He was silent.
"Alas! it is so, your majesty; I have heard it on all sides," said Count Platen.
"And you, General Brandis?"
"Your majesty," said the general in his calm voice, "I have heard many such expressions here, I cannot deny, but if every expression uttered in a time of excitement were attended to, the command would be continually changed. The chief thing seems to me that we should be well commanded, and get on quickly."
"I do not think much of what is said here and there," said the king, "but this appears to me serious, and truly I would not send my army into the field without confidence in its leaders."
"Certainly, your majesty, the matter is serious," said Count Platen. "It is most painful to me," he continued, "to express my opinion on military affairs, as they by no means belong to my department, and as your majesty knows I am never in any degree influenced by the opinions I hear casually----"
General Brandis smiled slightly.
"But here," added Count Platen, "is evidently an occasion on which the general opinion must be right."
"Have you, too, heard General von Arentschildt named?"
"He is named universally, your majesty," replied Count Platen.