"
"Prince Wittgenstein, of course, gave you immediate permission to
pass through his camp, did he not?"
"No, your majesty; he refused my request."
"How so? What reasons could he adduce? Did you tell him what you
intended to do at York's headquarters?"
"Your majesty ordered me to tell every one what I was to do at
General York's headquarters, and what punishment you intended to
inflict upon him. I was therefore authorized and obliged to inform
General Wittgenstein of the object of my mission."
"And he dared to resist you?"
"He did, your majesty. He declared that he would not permit me by
any means to go to York, and that so long as he lived no one should
bring to the general a dispatch by which the most generous,
magnanimous, and valiant general of the Prussian army was to be
deprived of his command."
"Then he really prevented you from going to York?"
"Yes, your majesty; he told me I was his prisoner, and did not
permit me to leave him."
"So that, at this moment, General York has not, as I desire,
transferred his command to General Kleist?"
"Precisely, your majesty. General York is still in command."
"And he did not receive the order removing him from his position?"
"I was unable to deliver it, and your majesty required me to give it
to none but the general himself. I was, however, a prisoner at
General Wittgenstein's.
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