The negotiations were still deadlocked, but Munich's gates had already been opened. At this point, it was no longer up to Maximilian II to decide.
From the moment negotiations began, everyone had known that this place was about to have a new master. Jonas had no obligation to keep it secret for them. By now, the entire city knew that Maximilian II was preparing to exchange territory with Austria.
Since that was the case, no one felt any pressure about throwing in their lot with a new master. Territorial exchanges had occurred frequently throughout European history; it was nothing new.
It was simply that this time was different. The Bavarian royal family had fallen on hard times and had thrown away every chip in its hand. The only thing it could rely on was legitimacy.
Originally, most Bavarian people still had a slight mental hurdle. After all, Maximilian II had done nothing outrageous enough to outrage Heaven and incense the people. Abandoning him just like that seemed somewhat hard to justify.
But once word of the territorial exchange spread, that hurdle vanished. It was not they who wanted to betray the king—it was the king himself who wanted to leave. That had nothing to do with them.
With clear consciences, they felt that so long as Austria did not mistreat the royal family, they had done right by Maximilian II.
Baden
As Bavaria's good ally, it was the first to learn what had happened within its neighbor's borders. The Baden Government was dumbfounded. This was not how the game was supposed to be played. In a war with someone else, the local government declared "neutrality," and then the troops within the country followed suit and became "neutral" as well.
Regent Prince Friedrich asked, "What do we do now? The