The prelude to crisis sounded in February 1875 when Radowitz, one of Bismarck's confidential agents, went on special mission to St. Petersburg. He seems only to have been concerned to sort out some Balkan disputes; but the French got it into their heads that he had offered German backing in the Near East, if Russia would tolerate a new war against France. Thus the French were primed for a German ultimatum. In March Bismarck forbade the export of horses from Germany--always a routine signal of alarm. In April he inspired a press-campaign with the slogan, 'Is war in sight?' In all probability, he wanted to score off France in order to conceal his own mounting failure in the Kulturkampf. He may even have intended to follow up these threats by the offer of an entente with France, just as he had been reconciled with Austria-Hungary five years after the war of 1866; like other Germans, Bismarck regarded bullying as the best preliminary to friendship. The French did not: they wished to heighten the alarm in order to stir up the other Powers. Their first appeals met with no response from London or St. Petersburg. Alexander II said only: 'If, which I do not think, you were one day in danger, you will soon learn of it ... you will learn of it from me.' On 21 April the French had a stroke of luck. Radowitz, always inclined to be indiscreet after dinner, was carried away in conversation with Gontaut, the French ambassador, and defended the doctrine of a preventive war. Decazes sent Gontaut's account round the courts of Europe and revealed it to The Times as well--a trick as effective as Bismarck's revelation of Benedetti's draft-treaty over Belgium in 1870.
The British and Russians both took alarm. They expostulated with Bismarck--Derby, the foreign secretary, by normal diplomatic methods; Gorchakov by word of mouth, when he visited Berlin on 10 May. Moreover, they co-ordinated their action. Gorchakov sent formal assurance to London that the Russian expansion in central Asia, which was offending the British, would be arrested; and Odo Russell in Berlin was instructed to support the Russian pressure. Derby also tried to draw in Austria-Hungary and Italy, but without effect. Andrassy was delighted at the prospect of an estrangement between Russia and Germany. He made three hand-stands on the table that had once been Metternich's (a practice of his), and exclaimed: 'Bismarck will never forgive it.' The crisis blew over as suddenly as it had started. Bismarck insisted that it was a false alarm, and everyone professed himself satisfied.