e
declaimed against the candidature in a way that aroused no less passion
on the other side of the Rhine. For a brief space, however, matters
seemed to be smoothed over by the calm good sense of the Prussian
monarch and his nephew. The King was then at Ems, taking the waters,
when Benedetti, the French ambassador, waited on him and pressed him
most urgently to request Prince Leopold to withdraw from the candidature
to the Spanish Crown. This the King declined to do in the way that was
pointed out to him, rightly considering that such a course would play
into the hands of the French by lowering his own dignity and the
prestige of Prussia. Moreover, he, rather illogically, held the whole
matter to be primarily one that affected the Hohenzollern family and
Spain. The young prince, however, on hearing of the drift of events,
solved the problem by declaring his intention not to accept the Crown of
Spain (July 12). The action was spontaneous, emanating from Prince
Leopold and his father Prince Antony, not from the Prussian monarch,
though, on hearing of their decision, he informed Benedetti that he
entirely approved it.

If the French Government had really wished for peace, it would have let
the matter end there. But it did not do so. The extreme
Bonapartists--_plus royalistes que le roi_--all along wished to gain
prestige for their sovereign by inflicting an open humiliation on King
William and through him on Prussia. They were angry that he had evaded
the snare, and now brought pressure to bear on the Ministry, especially
the Duc de Gramont, so that at 7 P.M. of that same day (July 12) he sent
a telegram to Benedetti at Ems directing him to see King William and
press him to declare that he "would not again authorise this
candidature." The Minister added: "The effervescence of spirits [at
Paris] is such that we do not know whether we shall succeed in mastering
it." This was true. Paris was almost beside herself. As M. Sorel says:
"The warm July evening drove into the streets a populace greedy of shows
and excitements, whose imagination was spoiled by the custom of
political quackery, for whom war was but a drama and history a
romance[28]." Such was the impulse which led to Gramont's new demand,
and it was made in spite of the remonstrances of the British ambassador,
Lord Lyons.

[Footnote 28: Sorel, _Hist. diplomatique de la Guerre Franco-Allemande_,
vol. i. chap. iv.; also for the tone of the French Press, Giraudeau, _La