We crossed the Rhine during the night. As day began to break we noticed a well-dressed gentleman lying near us on the floor who was speaking English to a man whom we took to be his servant. We discovered that he was a London banker named Deichmann. He also was anxious to get to headquarters in order to beg Roon’s permission to serve as a volunteer in a cavalry regiment, for which purpose he had brought his horses with him. The line being blocked near Hosbach, on Deichmann’s advice we took a country cart to Neustadt, a little town which was swarming with soldiers--Bavarian riflemen, Prussian Red Hussars, Saxon and other troops. It was here that we took our first warm meal since our departure from Berlin. Hitherto we had had to content ourselves with cold meat, while at night our attempts to sleep on the bare wooden benches with a portmanteau for a pillow were not particularly successful. However, we were proceeding to the seat of war, and I had experienced still greater discomforts on a tour of far less importance. After a halt of one hour at Neustadt, the train crossed the Hardt through narrow valleys and a number of tunnels, passing the defile in which Kaiserslautern lies. From this point until we reached Homburg it poured in torrents almost without cessation, so that when we arrived at that station at 10 o’clock the little place seemed to be merely a picture of night and water. As we stepped out of the train and waded through swamp and pool with our luggage on our shoulders, we stumbled over the rails and rather felt than saw our way to the inn “Zur Post.” There we found every bed occupied and not a mouthful left to eat. We ascertained however, that had even the conditions been more favourable we could not have availed ourselves of them, as we were informed that the Count had gone on with the King, and was at that moment probably in Saarbrücken. There was no time to be lost if we were to overtake him before he left Germany.