These Prussian nobles were of the same race as Bismarck himself; they resembled him in character if not in ability; they believed that they had been betrayed, and they did not easily forgive.

They were not scrupulous in the weapons they adopted; the Press was used for anonymous attacks on his person and his character; they accused him of using his public position for making money by speculation, and of sacrificing to that the alliance with Russia.

More than once he had recourse to the law of libel to defend himself against these unworthy insults.

When he publicly in the Reichstag protested against the language of the _Kreuz Zeitung_, the dishonourable attacks and the scandalous lies it spread abroad, a large number of the leading men among the Prussian nobility signed a declaration formally defending the management of the paper, as true adherents of the monarchical and Conservative banner.

These _Declaranten_, as they were called, were henceforward enemies whom he could never forgive.