sults, still impossible to foresee clearly, that this
fatality might have for European affairs.

[Sidenote: Serajevo tragedy a menace.]

From the very next day the tone of the Berlin Press, in commenting on
the Serajevo tragedy, was full of menace. It expected the Vienna Cabinet
to send to Belgrade an immediate request for satisfaction, if Serbian
subjects, as it was believed, were among those who had devised and
carried out the plot. But how far would this satisfaction go, and in
what form would it be demanded? There was the rub. The report, issued by
the semi-official _Lokalanzeiger_, of a pressure exerted by the
Austro-Hungarian Minister, with a view to making the Serbian Government
institute proceedings against the anarchist societies of which the
Archduke and his wife had been the victims, surprised no one, but was
not confirmed. On the other hand, a softer breeze soon blew from Vienna
and Budapest, and under its influence the excitement of the Berlin
newspapers suddenly abated. An order seemed to have been issued: the
rage and fluster of the public were to be allowed to cool down. The
Austro-Hungarian Government, so we were informed by the news agencies,
were quietly taking steps to prosecute the murderers. Count Berchtold,
in speaking to the diplomatic corps at Vienna, and Count Tisza, in
addressing Parliament at Budapest, used reassuring language, which
raised hopes of a peaceful solution.

[Sidenote: Opinion is moderate in Berlin.]

The Wilhelmstrasse also expressed itself in very measured terms on the
guarantees that would be demanded from Serbia. Herr Zimmermann, without
knowing (so he said to me) what decision had been arrived at in Vienna,
thought that no action would be taken in Belgrade until the
Austro-Hungarian Government had collected the proofs of the complicity
of Serbian subjects or societies in the planning of the Serajevo crime.
He had made a similar statement to the Russian Ambassador, who had
hastened to impart to him his fears for the peace of Europe, in the
event of any attempt to coerce Serbia into proceeding against the secret
societies, if they were accused of intrigues against the Austrian
Government in Bosnia and Croatia. Herr Zimmermann declared to M.
Sverbeeff that, in his opinion, no better advice could be given to the
Serbian Government than this: that it should put a stop to the nefarious
work of these societies and punish the accomplices of the Archduke's
assassins. The moderati