together their greatest strength in that direction. Let your majesty at once direct your course by forced marches upon Gotha, we shall find but little resistance, and we shall break through it. We have nineteen thousand men; even if we lose four thousand, we shall still reach--and of this I am certain--South Germany with fifteen thousand men; we shall bring immediate assistance, and above all things we shall maintain the honour of your majesty's banner in the field. If we stay here," he added sorrowfully, "we must end badly."

"But the negotiations with Alvensleben," said the king hesitating,--"Count Platen still hopes for a favourable result."

"What result?" exclaimed General von Brandis; "the results of the negotiations on either side have not been brilliant."

"Count Platen!" announced the groom of the chambers.

The king made a sign, and Count Platen entered.

"Your majesty," he cried, "the Prussian Colonel von Döring has arrived as an envoy from Berlin, and brings a despatch from Count Bismarck; it appears that in Berlin they still wish to negotiate."

"Let the colonel come immediately," said the king.

General Brandis shrugged his shoulders and walked to the window.

Count Platen returned with the Prussian staff-officer.

"Colonel von Döring!" said the count, introducing him, whilst he approached the king with a stiff military salute; "he begs permission to read your majesty a despatch from the minister-president, Count Bismarck."

"I am prepared to listen, colonel," replied the king.

The colonel opened a paper which he held in his hand.

"I must first remark to your majesty," he said, "that I consider myself freed from my charge, as I find negotiations are broken off, and General Vogel von Falckenstein already meditating an attack."

"Your communication then will be useless?" asked the king coldly.

"Nevertheless, if your majesty permits, I will carry out my orders."

"Even yet----" began Count Platen.

"Read, colonel," said the king.

The colonel slowly read the despatch. It was an exact repetition of the ultimatum received through Prince Ysenburg on the 15th, and proposed a treaty on the foundation of the Prussian project of reform.

"Does this man believe," cried the king, as the colonel ended, "that I shall now----"

"Your majesty," said Colonel von Döring in a firm voice, "I humbly beg you graciously to consider that I, as a Prussian officer, cannot hear any derogatory expression applied to the minister-president."

"Is he not a man like ourselves?" asked the king, with dignity. "Does Count Bismarck believe," he continued, "that I shall in the field, at the head of my army, accept conditions which I rejected in my cabinet at Herrenhausen, and that I shall now allow my army to march against Austria?"

"Could not a short time be granted for consideration?" suggested Count Platen.

"I have no orders for granting time," said Colonel von Döring.

"And I do not need it," said the king, "in giving you my answer. It is the same as before; it is to these propositions simply 'No.' I have listened to negotiations in the hope of preventing useless bloodshed and diminishing the burdens of our countrymen, but upon this basis I cannot negotiate; events must take their course, I can do nothing more to restrain them. I thank you, colonel, and I wish I had made your acquaintance on a happier occasion. Take care, gentlemen," he added, turning to Count Platen and General Brandis, "that the colonel is led in safety to our outposts."

Colonel von Döring made a military salute and left the king's room, accompanied by the two ministers.

Count Ingelheim walked thoughtfully to and fro before the house, and looked up from time to time with an anxious expression at the king's windows. Groups of officers stood around in animated conversation. They knew that a Prussian envoy was with the king, and all these brave young officers, thirsting for the battle, feared nothing more than that they should capitulate without fighting.

"We could never again be seen in a Hanoverian uniform," cried a young officer of one of the Guard regiments with a rosy childish face, as he stamped with his foot, "if we were ensnared without drawing the sword, as in a mousetrap. We have been marching a fortnight, now here, now there; now waiting for the Bavarians, then for the Hessians, and never going forwards. So much was expected from this new commander; and now ..."

An eager young officer on a swift horse galloped up in the Guard Jäger uniform, the star of a commander of the order of Ernest Augustus on his breast. He threw himself from the saddle, gave his horse to his servant, who had hastened after him, and walked up to the group of officers.

"Well, prince," cried the lieutenant in the Guards, "where do you come from so hastily?"

"I have ridden out a little amongst the troops," replied Prince Hermann von Solms-Braunfels, the king's youngest nephew, as he endeavoured to seize the down just shading his upper lip with his fingers. "I am in despair, for in spite of my earnest request the king has commanded me to be here at head-quarters, but from time to time I must escape into the free life of the camp, and enjoy a little fresh air. Where are you stationed, Herr von Landesberg?" he inquired of the young lieutenant.

"Here in Langensalza," he replied, "fretting over the inactivity imposed upon us by the general staff. The king should just listen to us, the young officers of the army; he would soon be convinced that the army was ready both to march and to fight."

"God knows it is so," exclaimed an hussar officer, drawing his long moustache through his fingers; "I cannot comprehend why we have a general staff only to arrange such marches as we have made. I have heard an old story of the Crusaders, or some such people," continued the hussar drily, "who let a goose go before them, and followed the line of march pursued by the fowl. That was both a simpler and a kinder course, for now they strip the poor bird of its feathers and write with them night and day--and nothing more clever comes of it."

"See, there comes the Prussian envoy back!" cried Herr von Landesberg, and the officers approached the Schützhaus, at the door of which Colonel Döring, accompanied by General von Brandis and Count Platen, appeared.

Whilst General von Brandis called the carriage and ordered a guard of four dragoons to accompany it, Count Platen politely took leave of the Prussian colonel and hastened to Count Ingelheim, who met him full of anxiety.

"It was the ultimatum of the 15th over again," cried the minister to the Austrian ambassador.

"And...?" asked Count Ingelheim.

"Of course it was at once declined," exclaimed Count Platen.

"Then these luckless negotiations are over at last?" asked Count Ingelheim, watching with secret relief Colonel von Döring's carriage as it rolled away.

"Quite at an end," said Count Platen, as he sighed slightly.

"Do you know, dear count," proceeded the ambassador, "that in my opinion your position here is a very serious one? You are in a corner between the Prussian armies, and I see only one way out; that is by a hasty march upon Gotha."

"Yes, the king is quite ready to go forward, but the general staff----"

"Would to heaven!" cried Count Ingelheim energetically, "that his majesty had retained his old