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DIPLOMACY AND THE WAR

way to nothing but violence, was dispersed by military force. The Government of the minority was unable to protect the Crown. The King was accused of having broken his oath. The confidence in the King and the good old relations between the nation and its ruler, the hope of the future, were also shaken by the fact that there was a general belief that the new successor to the throne, Francis Ferdinand, did not love the Hungarians, that he was determined to counteract their efforts, that he worked for the idea of a unified Monarchy, and that he would not allow himself to be crowned King. The sad present was spoilt by even more sad possibilities of the future. Those who had hitherto placed their confidence in the good intentions and ability of Francis Joseph, and who had consequently more or less accepted the excesses of his regal power, could not do the same now when they realized that the royal power would probably before very long pass into the hands of the Prince of Estei.

It was a fatal mistake that the complications of the régime of Féjeváry were not unravelled in spite of all my efforts by a solution of the military question, but by the provisional exclusion of it. The Opposition, it is true, acquired power, but the opposition in regard to the military question continued none the less and drove a cleft between the King and his new Government. The Army was weakened internally at a time when there was the possibility of our standing in need of it at short notice. The nation was dissatisfied and thought it humiliating that the majority was unable