Ludwig superintended the blasting in person. With Annette and Conny, I was stationed down the road, while Rothfuss and Martella were on the other side, in order that all might be warned of the danger. Suddenly there was a loud report which reverberated through the valleys and the forests; the blasting was a complete success. Soon after, we were assembled on the road, and even the quarry-men were with us, when Ikwarte, accompanied by one of the forester's men, came running up to us, out of breath, exclaiming, before he reached us: "War has been declared!" The forester brought me a message informing me that France had declared war, and calling on me to repair to the meeting of the Parliament at once. Ludwig gave instructions that the work should be continued without interruption, and placed the completion of the new building in charge of the engineer. That very evening he accompanied me to the capital, Martella going with us. The Englishman stood by the bank, angling. It was not until after I had left home, that I began to realize what was in store for us. BOOK FOURTH. CHAPTER I. The great crisis which we have dreaded and yet hoped for has at last arrived. We are again obliged to contend with our hectoring neighbor, whose lust of power goads him to trample on our rights. We must fight, if we wish to endure; and will all Germany be united? If in this juncture we are not as one, our ruin is assured, and will be richly deserved. To know that the decisive moment is at hand, and that you cannot actively participate--that you are only a single wave in the current, is at once an oppressive and an exalting thought. In my mind, I go over the list of my fellow-members in the Parliament. The decision seems to hang in doubt. Eccentricity is still rampant, and decks itself with all sorts of revolutionary ideas. And how is the Prince inclined? Were it better if it rested with one man to decide whether we should have war or peace? And there is another bitter experience that is forced upon us in periods of doubt and indecision; namely, that fixed principles begin to waver. I found it a great comfort to have Ludwig with me. He was so thoroughly in sympathy with me, and yet, at the same time, a foreigner. He had become a citizen of the New World, in which he had lived over twenty years, and his views were freer from prejudice than ours could be. In spite of the declaration of war on the part of the French government, the ravings in the French Legislative Chambers, and the outcry in the streets of Paris, I yet encouraged a hope that war might be averted. But Ludwig thought--and I was obliged to agree with him--that it were both treachery and folly now, when the right was on our side, not to accept the battle which would thus only be postponed. For this constant waiting and watching for what others may do, is a painful state of dependence.