ABSTRACT
However changed might be the spirit of the government since the death of Frederic the Great,33 long established modes of life, and the actual preparations for another campaign, which might repair the errors of the last, still gave to Berlin the appearance of a great garrison, rather than of the capital of a kingdom. D’Alonville was soon weary of a scene which presented little else than ‘Man and steel; the Soldier and his sword*.’34 Many families, of whom the fathers or husbands were gone or going to the army, had retired from Berlin to pass the time of their absence in the country; and among these was Madame Lewenstirn, the niece of the Abbé de St. Remi, whose husband had received orders to depart immediately for Flanders with a regiment he had raised; and who had already taken leave of his wife, and was on the point of quitting Berlin when the Abbé and his friends arrived there
