assent could not be obtained for the following reasons:  the Rigsrad of the old Constitution had been dissolved and had no longer a legal existence; a new assembly could not be summoned before the 1st of January—­there was not time.  If an assembly were summoned after that date, it must be of course summoned according to the new Constitution.  To do this, however, would be to bring the obnoxious Constitution actually into force, and would mean, so to speak, a declaration of war against Prussia.  If the King wished to give in he must have time; he must be allowed to summon the new assembly, lay before it the German demands, and require it to declare its own revocation.  The English Government, still anxious to keep the peace, represented to Bismarck the dilemma in which he had placed the Danes.  Lord Wodehouse, who was in Berlin in December, requested that at least more time should be allowed.  Bismarck refused to listen to the request.

“These constitutional questions,” he said, “had nothing to do with him; the Danes had put off the Germans for years; they could not wait any longer.  The King could always make a coup d’etat; he would have to do so sooner or later.  Germany and Denmark could never be at peace so long as the Democratic party had the authority.”

Denmark did not give way; the help from England, on which they had reckoned, was not forthcoming; the fatal day passed; the Austrians and Prussians entered Holstein, marched across that Duchy, and in the early part of February began the invasion of Schleswig.  The relations of the Allied troops to the Federal army of occupation were very remarkable.  Both were opposed to the Danes, but they were equally opposed to one another; had they dared to do so, the Saxons would have opposed the Prussian advance.  As it was they sullenly watched the Prussian and Austrian columns marching north to the invasion of Denmark.

It was the first time that the remodelled Prussian army had been tested on the field of battle; Bismarck had brought it about that they were fighting for the cause of Germany and in alliance with Austria.  As soon as war began, his own position improved.  The King and the army were, of course, all the more confident in a Minister who had given them so good a cause of war and allowed them to take the field side by side with their old ally.  Their superiority in number and discipline ensured success in the military operations; the Danes evacuated their first position at the Dannewirk; the German troops occupied the whole of Schleswig, then after some further delay advanced into Jutland, and finally began the siege of the strong fortification of the Dueppel.  The taking of this was a difficult piece of work, which, after some delay, was successfully carried out at the beginning of April.