noon
The Swedes took up the gauntlet thrown down to them , and , while they were opposed to Goldacker in Mecklenburg , other Swedish regiments marched from Lausitz against Berlin . This was exactly what the Stadtholder wished , and once more the devoted Mark saw the flames of war burst forth , in order that Schwarzenberg might have an excuse for summoning Saxon troops to his aid . To-day these troops had reached Berlin , and the Stadtholder wished to celebrate their arrival by a sumptuous _ fête _ in his palace . To this entertainment he had bidden Colonel Goldacker from Mecklenburg ; the commandants of Spandow and Berlin , with their officers , were also invited , and already , in the early morning , they were preparing the table in the great hall for the magnificent collation to be served at noon . Meanwhile lamentation and mourning reigned in the cities of Berlin and Cologne , while life went so merrily in the Schwarzenberg palace . The wild hordes of soldiers made the streets unsafe even in the daytime . Drunken they roved through the city , with the greatest tumult and uproar ; they broke into the houses of peaceful citizens to plunder and rob , and wherever anything was refused them , they committed the most wanton acts , laughing and singing over the tortures they inflicted .