eight o'clock
Then the young man sprang lightly into the saddle . `` God grant , sir , I may soon come too ! '' Fritz Deyke cried after him , as , putting his horse to a gallop , he disappeared into the gathering night . The streets of Berlin , though , bright with sunshine , looked empty at eight o'clock on the morning of the 15th of June , 1866 . Life in that city does not begin so early ; and at this hour only a few of the lower orders hurried along under the lime trees , with here and there an employé or a merchant hastening to his office . A troubled expression appeared on the face of every passer-by ; acquaintances stopped and exchanged greetings and the news of the day , but the news was of an unpleasant and evil nature ; the Austrian ambassador was recalled , and war was inevitable , -- a war which no one desired , and which was entirely ascribed to the ambition of the minister , who , in order to retain office , was about to set Germany , nay Europe , on fire . So thought and spoke the good people of Berlin , for they were accustomed to think and speak in the morning as Aunt Voss and Uncle Spener had caused them to read the day before ; and these two long-established and highly privileged organs of public opinion daily maintained , in articles whole columns in length , that the disturbance in Germany was entirely owing to the restless ambition and criminal rashness of this Herr von Bismarck ; and all the Müllers , all the Schultzes , all the Lehmanns , and all the Neumanns who had been brought up in the royal capital , firmly believed that nothing was needed to preserve the absolute peace of Europe under the parliamentary government , than that Herr von Bismarck should be sent about his business , either to Schönhausen , or to Kniephof , to cultivate his March Ukrain turnips , or his Pomeranian cabbages .