The early life of the young pair was not altogether fortunate. Several
children died at a very early age; the defeat of Prussia brought foreign
occupation; Schoenhausen was seized by French troopers; the marks of
their swords are still to be seen in a beam over one of the doors, and
Rittmeister v. Bismarck had to take his wife away into the woods in
order to escape their violence.

Of all the children of the marriage only three lived: Bernhard, who was
born in 1810, Otto, and one sister, Malvina, born in 1827.

Otto did not live at Schoenhausen long; when he was only a year old, his
father moved to Pomerania and settled on the estates Kniephof and Kulz,
which had come into the family on his grandfather's marriage. Pomerania
was at that time a favourite residence among the Prussian nobility; the
country was better wooded than the Mark, and game more plentiful; the
rich meadows, the wide heaths and forests were more attractive than the
heavy corn-lands and the sandy wastes of the older province. Here, in
the deep seclusion of country life, the boy passed his first years; it
was far removed from the bustle and turmoil of civilisation. Naugard,
the nearest town, was five miles distant; communication was bad, for it
was not till after 1815 that the Prussian Government began to construct
highroads. In this distant province, life went on as in the olden days,
little altered by the changes which had transformed the State. The
greater portion of the land belonged to large proprietors; the noble as
in old days was still all-powerful on his own estate; in his hands was
the administration of the law, and it was at his manorial court that men
had to seek for justice, a court where justice was dealt not in the name
of the King but of the Lord of the Manor. He lived among his people and
generally he farmed his own lands. There was little of the luxury of an
English country-house or the refinement of the French noblesse; he would