XVII. Defeat. XVIII. Diplomacy. XIX. Bismarck's Diplomacy. XX. The Crisis. XXI. Reconciliation. XXII. Russia. XXIII. The Marshals of France. XXIV. The Empress Charlotte. XXV. The Sick and Wounded. XXVI. Instruments of the Church. XXVII. Hietzing. XXVIII. Blechow. XXIX. "God and the Fatherland!" FOR SCEPTRE AND CROWN. CHAPTER XIII. DELAY. 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 to Eisenach, and there joined the troops of the Duke of Coburg-Gotha, to block the road to the south against the Hanoverian army. Orders flew from Berlin to the different generals in command, and quick and unanimous movements were made throughout the Prussian army, their aim being to strengthen every point of a circle they were forming around the Hanoverian army, which continually grew stronger and drew closer together. Now, only the quickest and most direct road to Fulda remained open. And the brave-spirited army still lay in Göttingen and its immediate neighbourhood. The general staff worked day and night to prepare it for the march. Certainly the younger officers and men boiled with impatience, and could not understand why the regiments, after making such a sudden march from their various quarters to Göttingen, were not able to march on by a perfectly open road to the south. Certainly old General Brandis shook his head, and said it would be better to break through the enemy with an army unprepared to march, than to be hemmed in with an army prepared to march. Certainly he hinted that the soldiers of the great Wellington had, according to every rule, frequently been unprepared to march, yet they had marched, fought, and conquered. Truly the king gnashed his teeth with impatience; he could do nothing, the ruler whose eyes were deprived of light by the hand of Heaven, but question and urge, and again urge and question. But the general staff in the aula of Georgia Augusta proved to good General von Arentschildt that, according to all existing rules, the army was not yet ready to march. The rules lay before them, and the general staff was right; and General von Arentschildt told the king the army could not march yet. The general staff waited, too, for the advance of the Hessians and Bavarians, to combine with the Hanoverian army.