If the Republicans won, Bismarck should not be guillotined; if the monarchists, d'Ester should not be hung.

"No," answered Bismarck, "that is no use; if you come into power, life would not be worth living.

There must be hanging, but courtesy to the foot of the gallows." If he was in after years to become known as the great adversary of Parliamentary government, this did not arise from any incapacity to hold his own in Parliamentary debate.

He did not indeed aim at oratory; then, as in later years, he always spoke with great contempt of men who depended for power on their rhetorical ability.

He was himself deficient in the physical gifts of a great speaker; powerful as was his frame, his voice was thin and weak.