n; by
this grandiloquent Demagogue without a Demos, who plainly loved
Germany, yet was uncertain whether the German Empire would be formed
by a Hohenzollern dynasty or a Lassalle dynasty. And, in truth, since
extremes meet, there was much in Lassalle's conception of the State,
and in his German patriotism, which made him subtly akin to the
Conservative Chancellor. They walked arm-in-arm in the streets of
Berlin, Bismarck parading heart on sleeve; they discussed the
annexation of Schleswig-Holstein. Bismarck promised both Universal
Suffrage and State-Capitalized Associations--"only let us wait till
the war is done with!" _En attendant_, the profit of his strange
alliance with this thorn in his enemies' flesh, was wholly to the
Minister. But Lassalle, exalted to forgetfulness of the pettiness of
the army at his back, almost persuaded himself to believe as he
believed Bismarck believed. "Bismarck is my tool, my plenipotentiary,"
he declared to his friends. And to his judges: "I play cards on table,
gentlemen, for the hand is strong enough. Perhaps before a year is
over Universal Suffrage will be the law of the land, and Bismarck will
have enacted the role of Sir Robert Peel." He even gave his followers
to understand that the King of Prussia's promise to consider the
condition of the Silesian weavers was the result of his pressure. And
was not the Bishop of Mayence an open partisan? Church, King, and
Minister, do you not see them all dragged at my chariot wheels?
Nevertheless, he failed completely to organize a branch at Berlin. And
new impeachments for inciting to hatred and contempt, and for
high-treason, came to cripple his activity. "If I have glorified
political passion," he cried in his defence, "I have only followed
Hegel's maxim: 'Nothing great has ever been done in the world without
passion.'"

He was in elegant evening dress, with patent-leather boots, the one
cool person in the stifling court. For hours and hours he spoke, with
the perpetually changing accents of the great orator who has so
studied his art that it has become nature. Now he was winning,
persuasive, now menacing, terrible, now with disdainful smile and
half-closed eyes of contempt. And ever and anon he threw back his head
with the insolent majesty of a Roman Emperor. Even when there was a
touch of personal pathos, defiance followed on its heels. "I used to
go to gaol as others go to the ball, but I am no longer young. Prison
is hard for a mature