Public opinion had conquered; war was inevitable. General von Knobelsdorf was commissioned to present to the Emperor of the French in the name of the King of Prussia an ultimatum, in which the king demanded that the French armies should evacuate Germany in the course of two weeks; that the emperor should raise no obstacles against the formation of the confederation of the northern princes; and give back to Prussia the city of Wesel, as well as other Prussian territories annexed to France.
This ultimatum was equivalent to a declaration of the war, and the Prussian army, therefore, marched into the field.
The regiments of the life-guards were to leave Berlin on the 21st of September, and join the army, and the king intended to accompany them.
In Berlin there reigned everywhere the greatest enthusiasm.
All the houses had been decorated with festoons and flowers, and the inhabitants crowded the streets in their holiday-dresses to greet the departing life-guards with jubilant cheers and congratulations.
The king had just reviewed the regiments, and now repaired to his wife to bid her farewell and then leave Berlin at the head of his life-guards.
The queen went to meet him with a radiant smile, and a wondrous air of joy and happiness was beaming from her eyes. The king gazed mournfully at her beautiful, flushed face, and her cheerfulness only increased his melancholy.
“You receive me with a smile,” he said, “and my heart is full of anxiety and sadness. Do you not know, then, why I have come to you? I have come to bid you farewell!”
She placed her hands on his shoulders, and her whole face was radiant with sunshine.
“No,” she said, “you have come to call for me!”