at he
returned chagrined, and, falling ill, died soon afterward. Both Austria and
Prussia mobilized their armies. At Vienna the Austrian Prime Minister
avowed to the Ambassador of France that it was his policy to "avilir la
Prussie, puis la demolir." On November 8, the vanguards of the Prussian and
Austrian troops exchanged shots. The single casualty of a bugler's horse
served only to tickle the German sense of humor. The Prussians retired
without further encounters. Radowitz resigned his Ministry. Otto von
Manteuffel was put in charge. On November 21, the Austrian Ambassador at
Berlin, Prince Schwarzenberg, demanded the evacuation of Hesse within
forty-eight hours. Prussia gave in. Manteuffel requested the favor of a
personal interview at Olmuetz. Without awaiting Austria's reply he posted
thither. In a treaty signed at Olmuetz late in the year, Prussia agreed to
withdraw her troops from Baden and Hesse, and to annul her military
conventions with Baden, Anhalt, Mecklenburg and Brunswick. Thus miserably
ended Prussia's first attempt to exclude Austria from the affairs of
Germany. As heretofore, the Prussian-Polish provinces of Posen and Silesia
were excluded from the Confederation. Austria, on the other hand, tried to
bring her subjected provinces in Italy and Hungary into the Germanic
Confederation. Against this proposition, repugnant to most Germans, France
and England lodged so vigorous a protest that the plan was abandoned. The
Elector of Hesse-Cassel returned to his capital. Under the protection of
the federal bayonets he was able to bring his wretched subjects to complete
subjection.

[Sidenote: Gervinus]

[Sidenote: Richard Wagner]

[Sidenote: Lenau]

[Sidenote: Lenau's pessimism]

The profound disappointment of the German patriots at the downfall of their
political ideals found its counterpart in German letters and music. Georg
Gottfried Gervinus, the historian, who had taken so active a part in the
attempted reorganization of Germany, turned from history to purely literary
studies. It was then that he wrote his celebrated "Study of Shakespeare."
Richard Wagner, who had escaped arrest only by fleeing from Dresden, gave
up active composition to write pamphlets and essays, and published his
remarkable essay on "The Revolution and the Fine Arts." In the meanwhile,
Franz Liszt at Weimar brought out Wagner's new operas "Lohengrin" and
"Tannhaeuser." Nicolas Lenau, the most melodious of the German lyric poets
af