I spoke to the Emperor about it, and told him that this would simply be shooting oneself for fear of death; that I could not take such a step myself, but would be willing to resign under some pretext or other, when he would certainly find men ready to make the attempt.

The conference of London has determined on a division of the Monarchy, and no separate peace on our part would avail to alter that.

The Roumanians, Serbians and Italians are to receive enormous compensation, we are to lose Trieste, and the remainder is to be broken up into separate states--Czechish, Polish, Hungarian and German.

There will be very slight contact between these new states; in other words, a separate peace would mean that the Monarchy, having first been mutilated, would then be hacked to pieces.

But until we arrive at this result, we must fight on, and that, moreover, _against_ Germany, which will, of course, make peace with Russia at once and occupy the Monarchy.
The German generals will not be so foolish as to wait until the Entente has invaded Germany through Austria, but will take care to make _Austria itself the theatre of war_.