n phrase) 'some
suppressions'; having, in fact, maliciously tampered with the text and
falsified the tone, according to M. Ollivier and other French writers.
His official organ, the _North German Gazette_, was directed to print
off a supplement and to paste it up all over Berlin, and copies of
this supplement were distributed gratis in the streets. A thrill of
patriotic enthusiasm electrified the nation, who were unanimous in
applauding the king in defying the French, and mocking at their
ambassador's humiliation.

'Dans toutes les langues, dans tous les pays, courait la
falsification offensee lancee par Bismarck. L'effet de cette
publicite effroyable se produisit d'abord en Allemagne avec autant
d'intensite qu'a Berlin. Les journaux faisaient rage.'

This is what M. Ollivier has called 'Le soufflet de Bismarck'; and
never was the art of changing the tone and import of words without
altering their substance more effectively employed; for it must be
acknowledged that the communication to the press was an accurate
rendering of the facts contained in the king's telegram, which was
stiff but not actually discourteous; whereas Bismarck put the sting
into it by little more than adroit condensation. We are told that when
the king received this revised edition of his message he read it
twice, was much moved, and said, 'This means war'; and that it rang
throughout Europe like an alarm-bell. At the same time, and before
Bismarck's action had been known in Paris, M. Ollivier, as he tells
us, was struggling vigorously against the torrent of reproaches and
imputations of cowardice which threatened to overthrow his Cabinet if
they flinched from the demand for guarantees.

Late on July 13 came a telegram from Benedetti that the king had
consented to approve unreservedly Prince Leopold's renunciation, but
distinctly refused any further concession. This, cried the war-party
at St. Cloud, is totally insufficient; the emperor was irresolute, and
merely summoned his Council for next day. Ollivier was determined, for
his part, to accept the king's assurance as conclusively satisfactory;
and he relates how, on the morning of the 14th, he was engaged in
drafting, for approval by the Council, a ministerial declaration to
that effect, when the Duc de Gramont entered his room with a copy of
Bismarck's circular telegram, and said:

'"Mon cher, vous voyez un homme qui vient de recevoir une gifle."
Il me tend alor