An demselben Abend befanden sich in dem Gartensalon des Hotels in der Rue Mansart, welches der Regierungsrath Meding, der Vertreter des Konigs von Hannover bewohnte, zwei Personen im ernsten Gesprach."

Der Kaiser Napoleon ging in heftiger Bewegung in seinem Cabinet auf und nieder; die krankhafte Abgespanntheit, welche sonst auf seinem Gesicht zu liegen pflegte, war verschwunden, an deren Stelle war eine lebhafte Aufregung getreten, seine Lippen zuckten, seine Augen blickten unruhig hin und her, und sein sonst so wohl geordneter Bart war durch das Spiel seiner zitternden Finger aus der Ordnung gebracht.

About nine o'clock on a dark April evening in the year 1866, a Berlin cab drove up the Wilhelmsstrasse with the trot peculiar to those vehicles, and stopped between the two lamps illuminating the door of No. 76, the house of the Minister for Foreign Affairs. The ground floor of this long two-storeyed house was well lighted up, and any one who peeped through the green blinds could see into many office-like rooms, well-filled with industrious writers, notwithstanding the lateness of the hour. The windows of the upper storey were only faintly lighted here and there.

Events did indeed hurry on during those memorable days, and history took as many forward steps in the annals of the world in hours as she had formerly done in years. General von Manteuffel marched from the north; General Vogel von Falckenstein occupied Hanover, and took possession of the government of the country, the king having commanded all magistrates to keep in their various positions; General Beyer concentrated his divided forces in Hesse; General von Seckendorf occupied the country from Magdeburg to Nordhausen, and from Erfurt a part of the garrison and a battery of artillery marched...