“Inasmuch as His Majesty had told Count Benedetti that he was awaiting news from the Prince, the King, in view of the presumption referred to above, acting upon the advice of Count Eulenburg and myself, determined not to receive Count Benedetti again but only to inform him through an aide-de-camp that His Majesty had now received from the Prince the confirmation of the news which Benedetti had received from Paris, and that he had nothing further to say to the Ambassador. His Majesty leaves it to Your Excellency to determine whether this new demand of Benedetti’s and its rejection should be at once communicated to our Envoys abroad, as well as to the public press.” On the receipt of this dispatch the three men were astounded. The insult was flagrant. Bismarck, however, read it again and saw his way clear. He asked Moltke whether it would be for the advantage of Germany that war should take place at once, or be delayed for a while. Moltke’s answer was that any delay would be all for the benefit of France. If war there must be let it be at once, and he gave his reasons for what he said. Bismarck craftily took advantage of the royal permission to publish the contents of the telegram, and in the presence of his two guests he drew up the communication in the exact terms of Abeken’s telegram with certain erasures but “without adding or altering a single word.” As edited by Bismarck it ran as follows: “Since the news of the renunciation of the hereditary Prince of Hohenzollern has been officially communicated by the Spanish Government to the Imperial French Government the French Ambassador at Ems has further demanded of His Majesty the King that he should authorize him to telegraph to Paris that His Majesty the King bound himself for all time never again to give his consent if the Hohenzollerns should ever return to their candidature. Upon this His Majesty the King refused to receive the French Ambassador again, and caused him to be informed by the aide-de-camp in waiting that His Majesty had no further communication to make to the Ambassador.” Bismarck read the _communiqué_ through to his two guests. Moltke, the silent, remarked: “That has quite another ring. It sounded like a _chamade_ (a parley). Now it’s like a trumpet call in answer to a challenge.” Bismarck said: “If I send this Text, which contains no alteration in or addition to the telegram, at once, in pursuance of the royal command, not only to the newspapers but also by telegraph to all our representatives abroad, it will be known in Paris before midnight and will be as a red rag to the French bull, not only on account of its contents, but also of the manner of its publication. We must strike, unless we are prepared to accept the part of having been beaten without a struggle.