st Gracious Master alone gives them a
temporary security. The opinions of the King, which ought at
least for a time to weaken their mistrust, will gain his Majesty
no thanks; they will only be used and exploited. In the hour of
necessity gratitude and confidence will not bring a single man
into the field. Fear, if it is used with foresight and clearness,
can place the whole Confederacy at our feet, and in order to
instil fear into them we must give clear signs of our good
relations with France."

He objected to Prussia following what was called a German policy, for,
as he said, by a national and patriotic policy is meant that Prussia
should do what was for the interest, not of herself, but of the smaller
States.

It was not till after the Crimean War that he was able to press this
policy. Napoleon had now won his position in Europe; Gerlach had seen
with pain and disgust that the Queen of England had visited his Court.
The Emperor himself desired a union with Prussia. In this, sympathy and
interest combined: he had much affection for Germany; his mind, as his
education, was more German than French; he was a man of ideas; he was
the only ruler of France who has sincerely desired and deliberately
furthered the interests of other countries; he believed that the nation
should be the basis of the State; his revolutionary antecedents made him
naturally opposed to the House of Austria; and he was ready to help
Prussia in resuming her old ambitious policy.

The affair of Neuchatel gave him an opportunity of earning the personal
gratitude of the King, and he did not neglect it, for he knew that in
the royal prejudice was the strongest impediment to an alliance. In 1857
Bismarck was sent to Paris to discuss this and other matters. Two years
before he had been presented to the Emperor, but it had been at the time
when he was opposed to the French policy. Now for the first time the two
men who were for ten years to be the leaders, now friends, then rivals,
in the realm of diplomacy, were brought into close connection. Bismarck
was not impressed by the Emperor's ability. He wrote:

"People exaggerate his intellect, but underrate his heart."
Napoleon was very friendly; his wish to help the King went
farther than his duty to follow French policy. He said: "Why
should we not be friends; let us forget the past; if everyone
were to attach himself to a policy of memories, two nations that
have once been at