All Germany had to be defended.

It happened to be the part of East Prussia to bear invasion, if it came to that.
And so the people of the great houses were making their migration.

The men went to their regiments; the women to Berlin, and to the great fortresses that lay nearer than Berlin--Koenigsberg, Danzig, Thorn.

This was historic country that Fred was traversing, the same country that had trembled beneath the thundering march of Napoleon's grand army more than a hundred years before, when the great Emperor had launched the mad adventure against Russia that had sealed his fate.
But he didn't think of these things, except of Napoleon, as he trudged along.

Once more he traveled through the night.