there were more alarming implications to Talleyrand’s actions. The text of the note had been leaked, and this had spurred the plenipotentiaries of thirteen minor German states to gather together and call on larger states such as Bavaria to join them in resisting what they termed the ‘usurpation’ of the great powers. This gave the conference held at Metternich’s that afternoon ‘a most unpleasant complexion’, in Castlereagh’s words. They decided not to lend Talleyrand’s note added importance by a formal response, but agreed that they would now have to include Portugal and Sweden in their
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