The Swiss saloon was fast filling, not alone with the generals and staff-officers of the Berlin garrison, but with the officers of the regiments from the provinces, who presented themselves at the palace according to the order of the king.

The most of them were old and worn out, body and mind.

They all looked morose and sorrowful.

The great news of the approaching war with Austria had spread through the military.

The old laurel-crowned generals of the Seven Years' War were unwilling to go forth to earn new laurels, for which they had lost all ambition.