In the midst of the gaieties of Berlin the Prince was deeply affected by the melancholy news of the death of his sister Stéphanie on July 17, 1859. Two years later the marriage of his brother Leopold to the Infanta Antoinette of Portugal afforded him a welcome opportunity of visiting the last resting-place of his dearly loved sister near Lisbon. On his return from his journey, Prince Charles requested to be transferred to an Hussar Regiment, as the artillery did not appear at that time to take that place in public estimation to which it was entitled. This application, however, was postponed until his return from a long tour through the South of France, Algiers, Gibraltar, Spain, and Paris. After a short stay at the University of Bonn, Prince Charles again resumed military duty as First Lieutenant in the Second Dragoon Guards stationed at Berlin, where he speedily regained the position he had formerly held in the society of the capital. The Royal Family, especially the Crown Prince, welcomed their South German relative most warmly, and the friendship thus created was subsequently more than equal to the test of time and separation. A second visit to the Imperial Court of France in 1863, this time at the invitation of Napoleon III., was intended by the latter to culminate in a betrothal to a Princess of his House, but the project fell through, as the proposed conditions did not find favour with the King of Prussia. Prince Charles was forced to content himself with the consolation offered by King William, that he would soon forget the fair lady amidst the scenes of war (in Denmark). As orderly officer to his friend the Crown Prince of Prussia, Prince Charles took part in the siege and assault of the Düppel entrenchments, the capture of Fridericia, and the invasion of Jütland. The experience he gained of war and camp-life during this period was of inestimable benefit to the young soldier, who was afterwards called upon to achieve the independence of Roumania on the battlefields of Bulgaria. The war of 1864 having come to an end, Prince Charles returned to the somewhat dreary monotony of garrison life in Berlin. This not unnaturally soon gave rise to a feeling of _ennui_ and a consequent longing on his part for more absorbing work than that of mere subordinate military routine. Nothing then indicated, however, that in a short time he would step from such comparative obscurity to the wide field of European politics by the acceptance of a hazardous, though pre-eminently honourable, position of the utmost importance in Eastern Europe--the throne of the United Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, which, thanks to his untiring exertions and devotion to duty, are now known as the Kingdom of Roumania. III