"Listen to me, then," added the king. "I shall leave Potsdam and
repair to Breslau, whither the seat of government will be
temporarily transferred. All the necessary preparations must be made
from this hour with the utmost dispatch and prudence. To-morrow
night I shall set out with the crown prince; the rest of the royal
family will follow me on the next day. Troops will be stationed
along the route; the hussars forming my escort, and the lifeguards
following to Breslau. It is my duty to place myself beyond the reach
of insidious attacks, and to render it impossible for the French to
seize me. I will, therefore, go to Breslau!" While uttering these
words, the king glanced successively at the faces of the four
gentlemen. He saw that Field-Marshal Kalkreuth looked gloomy and
abstracted, and opposite him the chancellor of state, with burning
cheeks and radiant eyes.
"Well, Hardenberg," said the king, mildly, "have you nothing to say
to me?"
"I am unable to say any thing," whispered Hardenberg, in a tremulous
voice, "but I do what I have not done for many years past--I weep
tears of joy! Our night is at an end; a new morning is dawning upon
Prussia, and the sun of a new era will shed his beams upon all of
us!"
CHAPTER XXII.
THE MANIFESTO.
The people were moving in dense crowds through Berlin. The long and
splendid street "Unter den Linden" was filled with a vast multitude,
whoso greeting cheers resembled the noise of the ocean's billows.
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