¶ The vast artillery duel began early and lasted many hours. At the height of the battle, old King William asked for a cigar, and when the box was brought took a long time to select one, to his fancy. Bismarck regarded it as a good sign! "If he can bother about the best cigar, the battle cannot be lost," was Bismarck's mental comment. ¶ At last, the Austrians began giving way. ¶ In joy, the King took from his neck his own Iron Cross and hung it on Bismarck's neck. ¶ Moltke came up, bright and happy, with these words: "Your Majesty has not only won the battle, but the whole campaign." ¶ It was true; the great Austrian war was practically now won, and in three short weeks! ¶ Sadowa, or Koeniggraetz as the Germans call it, is one of the great battles of history. There were 445,000 men engaged; Austria lost 30,000 and 1,147 officers. ¶ Bismarck, on his tall roan, was eighteen hours in the saddle; neither man nor faithful beast had food or drink, except that the horse, standing now and again among the windrows of corpses, ate corn-tops and nibbled at leaves. That night, Bismarck slept by the roadside, without straw, a carriage cushion under his head. The rain beat down in a drizzle, and for miles the smoke hung like a pall. Bismarck's rheumatic pains, his weakness from loss of food, wore him down. ¶ At last, the course of nature can no farther go; and the master falls into a deep sleep--surrounded by windrows of the dead. ¶ At dawn, as he stood up, half-dead from exhaustion, against the lowering skies he saw the vultures ready to pick the bones that Glory had provided in this phase of the terrifying story of German Unity. ¶ The hour of victory again proved Bismarck's astuteness. The fire-breathers around the King urged that the Prussians march on Vienna and lay the city in waste; Austria could not prevent; she was prostrate; but Bismarck said no; and as usual, he had an object. Part of his far-seeing plan was to take advantage of this psychological moment to conclude secret treaties with the smaller states, as allies of Prussia, in case of future wars. It was the forerunner of his last great work, many years later, the Triple Alliance. 51 Alas, poor human nature! The rejected stone now becomes the foundation of the palace wall! Otto von Bismarck is justified at last. ¶ It goes to show that the right man can bring about any idea, whether to do it makes it necessary to turn Time's clock backward or forward. Bismarck is magnificent because his extraordinary political work inspired and carried a new National faith that forced men to bow, often against their will, to the logic of his own gigantic mind. Bismarck is magnificent because, too, when the tiger strife was ended, he who had been despised as the arch tyrant of his time, was now seen to be the one strong man of his land, who had brought an unwilling people peace, happiness and prosperity.