TE OF THE LINE ACTING AS POSTMAN DURING AN EPIDEMIC
OF INFLUENZA.

After a photograph.]

Despite the recent assertions of the French minister, M. Ollivier, it is
probable that the Empire of Louis Napoleon had lost all its allies.
Austria, anxious to avenge Sadowa, was restrained by the threat of the
intervention of Russia; that power still considered the dual empire its
rival in the Balkans and still remembered the Crimea; an offensive and
defensive alliance had been concluded by Prussia with the German states
south of the Main. Thus prepared, the chancellor waited for an
opportunity, and as none presented itself soon enough, he made one. The
revolution in Spain in 1868 had driven Queen Isabella into exile and
left her throne vacant; Marshal Prim, who retained the reins of power,
was negotiating in the different courts of Europe to find an acceptable
new sovereign. At the beginning of July, 1870, Paris was surprised to
hear that the candidate chosen by him, and who would probably be
proclaimed by the Cortes, was Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern. This
negotiation had been carried on secretly, the French ambassador at
Madrid had been informed of nothing, and from Marshal Prim's documents
it was afterward learned that Bismarck himself had suggested the prince
for the crown. It was very certain that France would oppose this union
of the dynasties of Berlin and Madrid, and, in fact, on the 6th of July
the government sent a message to the Chamber protesting against this
candidature and declaring that it would be compelled to oppose it, if
necessary, to the last extremity.

Three days later, M. Benedetti, the French ambassador at Berlin, sought
an interview with the King of Prussia at Ems, where he was taking the
waters, and requested him, as head of the Hohenzollern family, not to
give his consent to the candidature of Prince Leopold. The king replied
that, in this affair, he had intervened not as King of Prussia but as
head of the family, and the interview ended without any definite
assurances on his part. However, Prince Anthony of Hohenzollern, the
father of Leopold, officially announced that his son was no longer a
candidate. Then the French diplomacy came to Bismarck's aid by
committing a great blunder; M. Benedetti sought another interview with
the king, who had not yet heard of this withdrawal, informed him of it,
and requested him to give the French government formal assurance that
Prince Leopold would abide by it. T