because believing that her best was the best thing in the
world. This error was the source of all her misfortunes. She applied to
the military art, in this age of railways and electric telegraphs,
principles and practices that were not even of the first merit in much
earlier and very different times. She was not aware that the world had
changed. Prussia was thoroughly aware of it, and acted accordingly. She
was all vivacity and alertness, and hence her success. In nineteen days,
counting from the morning of June 15th, she had accomplished that which
almost all men in other countries had deemed impossible. While
foreigners were speculating as to the number of days Benedek would
require to reach Berlin, and wondering whether he would proceed by the
Silesian or the Saxon route, the Prussians were routing him, taking
Prague, and marching swiftly toward Vienna. The contending armies first
"felt" one another on the 26th of June, in a small affair at Liebenau,
in which the Prussians were victorious. The next day there was another
"affair," of larger proportions, at Podal, with the same result; and two
more actions, one at Nachod and at Skalitz, in which Fortune was
consistent, adhering to the single-headed eagle, and the other at
Trautenau, which was of the nature of a drawn battle. On the 28th there
was another fight at Trautenau, the Prussians remaining masters of the
field; while the Austrians were beaten at other points, and fell back to
Gitschin, once the capital of Wallenstein's Duchy of Friedland, and
where the Friedlander was to receive ample vengeance just seven
generations after his assassination by contrivance and order of the head
of the German branch of the house of Austria, Ferdinand II. Could
Wallenstein have "revisited the glimpses of the moon" on the night of
the 28th of last June, he might have cast terror into the soul of
Francis Joseph, as the Bodach Glas did into that of Vich-Ian-Vohr, by
appearing to him, and bidding him beware of the morrow; for it was at
Gitschin, on the 29th of June, and not at Sadowa, on the 3d of July,
that the event of the war was decided. Had the battle then and there
fought been fortunate for the Austrians, the name of Sadowa would have
remained unknown to the world; for then the battle of the 3d of July
could not have been fought, or it would have had a different scene, and
most probably a different result. Austrian defeat at Gitschin made the
battle of Sadowa a necessity, and made