LlNE TO THE SEAT OF WAR. 151 



return, when I was suddenly called up at midnight 

 and taken almost by force to Count Kleinmichers 

 assistant, General von Guerhardt. The latter imparted 

 to me, that the Emperor had ordered the immediate 

 construction of a telegraph line to the Crimea up to 

 the fortress of Sebastopol, and the Count wished to 

 have an estimate and the date of completion by 7 

 o'clock the next morning. My doubts in regard to the 

 difficulty of procuring and transporting the materials on 

 the only open road from Berlin to Perekop and Sebasto- 

 pol, as well as to the impossibility of constructing 

 a line to the seat of war itself, when all the ways 

 and means of transport were required by the military, 

 were overborne by that all -conquering word in Russia 

 4 'The Emperor wills it!" And in fact the magic word 

 held good also in this case. The line was made. 



When after working the whole night I came to 

 the General punctually at 7 o'clock, I learnt that the 

 latter had been already summoned to the count two 

 hours before, and had not yet returned. Soon after 

 8 o'clock he came and communicated to me, that 

 Count Kleinmichel had told the Emperor, who had 

 ordered the report by 6 o'clock, that I would execute 

 the construction from Nikolaiev to Perekop in six 

 weeks, that from Perekop to Sebastopol in ten weeks, 

 and at the same price as the line from Kiev to Odessa. 

 I declared both to be impossible. The transport of 

 the wire and apparatus alone from Berlin to Nikolaiev 

 on roads destroyed by the military transport would 

 take at least two months. The expenses would also 



