¶ Despite all the noble souls who write poetry on brotherhood (and Germany has her patriots, God knows!), the irony of fate is such that all human alignments of a political nature must at some stage be spattered with mud. ¶ You see, henceforth for a quarter of a century, the realization of this much-prized but elusive and seemingly impossible Unity was to become more and more a game of politics in which the stakes were kingdoms, principalities, riches and honors unnumbered. In all card-games the result is not known till the last card is played; and in the present case the game was to be protracted twenty-four years. Chips were flung about in huge stacks, now piled on the Austrian side, now on the Prussian; and finally, it was to break up in a fight, in which Prussia had to tip over the table, violently seize the spoils, batter heads right and left, and beat off rival players with needle-guns. ¶ Come, come, there is no need of claiming too much for human nature. The grand prize was to be gained, ultimately, by seizure! Even the sober, common-sense William I, to whom it finally fell to be crowned German Emperor, saw the true situation early, after the church-building William IV had been gathered to his fathers. You will hear more of that as we go along. When all intriguing, all card-stacking, all smiling, all smooth speeches no longer serve to conceal the real end of this amazing game of international politics, as between Prussia and Austria, then the thing to do is to bring on "blood and iron." The very human end that Bismarck always had in mind was German liberation and Unity, by driving the Nation's enemies beyond the borders. ¶ The best title to lands, the surest, the most incontrovertible--let purists and pietists rage as they may--is the sharp edge of the sword. We shall see all that more clearly as the bloody years go by. * * * * * ¶ In the critical year '48, democratic mobs chased that old aristocrat and king-maker Metternich out of Vienna. Hungary, Bohemia and other intervening principalities went mad with excitement about "Liberty!" South Germany was in a turmoil. William IV had again practically promised a Constitution, and had ordered the troops from Berlin; he placed a sign on his castle "National Property." At this time the king let slip these fateful words, "Prussia is to be dissolved in Germany!" Bismarck, pained beyond expression, sent a letter to the King, full of expressions of loyalty. The King kept the letter on his desk all summer. ¶ The giant continued to protest. He now first used a subsidized press, called well-known men to write for the "North Prussian Gazette." For all this, he was dubbed "Junker," "Hot Head," "Reactionary," but he thundered away like a battleship in action. * * * * *