army had remained faithful to their war-lord. The hangman
was given plenty of work and the Habsburgs, after the nature of that
strangely cat-like family, once more landed upon their feet and rapidly
strengthened their position as the masters of eastern and western
Europe. They played the game of politics very adroitly and used the
jealousies of the other German states to prevent the elevation of the
Prussian king to the Imperial dignity. Their long train-ing in the art
of suffering defeat had taught them the value of patience. They knew how
to wait. They bided their time and while the liberals, utterly untrained
in practical politics, talked and talked and talked and got intoxicated
by their own fine speeches, the Austrians quietly gathered their forces,
dismissed the Parliament of Frankfort and re-established the old and
impossible German confederation which the Congress of Vienna had wished
upon an unsuspecting world.

But among the men who had attended this strange Parliament of
unpractical enthusiasts, there was a Prussian country squire by the name
of Bismarck, who had made good use of his eyes and ears. He had a deep
contempt for oratory. He knew (what every man of action has always
known) that nothing is ever accomplished by talk. In his own way he was
a sincere patriot. He had been trained in the old school of diplomacy
and he could outlie his opponents just as he could outwalk them and
outdrink them and outride them.

Bismarck felt convinced that the loose confederation of little states
must be changed into a strong united country if it would hold its own
against the other European powers. Brought up amidst feudal ideas of
loyalty, he decided that the house of Hohenzollern, of which he was
the most faithful servant, should rule the new state, rather than the
incompetent Habsburgs. For this purpose he must first get rid of the
Austrian influence, and he began to make the necessary preparations for
this painful operation.

Italy in the meantime had solved her own problem, and had rid herself of
her hated Austrian master. The unity of Italy was the work of three
men, Cavour, Mazzini and Garibaldi. Of these three, Cavour, the
civil-engineer with the short-sighted eyes and the steel-rimmed glasses,
played the part of the careful political pilot. Mazzini, who had spent
most of his days in different European garrets, hiding from the Austrian
police, was the public agitator, while Garibaldi, with his band of
red-shi