous knowledge of this step, as a military measure.