66 To KIEL. 



emissary to the Prussian Government, with the request 

 to grant me permission to execute the plan. My author- 

 ized employment or even mere leave of absence for this 

 warlike purpose was howeA^er opposed on the ground that 

 peace still reigned between Prussia and Denmark. But 

 it was intimated to me that I should receive the desired 

 permission if circumstances changed, as was expected. 



I employed this waiting -time in making prepar- 

 ations. Large and particularly strong canvas - bags 

 rendered watertight by caoutchouc were got ready, each 

 capable of holding about five hundred- weight of powder. 

 Further, wires insulated in all haste and exploding con- 

 trivances were prepared, and the necessary galvanic 

 batteries procured for firing. When the departmental 

 chief in the war-office. General von Reyher, in whose 

 ante-room I daily waited for the decision, at last made 

 the communication, that he had just been appointed 

 minister and. war having been resolved against Den- 

 mark, that he granted mfc the desired furlough as the 

 first act of hostilities against Denmark, my prepar- 

 ations were almost completed, and on the same even- 

 ing I left for Kiel. 



In Altona. where great excitement prevailed, my 

 brother-in-law Himly already awaited me; a special 

 locomotive took us to Kiel. The news of the decla- 

 ration of war by Prussia had already become known, 

 but was still considerably doubted. My appearance 

 in Prussian uniform was rightly taken as evidence of 

 the longed-for fact and excited on the whole way to 



o i/ 



Kiel and in the town itself unbounded joy. 



