"Not if we took too big a mouthful; but if we only nibble she will shut both eyes, or at least one of them. And is not Hesse also very necessary?"
"The Confederation will not abandon all Hesse."
"But if it will let us take half, that is all we want. Now let us consider Frankfort-on-the-Main."
"Frankfort-on-the-Main! The free town! The seat of the Diet!"
"The moment Prussia can reckon thirty millions of men instead of eighteen the Diet is dead. Prussia will then be the Diet. Only, instead of crying a decree she will say 'decree.'"
"We shall have the whole of the Confederation against us. It will side with Austria."
"So much the better!"
"And why?"
"Austria once beaten, the Confederation is beaten along with her."
"We shall have a million men against us."