Page:The guilt of William Hohenzollern.djvu/85

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The Conspirators at Work
81

—especially in England and that Serbia is clearly and plainly put in the wrong.

"Baron Conrad at the last conference had made a very good impression on him. He spoke calmly and very positively. In the near future one must certainly be prepared to hear people again complain that we are undecided and hesitating here. It is, however, of little importance if they know in Berlin.

"At the close Tisza pressed my hand warmly and said : ' We will now unitedly look the future calmly and firmly in the face.' [A man, after all! W.]"

One can see how completely untenable the opinion is that William was the innocent victim of Berchtoldian perfidy. The two confederates were worthy of one another. And like master, like man. On July 18th the Secretary to the Embassy, Prince zu Stolberg-Wernigerode, as representative of the absent Tschirschky, reported from Vienna to Jagow:

"Yesterday I was with Berchtold, who told me that the Note in question is to be presented in Belgrade on the 23rd. As I reported yesterday, Berchtold hopes that the Austrian demands, about which he did not go into detail, will not be accepted by Serbia. He is, however, not quite sure, and from his statements and from those of Hoyos I have the impression that Serbia can accept the demands. To my question as to what was to happen if the affair should peter out in this manner, Berchtold thought that when it came to carrying into practice the separate postulates a considerable latitude could be exercised. If a final clearing-up of the relations with Serbia is really desired here,