"Nevertheless, we old Prussians, confiding in the valour of our soldiers, gazed hopefully towards the east, and looked forward with impatient expectation to news of victory. And it came--when Napoleon was already making his victorious march to Berlin--and it bore such an impress of truth, that President Von Vinke[45] ordered it to be published. Never was there such exultation; every one hastened to the other to convey first the joyful news. But the deepest prostration followed; the cup we had now to drink was the more bitter after the intoxication of pleasure. A few days after we received from fugitives only too certain an account of the loss of the battle of Jena. "Yet we recovered from the first stupefaction, and did not give up all hope. One lost battle could not decide the fate of the whole war. "But when we received detailed accounts of the terrible consequences of this defeat, when the last remains of the army had to lay down their arms at Luebeck, when the fortresses of Hameln, Magdeburg, Stettin and Castrin had, with unexampled cowardice, been surrendered without a blow to the enemy, and the whole Prussian State came under their power, then our courage sank, we knew that we were lost. "Meanwhile the sorrowful intelligence of the lost battle was followed by the enemy taking possession of the place. "Early one morning, a division of cavalry of the army of the King of Holland entered. Our anger and sorrow were increased by the feeling of the people of Muenster, which was very different from ours. Already on the arrival of the vanguard of the Dutch army, their long-nourished, slumbering indignation against the Prussians manifested itself in unconcealed joy. With open arms were the liberators from Prussian domination received, and joyfully lodged. Immediately afterwards the King of Holland marched in at the head of his army. "We had hard work in quartering them, as ten thousand men had entered the city. But strict discipline was kept, for it was undoubtedly the object of the King of Holland not to make the country inimical to him; but to treat it in the most conciliatory way. He flattered himself that the frontier Prussian province would come to the share of the Kingdom of Holland. His proceedings and the language of those about him, showed that he already considered himself as possessor of the country. He established an upper administrative council, at whose head General Daendels was placed, in co-ordinate authority with the presidents of the provincial administration and exchequer. Immediately the Muenster nobles came before him with their complaints of the Prussian rule, to which he listened. First stood the abolition of the chapter, and the ejection of Herren von Landesberg and von Boeselager. He exercised a real act of sovereignty, for he reinstated the chapter, and reversed the execution against those who had been expelled in the suit of the Herren von der Reck.