As another major player in the new League of Sacrilege, how could the British forget the Ottoman Empire?
But Majid only wanted to play the cautious observer. He gladly accepted the British invitation, then handed the task to Milos Obrenovic.
He called it a sign of his trust in Milos. In truth, he was simply passing the buck.
Though Majid was now forced to bare his sword against Austria under British pressure, it had been Milos Obrenovic who first urged him to attack Austria.
Majid did want to accomplish something great, but he knew all too well that the Ottoman Empire was a leaky old ship that could no longer weather a storm.
So finding a scapegoat became inevitable. But Milos Obrenovic wanted to play the cautious observer too, and naturally had no intention of appearing in Vienna alongside the British ambassador.
After arriving in Vienna, Milos went to the Prime Minister's Office. He dared not interfere in Austria's internal affairs; he merely bribed the interim prime minister.
The interim prime minister promised to let Viscount Stratford and Lamartine meet Ferdinand I in person. When Viscount Stratford heard this, he was even quite grateful to Milos.
(Ordinarily, an ambassador could not meet the emperor directly. Austria was an unusual case, since the emperor was unable to handle state affairs.)
But all of this was part of the plan. Viscount Stratford and Lamartine would have no chance to insult Ferdinand I. On the contrary, their every action would surely be blown out of proportion.
Besides gold, Milos's bribe included intelligence on the Ottoman Empire, though most of it was rather trivial.
Austria already had its own sources of information on the Ottoman Empire's troop strength, military deployments, supplies, and Majid's personal views and the country's attitude.
The intelligence Milos brought filled