¶ Duty and self-interest prompted Bismarck to hold up the royal hand, but after all is said, the vital force of Bismarck's endorsement was found in the man's genius for leadership. It was not so much the cause as it was the man. For had Bismarck gone over to the other side the history of Germany would have been vastly different. ¶ This Frankfort parliament, a hydra-headed political creation dedicated to liberty, was in secret doing the purposes of Austrian plutocracy and reaction; it was to be the last stand of the Old Regime, against Democracy. But it was necessary to move with cautious foot. The sappers were at work under the thrones, and at any instant the mines might be touched off. ¶ Bismarck thus, quite by accident, finds himself the representative of William IV, in Frankfort Diet or Bundestag, the political Punch and Judy show originally set up by Metternich, in 1815, to rule the quarreling thirty-nine German states. Their intense individualism was such that Metternich, who dominated at the Congress of Vienna, after the downfall of Napoleon, did not know what was best. All other parts of Europe, and even the islands of the seas had been reassigned, but no human being could tell what to do with the turbulent thirty-nine German states. ¶ "Here, then, was a mysterious 'Court of Chance,' where things dragged on for years, a political circumlocution office, hopelessly bound by its own interminable seals, parchments and red tape." The secret object was to do nothing that would not favor Austria; with the idea that, in the end, the devious course of politics would bring Austria final control of the German lands, everywhere. ¶ It was in this absurd Parliament that Bismarck was to perfect himself in political intrigue. Frankfort made no organic laws; these were mysteriously settled at Vienna; the meetings of the Diet were held in secret; at best, the voting was along lines that gave to Austria and not to Prussia the deciding voice. * * * * * ¶ It did not take Bismarck long to find that at Frankfort the King of Prussia was but a cipher. Furthermore, what raised Bismarck's ire was the impotence of the Parliament. Frankfort had been unable to put down the blood-letting of '48, and Bismarck detested weakness of any kind, mental, physical or spiritual. He was, and always remained, a profound extremist; but his position was tempered by massive common sense. ¶ The world dearly loves a flunkey--and flunkeyism was universal at Frankfort. The many members fluttered about in gay military dress, wore stars of sham authority, gold crosses, medals dangling from bright ribbons. Names prefixed by count, duke, margrave--crests on the coach door and Latin mottoes--hyphenated family names, indicated all manner of political marriages de convenience. Bestarred gentlemen, one and all, if you please!