The reports of the Roumanian agents abroad showed that, though the Powers were unwilling to take any steps to support Prince Charles, they were, nevertheless, anxious that his abdication should be deferred for the present. The separation of the two Principalities, each under a native ruler, would be acceptable to Russia, Austria, and England, provided no anarchical _interregnum_ took place. The Sublime Porte, accordingly, was anxious that the Prince should remain at his post, until the question of his successors was definitely settled. As the great German Chancellor remarked, it appeared that the uncertain possibilities of a catastrophe on the Lower Danube, coupled with the fear of further complications, had resulted in a sort of repentance on the part of the Powers for the intrigues against the consolidation of the Roumanian State. Austria in particular now saw clearly that the mistrust with which Roumania had always been regarded under Prince Charles, owing to the fear that she was merely a tool in the hands of Prussia, was utterly unfounded. Prince Charles Anthony wrote to his sorely tried son: "The description of your position has gone to my heart; I have sorrowed and suffered with you.... I have always found that a healthy constitutionalism is the corrective for caprice, and the support of a strong Government, and that, where the system is honestly employed by both sides, it has always maintained itself; but where it is only used as a cloak for anarchical tendencies, it is noxious and confusing. * * * * * "It can never injure your personal reputation if you lay down a task you are unable to complete. You have shown the whole world your good intentions and your qualifications for governing Roumania. You did not force yourself upon the country, but were elected and summoned thither; you have founded great institutions, regenerated the army and created a new system of communications, and conferred innumerable benefits on the Church and the poor; you have protected the arts and sciences, and by your family happiness testified to the sanctity of marriage; liberality of all kinds has been supported by your purse--all this secures for you, if not at present, at least eventually, a blessed memory, and proves to your contemporaries, in the event of your abdication, that it was not the imaginary splendour of this veritable crown of thorns that blinded and deceived you, but that it was the shipwreck of your honest intentions and your thirst for useful labour that matured your decision and helped it to issue in act.