Unification of Germany and Italy 589 his patience was worn out by the importunities of the French ministry, he sent word to Benedetti that he would not see him again. He telegraphed the news of this to Bismarck, with permission to publish it in the newspapers if he wished. Upon the receipt of the mes- sage, Bismarck says : All considerations, conscious and unconscious, strength- 489. How ened my opinion that war could only be avoided at the cost Bismar ck of the honor of Prussia and of the national confidence in Ems tele _ her. Under this conviction I made use of the royal author- gram so as ization communicated to me through Abeken to publish the to ass, ?5 e r 1 1 i-i r Wal Wlth contents of the telegram ; and in the presence of my two France, guests [General Moltke and General Roon] I reduced the telegram by striking out words, but without adding or alter- ing anything, to the following form : "After the news of the renunciation of the hereditary Emsdis- prince of Hohenzollern had been officially communicated to P atchas P ub - lished by the imperial government of France by the royal government Bismarck, of Spain, the French ambassador at Ems made the further demand of his Majesty the king that he should authorize him to telegraph to Paris that his Majesty the king bound himself for all future time never again to give his consent if the Hohenzollerns should renew their candidature. His Majesty the king thereupon decided not to receive the French ambassador again, and sent to tell him, through the aid-de-camp on duty, that his Majesty had nothing further to communicate to the ambassador." The difference in the effect of the abbreviated text of the Ems telegram as compared with that produced by the origi- nal was not the result of stronger words, but of the form, which made this announcement appear decisive, while Abe- ken's version would only have been regarded as a fragment of a negotiation still pending and to be continued at Berlin. After I had read out the concentrated edition to my two guests, Moltke remarked : " Now it has a different ring ; in its original form it sounded like a parley ; now it is like a
