72 LIFE IN THE FORT. 



this work by my man Hemp, (who without orders had 

 followed me from Berlin.) an intelligent, able fellow, 

 who subsequently accompanied me in all my telegraphic 

 undertakings and finally became chief engineer of the 

 Indo-European telegraph line, which position he occu- 

 pied till last year. With his help the men serving 

 a gun were hastily trained, so that on the third day 

 after the occupation we could essay a first shot, which 

 announced far and wide the military occupation of 

 Friedrichsort. 



On the following days we had many visits from 

 Kiel. Not only the commander of the town and even 

 a member of the provincial government paid us a visit, 

 but a Iso the wives and relations of the civic guard came 



c 1 



in great numbers, in order to be personally assured of 

 the welfare of their friends. After the lapse of a week 

 however my forces began perceptibly to shrink, as 

 the wives in their visitings convincingly proved to their 

 husbands that they were indespensable at home. I 

 could not shut my eyes to the consideration that it 

 would be impossible to retain in Friedrichsort for any 

 length of time the citizens, who could only with diffi- 

 culty be absent from their private business. On the 

 other hand Holstein was still entirely without regular 

 troops, and the feeble remnants of the Schleswig-Hol- 

 stein force alone opposed the Danes who were again 

 advancing into North-Schleswig. 



I had therefore the choice either of abandoning my 

 conquest or of procuring an equivalent for the civic 

 guard. The peasant youth of the Provostry - - the 



