No one will ever forget it who heard that peal of thunder. The reply was returned as with one voice; then the rejoicing mass got again into motion to greet “old Roon,” the faithful warrior, at the Ministry of War.
On the 30th of June Bismarck left Berlin in the suite of the King, with Generals von Roon and von Moltke. The King was also accompanied by the General Feld Zeugmeister, Prince Charles of Prussia, Herrenmeister of Balley Brandenburg, for the seat of war. The carriages rolled by the statues of the Great Frederick, the heroes of the War of Freedom, and the great Elector on the Long Bridge. Bismarck was serious and firm, looking like an iron statue, and more taciturn than ever. The first night’s quarters the King passed at the Castle of Reichenberg—a few days before the head-quarters of his victorious nephew, Prince Frederick Charles, who had already penetrated far into Bohemia, and was encamped in the fields, where Prussian hearts were throbbing to the Almighty, and their arms smiting the foe, according to the brave phrase of the Maccabees, which the Prince had used in General Orders, but which contradictory ignorance could not find, and still prates enough about it to this day, as a Prussian “Bible forgery.”[52] Count Bismarck, at the first night’s lodging at Reichenberg—and, it is said, not without reason—evinced great anxiety as to the safety of his royal master. Of himself he thought much less; perhaps he does not know, to this moment, that it was only towards the morning it was found possible to disembark his horses and bring them up. We have heard that a surprise of the royal head-quarters by a strong body of cavalry advance was not beyond the bounds of possibility. Sufficient reason for Bismarck’s anxiety! From Sichrow and Jitschen, Bismarck wrote the following letters to his wife:—
Sichrow, 1st July, 1866.
To-day we have started from Reichenberg, and have just reached this place. It is uncertain whether we shall remain here or proceed to Turnau. The whole journey was dangerous. The Austrians, yesterday, had they sent cavalry from Leitmeritz, might have caught the King and all the rest of us. Charles, the coachman, has had a severe fall with the mare, which ran away with him. At first he was thought dead; he is lying in the hospital here, near Sichrow, in the next village. Kurt had better come for him.
Everywhere we meet prisoners; according to the returns there are already above fifteen thousand. Jitschin was yesterday taken by us at the point of the bayonet by the Frankfurt Division; General Tümpling was severely wounded in the hip, but not mortally. The heat is terrible. The carriage of provisions is difficult. Our troops suffer from weariness and hunger. There are not many traces of war here, except the down-trodden cornfields. The people are not afraid of the soldiers; they stand in their Sunday clothes at their doors, with wife and children, in astonishment. At Trautenau the inhabitants murdered twenty defenseless oboists of ours, who had remained behind the front after the passage of their regiments. The criminals are at Glogau, before court-martial. At Münchengrätz a brewer enticed twenty-six of our soldiers into the spirit vault, made them drunk, and set it on fire. The distillery belongs to a convent. Except such things, we learn little more here than you do in Berlin. This castle, which is very splendid, belongs to Prince Rohan, whom I saw every year at Gastein.
