Bessarabian lands. In fact, the Bulgarians could gain the wish of
their hearts only on one condition--that of proclaiming the Emperor
Alexander Grand Duke of the greater State of the future[193].

[Footnote 193: _Documents secrets de la Politique russe en Orient,_ ed.
by R. Leonoff (Berlin, 1893), pp. 8, 48. This work is named by M. Malet
in his _Bibliographie_ on the Eastern Question on p. 448, vol. ix., of
the _Histoire Generale of _MM. Lavisse and Rambaud. I have been assured
of its genuineness by a gentleman well versed in the politics of the
Balkan States.]

The chief obstacles in the way of Russia's aggrandisement were the
susceptibilities of "the Battenberger," as her agents impertinently
named him, and the will of Stambuloff. When the Czar, by his malevolent
obstinacy, finally brought these two men to accord, it was deemed
needful to adopt various devices in order to shatter the forces which
Russian diplomacy had succeeded in piling up in its own path. But here
again we are reminded of the Horatian precept--

Vis consili expers mole ruit sua.

To the hectorings of Russian agents the "peasant State" offered an ever
firmer resistance, and by the summer of 1885 it was clear that bribery
and bullying were equally futile.

Of course the Emperor of all the Russias had it in his power to harry
the Prince in many ways. Thus in the summer of 1885, when a marriage was
being arranged between him and the Princess Victoria, daughter of the
Crown Princess of Germany, the Czar's influence at Berlin availed to
veto an engagement which is believed to have been the heartfelt wish of
both the persons most nearly concerned. In this matter Bismarck, true to
his policy of softening the Czar's annoyance at the Austro-German
alliance by complaisance in all other matters, made himself Russia's
henchman, and urged his press-trumpet, Busch, to write newspaper
articles abusing Queen Victoria as having instigated this match solely
with a view to the substitution of British for Russian influence in
Bulgaria[194]. The more servile part of the German Press improved on
these suggestions, and stigmatised the Bulgarian Revolution of the
ensuing autumn as an affair trumped up at London. So far is it possible
for minds of a certain type to read their own pettiness into events.

[Footnote 194: For Bismarck's action and that of the Emperor William I.
in 1885, see _Bismarck: Some Secret Pages of his History_, by M. Busch,
vol. iii. pp. 171