"Then it will be war." Benedetti asked to have an interview with the King; it was granted, and he received the same answer.

This was the result he had anticipated, and the next evening he returned to Paris to consider with the Government what was to be done.
Bismarck meanwhile had taken care that some information as to these secret negotiations should become known; with characteristic cleverness he caused it to be published in a French paper, _Le Siecle_, that France had asked for the Rhine country and been refused.

Of course, the German Press took up the matter; with patriotic fervour they supported the King and Minister.

Napoleon found himself confronted by the danger of a union of all Germany in opposition to French usurpation, and his own diplomatic defeat had become known in a most inconvenient form; he at once travelled to Paris, consulted Benedetti, returned to his former policy, and asked that the demand of August 5th might be forgotten; it was withdrawn, and things were to be as if it had never been made.
Were they, however, still to give up all hope of some increase of French territory?
The demand for German soil had been refused; it was not at all clear that Bismarck would not support the acquisition of at least part of Belgium.

In conversation with Benedetti, on August 7th, he had said: "Perhaps we will find other means of satisfying you." Goltz was still very sympathetic; he regarded the French desire as quite legitimate in principle.