"The importance of the names connected with the Strousberg Syndicate was by no means the reason for the decided steps that were taken in Berlin. The action was rather due to consideration for the many thousands of smaller men, who had confidently invested in the Roumanian bonds; the high rate of interest, it is true, was the chief inducement, but nobody imagined that his money was invested in a dishonest business. "I now come to the end of this long letter, in which I have spoken my mind so freely, but in which I hope you will only recognise a proof of my affectionate sincerity. I make no claim to be infallible, but I should like to impress upon you that the Teuton element to-day possesses the greatest vitality and the richest future, and that Roumania can only remain the master of her own future by a sensible union with it. Let society, the Press, and the general instinct of the nation be anti-German if they will--they must not, if they intend to put their feelings into practice, throw down the gage to the Teuton spirit." Princess Elisabeth was forced to tear herself away from her husband and daughter on March 12, to seek health under the cloudless sky of Italy. At Trieste the Princess of Hohenzollern was awaiting her arrival in order to accompany her to Rome, and, later on, to Naples, where the King and Queen of Denmark, and the Prince and Princess of Wales, with other Royal personages, were spending the Spring. The Prince of Wales discussed politics earnestly with Princess Elisabeth, and asked with which side Roumania would be ranged in the event of a war. The Princess quickly replied: "With the strongest, of course!" A very plain and straightforward letter was received from Prince Bismarck on April 25, 1872, in reply to an explanation which Prince Charles had sent him on the railway question. "Your Highness can have no cause to doubt my devotion to your person. I am sincerely pleased that your Highness has reason to look towards the future with greater confidence and a more joyful assurance. My former respectful letters will have shown your Highness how highly I rate the difficulties of your position, and I hope that your present hopes will not be disappointed. "In the railway crisis, which is now, we hope, so fortunately ended, the Government of his Majesty could adopt no other attitude than that of guarding the rights and interests of German subjects. The appeal to the suzerain power of the Porte, which your Highness complains of, was necessary on account of the position of these German interests and the principles of international law; and only the blindness of the parties in Roumania could see in it any damage to the autonomy of the country as established by the conventions."