[!-- Note Anchor 14 --][Footnote 14: Vossische Zeitung, July 31st.]
The next twenty-four hours are so full of fateful events that they seem one big blur on the memory. Although everyone was convinced that an appeal to the sword was inevitable, there was still a tense feeling of dread expectation hanging like a cloud over the land. During the whole of that long night the author was an observer from an overcrowded train which left Nuremberg at 9 p.m. and rumbled dismally into Cologne the next morning at ten o'clock. Every station, great and small, was crowded with anxious, expectant crowds; the smaller stations full of spectators and relatives bidding farewell to departing soldiers, and the greater ones crowded with fleeing tourists.
On the platforms at Frankfort and Cologne many tons of luggage were stacked in huge piles. It would be interesting to know what became of them.[[15]] Few Germans could have slept that night; the anxiety was too great. The whole railway line was guarded by patrols, many of whom were in civilian attire. Here and there a "field-grey" uniform was visible. On many stations armed guards awaited the arrival of reservists and gave them conduct to the barracks.
[!-- Note Anchor 15 --][Footnote 15: The Königsberger Hartungsche Zeitung contained a paragraph on August 7th to the effect that 120,000 trunks and portmanteaux had been collected on Berlin stations alone.]
The Kaiser spoke words of cheer from a window of the royal palace on Friday evening, after which the restless crowd thronged to the official residence of the Chancellor to receive as a watchword the words which Prince Friedrich Karl had spoken on a memorable occasion to his Brandenburger troops: "Let your hearts beat to God, and your blows on the enemy."
An ultimatum was despatched to St. Petersburg and presented at midnight to the Russian Government. The latter was requested to cancel all mobilization orders within twelve hours, or war would ensue. Simultaneously the French Government was asked what its attitude would be in case of a Russo-German war. In these measures it is safe to conclude that the German nation was heart and soul behind the Government, otherwise the tremendous outbreak of national enthusiasm throughout the length and breadth of the land would be entirely inexplicable.
Throughout the day the nation awaited, under tense strain, an answer from Russia. "At five o'clock the excitement of the masses in Unter den Linden had increased to a degree almost beyond endurance. The crowd surged from side to side when a court carriage or an officer drove by in a motor-car. Everyone felt that the fateful decision might fall at any minute, when the German nation would know its fate.
"Suddenly motor-cars full of officers appeared from the gates of the royal residence. They shouted to the excited crowd that the general mobilization had been ordered. One officer waved his drawn sword, another his handkerchief, while others stood up and waved their caps. Then an indescribable scene of jubilation followed; the parole 'mobilization' was passed on by the police, and in less time than it takes to write, the hundreds of thousands of human beings surging to and fro between the monument to 'Old Fritz' and the Lustgarten, knew that Germany would now speak with her sword."[[16]]
[!-- Note Anchor 16 --][Footnote 16: Berliner Tageblatt, August 2nd.]
"Our hour of destiny has struck! Germany, the strongest and most peaceful nation on earth, appeals to the sword. The last call which we sent across the Eastern frontier has remained unanswered. The enemy is mute. Now Germany speaks!