Gotzkowsky could hardly suppress a smile of contempt.  “Orders for me!  A title!  What would I do with them?  Sir, I am more powerful than all your counts, for the greatness of the nobility lies in the past, in mouldering ancestors; but the greatness of the manufacturer lies in the future, and the future belongs to industry.  I founded the first large factories here in Berlin, and the manufacturers who come after me can call me their ancestor.  No other nobility do I desire, count.”

“You would then be capable of refusing a count’s title?” asked Tottleben, in astonishment.

Gotzkowsky shrugged his shoulders.  “If I had wished for nobility I could long ago have bought a countship of the holy German empire, for such things are for sale, and thirty thousand ducats is the highest price for a count’s title; and as for the orders, my own ribbon-factory turns out the ribbons for them.”

General Tottleben looked at him for a long time in mild astonishment.  “You are a wonderful man, and I wish I were like you.  If I had thought as you do, my life would have been a less stormy one, and less tossed by care and restlessness.  I would have—­”

The general was interrupted by the hasty entrance of the adjutant.  He was the bearer of dispatches brought by a courier who had just arrived.  The courier, he said, had ridden so hard, that his horse had fallen dead on his arrival.

Tottleben tore open the dispatches and read them rapidly.  His countenance immediately lost its former expression of mildness and gentleness.  His German heart was silenced by the will of the Russian general.

He seemed to forget Gotzkowsky’s presence, and turning to his adjutant, with proud military bearing, he said:  “These dispatches contain important and surprising information.  They announce that the Prussian army is drawing on in forced marches, with the king at its head.  We cannot give him battle here, and must, in consequence, arrange for a rapid retreat from Berlin.  Call all the generals and staff-officers together.  Let the alarm be sounded.  In three hours the whole army must have left the city.  And, further, summon the Town Council to the New Market, that we may take our leave, for we must not leave Berlin as fugitives, but as conquerors, who are proceeding on their march.”

“And the poor editors who are to be flogged?” asked Gotzkowsky, when the adjutant had left.

The general smiled, as he took Gotzkowsky amicably by the hand.  “We will hang them a little lower,” said he, significantly.  “Come, accompany us to the market-place!”

NOTE.—­Count von Tottleben expiated his clemency toward Berlin very dearly.  A few months later he was sent to Petersburg under arrest, accused principally of having behaved too leniently and too much in the German interest for a Russian general.

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CHAPTER XIII.