He realized that the dominance of France could not be broken but by the union of Austria and Prussia, acting in concert with Britain. He watched with interest the Prussian military preparations. At the invitation of Count Haugwitz, he went at the outset of the campaign to the Prussian headquarters at Erfurt, where he drafted the king's proclamation and his letter to Napoleon. The writer was known, and it was in this connection that Napoleon referred to him as a "wretched scribe named Gentz, one of those men without honour who sell themselves for money". Gentz had no official mandate from the Austrian government, and whatever hopes he may have cherished of privately influencing the situation in the direction of an alliance between the two German powers were speedily dashed by the Battle of Jena.