His plain good sense and unswerving fortitude had many times marked out the path of safety and kept his country therein.

The policy of the Army Bill of 1860, which brought salvation to Prussia in spite of her Parliament, was wholly his.
Bismarck's masterful grip of the helm of State in and after 1862 helped to carry out that policy, just as von Roon's organising ability perfected the resulting military machine; but its prime author was the King, who now stood triumphant in the hall of his ancestral foes.

Beside and behind him on the dais, in front of the colours of all the German States, were the chief princes of Germany--witnesses to the strength of the national sentiment which the wars against the First Napoleon had called forth, and the struggle with the nephew had now brought to maturity.

Among their figures one might note the stalwart form of the Crown Prince, along with other members of the House of Prussia; the Grand Duke of Baden, son-in-law of the Prussian King; the Crown Prince of Saxony, and representatives of every reigning family of Germany.
Still more remarkable were some of the men grouped before the King and princes.

There was the thin war-worn face of Moltke; there, too, the sturdy figure of Bismarck: the latter, wrote Dr.Russell, "looking pale, but calm and self-possessed, elevated, as it were, by some internal force[72]." [Footnote 72: Quoted by C.Lowe, _Life of Bismarck_, vol.i.p.