"Yes, I can write; but—"
"Well, what signifies that but, and wherefore do you look all at once so gloomy and so cross? Peradventure my commission does not please you?"
"No, your excellency, it does not please me, and I can not undertake it!" cried Master Gabriel, indignantly. "You send me to The Hague, not as a painter, but—let me call the thing by its right name—but as a spy, and, what is yet more, as the corrupter of the Electoral Prince!"
"And that pleases not your virtue and your honesty?" asked the count, shrugging his shoulders. "Well, good then, dear master! Stick to it! Let all that we have said to one another be unsaid. Remain an honorable, independent hero of virtue, paint pictures, and see to it that you sell them, and if you do not succeed, then be contented to paint signboards for merchants and their walls for burghers, and console yourself with this, that you have refused a higher career from principles of virtue and magnanimity. Take your Venus, Master Champion of Virtue; I had not commissioned the purchase, and she is too dear for me. We are released from our mutual obligations, and have nothing more to do with one another. Go!"
"Will not your excellency keep the picture?" asked Nietzel, shocked, great drops of agony standing upon his pale brow. "Will not your excellency indemnify me for all my labors and expenses, and shall I go from you with—"
"With the proud consciousness of your virtue," said the count, completing his sentence for him. "Yes, that you shall, Master Gabriel. You shall bear in mind that Count von Schwarzenberg would have taken you into his service, and that you declined it, thereby exciting his wrath a little, which, as I have been told, has seldom turned to the advantage of those who have roused it, but always to their injury. However, you care nothing for that; you defy the wrath of the Stadtholder in the Mark, you—"
"No farther, please, your excellency, no farther!" cried out Gabriel, pale as death. "Forgive my excitement and my struggles. I pray you to forget my improper words, and accept me for your humble and obedient servant. You must do me the favor to keep the Venus of Master Titiano Vecellio, for she is my only possession, and I have given away my whole property in her purchase."
"Speak more clearly, master!" cried the count. "You mean to say I must keep your copy of the Venus, and pay for it as if it were an original one, for on that you base all your hopes."
"Your excellency!" stammered Master Gabriel in terror, "you do not suppose—"
"That this painting here is a copy, which you executed, and afterward hung up a couple of days in the chimney, to give it the appearance of a picture an hundred years old? Yes, my good man, I do indeed suppose so, and willingly grant you my testimony to the effect that you have very faithfully copied Titian, and expended much toil and trouble upon it."
"Most gracious count, I swear to you, that I have been slandered—that—"
"Swear no oath," said the count earnestly and severely. "You did not buy this picture at Cremona, but copied it in the palace Grimani at Venice, and worked upon it three whole months. You see I am well informed, and have my friends everywhere who furnish me with intelligence, and regard it as an honor to be my—spies, as you would say."
"Mercy, gracious lord, mercy!" cried Nietzel, bursting into tears, and sinking upon his knees before the proud, lofty form of the count. "Pardon for my crime, for my presumption! I was in such great want and distress that I knew not how else to help myself, and I swear to you that my copy is so faithful and exact that it can not he distinguished from its original."
"Well, no matter; we shall hang it up as an original, and allow it to be inspected by the connoisseurs of the electorate," said the count, laughing. "I keep your Titiano Vecellio, Master Nietzel, and consequently pay you three thousand ducats for this excellent original. That you may see how much in earnest I am I will immediately give you an order upon my treasurer, and you may forthwith receive that sum."
He approached his writing table, rapidly dashed off a few words upon a strip of paper, and then handed it to the painter. "There, take it, Master Gabriel Nietzel, and collect your money."
The painter gave him a long, astonished gaze. "You forgive me, your excellency," he said; "you accept my high estimate, although you know that I have cheated you and that this is only a copy?"
"What difference does that make? The picture is beautiful, and it gives me pleasure to look at it, and that is the only thing, after all, that I can require of a painting."
Master Nietzel hastily seized the count's hand, and pressed it to his lips. "Most gracious sir," he cried, "you have purchased my Venus with your money, my heart with your magnanimity! Henceforth I am yours, body and soul, and it is just, as if—"
"As if you had leagued yourself with the devil, is it not?" laughed the count.
"No, as if I had no longer any other will than yours—that is what I wished to say, most gracious lord. Only command me, say what I must do, and it shall be done."
"You go, then, to Holland, and purchase pictures there for me, and study the Flemish painters?"
"I will go to Holland, your excellency."
"You will seek to gain access to the Electoral Prince, to acquire influence over him, and to cheer him up a little?"
"I shall do as your grace directs."
"You will send me weekly a written statement of all that you see and hear there?"
"I shall send you a written statement," replied Gabriel, with downcast eyes and a hardly suppressed sigh.
The count saw it and smiled contemptuously. "You will write these reports to me in ciphers, which I shall acquaint you with, and swear to me that you will give the key to these ciphers to no human being?"
"I swear it, your excellency."
"Now, since you are so docile and obedient, my dear Master Gabriel, I shall raise your salary. I had promised you an annuity of five hundred dollars—I shall now make it six hundred dollars. Hush! no word of thanks; I can imagine them all or read them in your countenance, and that satisfies me. Only one thing remains to be decided. From whom will you receive letters of recommendation to the Electoral Prince?"
"Your excellency, I believe the Electress will have the kindness to furnish me with a letter of recommendation to her son. Her most gracious highness is very favorably inclined toward me because I painted from memory a miniature of the Electoral Prince, and presented it to her. Since then she has been very condescending to me, and never refuses me admittance to her presence, and I may as well acknowledge to your excellency that a few days ago the Electress hinted at the probability of a position being offered me as electoral court painter."
The count laughed aloud. "I congratulate you, master, and especially upon the salary which will be attached to the office. Only do not be puffed up and reject the little I have offered you, which you can always draw in secret, even when you have become electoral court painter. It is well for affairs to stand thus just at this juncture, for it will be easy for the electoral court painter to gain access to the Electoral Prince, and to be received into the number of his household. Repair to the Electress forthwith, tell her that you wish to travel to Holland in order to prosecute your artistic studies there, and come to me early to-morrow morning and acquaint me with the result of your audience. Farewell, Master Gabriel; go first to my treasurer and then to the Electress. No, no, say nothing more; no protestations, no word of thanks. I know you—that is enough."
With proud, courtly mien he nodded to the painter in token of dismissal, waved his hand toward the door, and then seated himself in the window niche beside the Venus, turning his back to the room.
Abashed and humiliated, Gabriel slunk away, and not until the sound of the closing door gave warning of his departure did the count turn around. His gaze was fixed upon the Venus, who in her wanton beauty met his looks with dark, flashing eyes.
"You have cost me much, fair signora," he said, shrugging his shoulders.
"Three thousand ducats for a copy! Who knows whether Titiano Vecellio was paid more for his original in his own time? Ah! you poor, beautiful woman, how dismal and cheerless it will seem to you in the cold north, and how much you will miss the golden light of your sunny Italian home here in this dirty northern Mark! We two must console one another, and try to forget that we do not live in your own fair Italy, but here, here, where there is more rain than sunshine, and where in place of music we often hear nothing but the grunting of swine and the bleating of sheep!"
And, as if in confirmation of his words, just then was heard from the street a loud tumult, a confused discord of grunts and squeals. The count turned from the Italian beauty, and looked out into the street, or, rather, the great square fronting his palace.[8] The rain, which had streamed down incessantly for a few days past, had drenched the unpaved ground, and here and there, where the soil was impermeable to moisture, had formed puddles and pools. These, the sheep and hogs, which were ensconced in stalls before the houses, had chosen for their pleasure ground, and whole herds of them had come to bathe in these puddles before Count Schwarzenberg's palace and in the neighborhood of the cathedral. A few merry, naughty boys, attracted by their squealing and bleating, likewise ventured into the black sea of the cathedral square, but, finding that they forthwith sank in the same, they had called for help, shouting, screaming, and laughing, thereby attracting still other boys and idlers, who now with prudent caution stood on certain less saturated spots, and with shrieks of mockery and laughter watched the vain efforts of the sunken boys, who were striving to work themselves out of the morass. Such was the melancholy picture that presented itself to Count Adam von Schwarzenberg, and he gazed upon it with sad and gloomy looks.
"And this is the residence of the Stadtholder in the Mark!" he sighed—"the outlook of von Schwarzenberg, count of the empire! Oh! it shall be otherwise! Out of this pigstye Berlin, I will construct a neat and handsome residence for myself, from this miserable house a splendid palace shall spring forth, and all the arts and sciences shall find their patron in the lord commanding in the Mark, when he is no longer merely called Stadtholder, but—"
He looked anxiously behind him, as if he dreaded being overheard by some one. "Hush!" he murmured then, "be still! There are thoughts and plans which may never find expression in words, but, like Minerva from the brain of Jupiter, must come forth ready for action, spear in hand. Creep back into my heart, and never let it be perceived that you are there, until the right hour shall come, the hour—"
He was silent, and again glanced searchingly around. Then, taking the silver whistle from his writing table, he let ring forth a shrill, loud call. A lackey in rich livery, its original material totally hidden beneath a mass of golden trappings and silver lace, appeared in the doorway.
"Who is in the antechamber?" asked the count, casting a long, last glance upon the Venus, and then covering her again with the green stuff that hung at the corner of the frame.
"Most gracious excellency, both entrance halls are crammed quite full of men of every rank and calling, for this is the hour for public audience."
"Are many uniforms present?"
"If you please, your excellency, very many. Besides General von Klitzing and Colonel Conrad von Burgsdorf, the Colonels von Rochow and von Kracht are there."
"These four gentlemen must be admitted to me," ordered the count. "The other people had better go, for I have no time to-day to grant audiences. Well, why do you stand there loitering? Why do you not go?"
"Most gracious sir," entreated the lackey, "there are so many distinguished gentlemen there, who have already come so often in vain, and to whom I have promised an audience to-day, in accordance with your excellency's express command."
"Who, for example?"
"For example, your excellency, the councilors of the cities of Berlin and
Cologne, then the states of the duchy of Cleves, and—"
"Enough, enough! I see well that these lords have paid you to put me in mind of them, and I shall therefore have the complaisance to do honor to your intercession."
"Alas! most gracious lord, I swear to your grace, that nobody has paid me, that—"
"Silence! I know you all!" cried the count contemptuously. "I know that every audience day brings as much money to you lackeys as it prepares discomfort and weariness for me. Pocket your money quietly, honest Balthazar; you are no worse than all the rest of the servant brood and therefore I despise you no more than the rest. Go, conduct hither the military gentlemen named through the corridor, and meanwhile I shall take a walk through the audience chamber and you collect your pay."
The gold-bedizened lackey left the cabinet with reverential and submissive air. But outside, he remained standing before the closed door, and boldly lifting up his head, with wholly altered face, hurled a look of hatred and defiance at the door.
"No worse than all the rest of the servant brood!" he muttered, raising his fist in a threatening manner—"no worse than yourself, you should have said, proud lord. You receive bribes as well as we, take money wherever you can get it, lend upon pledges, and practice usury like any Jew! Ah! we know you, haughty count, the whole Mark of Brandenburg knows and detests you, and it is a sin and shame that we must bow down before the Catholic alien, the foreigner, the imperialist, the priest-ridden slave, and it is a dreadful misfortune that the Elector himself bows down before him, and acts as if Schwarzenberg were lord here, and he a mere servant. Well," he comforted himself, letting his fist drop, "I can not alter it, and father says what we can not alter we had better submit to, and profit by a little, if we can. I will now guide these gentlemen bullies to the count's cabinet."
Count Adam von Schwarzenberg had meanwhile opened the door to his little private antechamber, and caused to enter his officiating equery and chamberlain, von Lehndorf, as also his two pages in waiting.
"Lehndorf," he said, "what think you? Would it be possible to arrange a small hunting party for to-day?"
"Most gracious sir," returned the chamberlain joyfully, "the weather seems just made for that. A clear, bright October day, and the does and stags in the park deserve that a couple of dozen of them should be shot down, for they have grown so bold that they hardly show any longer their wonted fear of man. Would your excellency believe that yesterday four does, under the guidance of a powerful buck, were pleased to issue forth from the park behind the castle and promenade a little in the worshipful towns of Berlin and Cologne? Such a screaming as there was of the street boys, who pursued the beasts, such a grunting of hogs, into whose styes the does sprang without respect, and such a running of honorable city women, who were struck with fear of being maltreated by the horned animals, who were nevertheless not their husbands, and such a yelping of noble butcher dogs, which probably took the does for calves gone mad! I swear, your excellency, it was divine sport."
"You are a blustering fellow yourself," laughed the count, "and 'Who loves to dance, ne'er lacks the chance.' If you are thus minded, we shall have a little hunt to-day, and take it upon yourself to invite for us a few worthy and suitable gentlemen who have fine horses and dogs."
"And will not your grace to-day, in this beautiful weather, grant these gentlemen the pleasure of seeing the two new greyhounds run? They have been here eight days already, and might as well display a little of their skill for the heavy sum of money they have cost."
"Yes, that is true—a heavy sum of money they cost indeed," said the count. "My son writes me that he paid eight thousand dollars for these two greyhounds." [9]
"But they are worth it, your excellency," cried the chamberlain, quite enthusiastically. "They are two wonderful animals, who have not their match in the wide world. I am quite in love with them, and if I had wife or ladylove, would gladly give her for these two greyhounds."
"Yes, yes, many an one would relish making payments in this fashion," laughed the count. "It is easier to give a wife away than eight thousand dollars, and again she is easier to obtain than such a superior greyhound. Hurry now, Lehndorf, and arrange the hunt for me. Let the servants put on their new red hunting suits and my huntsman also his new livery, that the curious Berlin people may have something to gape at. Away with you, Lehndorf! You, pages, take the baskets, now I am off for the audience hall."
Both pages, in suits of gold-embroidered velvet, rushed into the little antechamber, and quickly returned, each one bearing a pretty, shallow basket in his hand. Behind them came the chamberlain, who threw across the count's shoulders his ermine-lined velvet mantle, and put into his hand his plumed hat, trimmed with gold lace, and his embroidered gloves. The count hastily placed the tall, pointed hat with its nodding plumes upon his dark, curly hair, in which showed here and there a few silver streaks, and grasped the long gloves firmly in his right hand, sparkling with brilliant rings.
"Open the doors!" he said authoritatively, and the chamberlain flew before him, and tore open both halves of the folding doors. The two halberdiers, who stood near the door on the other side, raised their halberds, and proclaimed with thundering voices, "His excellency and grace, count of the empire and Stadtholder in the Mark!"
Through the two long apartments, on both sides of which was ranged a dense crowd of people of all sorts—men and women, venerable magistrates in solemn robes of office, and soldiers in their uniforms, poorly clad citizens and fine-dressed gentlemen, bold-looking young ladies and respectable matrons in white garbs of widowhood—through both these long apartments flew, as it were, one sigh, one joyful breath of relief and surprise, and all faces, the sad and bright, the eyes reddened by wine and night watches, as well as those sparkling with avarice and passion, all turned toward the lofty, full form of the Stadtholder, who, so proud and so brilliant, so august and self-conscious, stood upon the threshold of the door. He gave no salutation; not in the least did he incline his head, but with one sharp look let his large, gray eyes glide up and down on both sides; and this look sufficed to cause all heads to sink in reverence, to bow the proud and humble necks, so deeply, so reverentially, that high and low, old and young, poor and rich were now all one and the same—the petitioners of the electoral minister, the almighty Stadtholder in the Mark!
He now strode forward, followed by the two pages with their empty baskets. But these baskets were soon filled, for at each step forward a hand was stretched out to the count, handing him a written petition, and the count took it smilingly, and with distinguished indifference cast it into one of the proffered baskets. But before those who had come without written requests, and entreated a gracious personal hearing, the Stadtholder paused, and they began hurriedly, and with embarrassment, because they feared being heard by their neighbors, to state their wishes. It seldom happened, however, that the count allowed them to speak to the end, interrupting them in the midst of their speech with a hasty, "Commit it to writing! commit it to writing!" and striding on with the same lofty bearing, the same proud, imperturbable equanimity. Only when he neared the spot where stood the delegates of the citizens of Berlin and Cologne a cloud overshadowed his brow, and a flash of anger shot from his eyes.
He stopped before the burgers, and looked at them with an expression of cold, scornful repose.
"What do you want of me?" he asked.
"Help in our need, most gracious excellency," began the spokesman, "pity for our misfortunes! We can not pay the new war tax, we—"
"Ah! just see," the count interrupted him mockingly; "now you come to me, to sue for my favor. Your visit, then, to his Electoral Grace, has been in vain. The Elector has not granted the shameless petition of the citizenship; he has not encroached upon the rights of the Stadtholder appointed by himself to rule here in his stead. You have thought to circumvent me, and hardly has the lord of the land come hither before you must gain favors from himself. Well, see what favors you have obtained! Hardly an hour ago you walked with quick, proud steps into the castle of his Electoral Grace, and now you stand with humble, sad countenances in the antechamber of the Stadtholder in the Mark! What will you have here, and what have those to do with the Stadtholder who can converse with the Elector himself?"
"Pardon, your excellency, as faithful and humble children of the country, we turned first to our father and lord—"
"Now stick to that!" interrupted the count warmly, "and desire not to obtain from me what the fatherly heart of your beloved liege lord has denied you. Go, and never again appear in these parts! And you, too, my lords, deputies from the duchy of Cleves," continued the count, striding forward toward the deputies—"you, too, might reasonably have spared yourselves the trouble of appearing here. Who has enjoyed the honor of being received by his Electoral Highness need have no necessity for antechambering at the house of his minister and Stadtholder, for all favors and all honors flow from the almighty and exalted person of the Elector himself, and what he has done is good, and what he has said stands fast and is the law. Therefore, also, whoever has obtained dismissal from his Electoral Grace need no more turn to me, for the sun has shone upon him, and like myself he stands in the shade."
With these ambiguous words the Stadtholder moved forward, leaving the deputies covered with shame and swelling with indignation, while his countenance had speedily brightened. With more friendly gestures he now accepted the written petitions, and even listened patiently and condescendingly to those who had only come with oral supplications; promised them redress for their difficulties, exhorted them with loud voice to place confidence in their Stadtholder, appointed by the Elector, and to be assured that whoever turned to him would not sue and plead in vain, if his cause were just, fair, and practicable.
When the count had finished his circuit and stood again at his cabinet door, the baskets were piled high with written petitions, and the count, pointing to these with outstretched right hand, on whose fingers sparkled many a costly jewel, asseverated with loud voice that he would himself open, read, and examine all these writings, and do whatever was in his power. Then, with a short, gracious nod of dismissal, he retired into his cabinet, followed by the two pages with their baskets.
IV.—SOLDIERS AND DIPLOMATISTS.
Awaiting Count von Schwarzenberg in his cabinet were the four officers whom the lackey had conducted there in obedience to his instructions. They grew dumb in the midst of their conversation when the count entered, and stood up, saluting him in stiff and military style. Count Schwarzenberg nodded to them in a friendly manner, and an obliging smile played about his thin and finely cut lips.
"Put the baskets on my writing table and go out," he commanded the pages, and then turned toward the gentlemen, who still stood there with soldierly stiffness.
"Welcome, my lord general, and you, sirs colonels," he said in playful, jocular tone. "Truly, it is a pleasure to see one's self surrounded by such valiant soldiers. If my gracious master the Elector had as many such splendid soldiers as he has leaders, he would be helped indeed, and not find it necessary to battle with the Swedes for his dukedom of Pomerania, for then would the Swedes soon run off conquered."
"Just imagine, your excellency," cried Colonel Conrad von Burgsdorf, while he stroked his long, gray mustache with his broad fat hand—"just imagine what respect the Swedes would have for such a regiment composed of Klitzings, Rochows, and Krachts."
"You forget yourself, Sir Colonel," said Count Schwarzenberg, in a friendly, insinuating tone; "you forget to say that Conrad von Burgsdorf alone is a whole regiment in himself."
"Perhaps that is the reason why I have in fact nothing behind me," cried Colonel von Burgsdorf, with a loud, coarse laugh. "Yes, yes, now I know why I have so few soldiers behind me; the others all concentrate in me, and it is merely a pity and shame that they can not come forth from me to make front against the cursed Swedes."
"They will come forth now, depend upon it; they will come forth," said the count, with a pleasant smile. "My lords, I have had you summoned to confer with you about important and significant tidings. In the first place, we shall consider what relates to yourselves, and is therefore of greatest interest to you. General von Klitzing, henceforth you shall have no cause to complain of having a title but no employment. For from this very day you shall have employment, since his Electoral Grace designs forthwith to have regiments equipped and brought into the field."
"Hurrah! now for it!" shouted Burgsdorf, waving his right arm.
"I shout hurrah, too, with your excellency's permission," said General von Klitzing joyfully. "It has been three months since your excellency did me the favor to recall me here from the Saxon service in order to assume the command of the Brandenburg troops, and I have been in despair ever since, for it has been just like acting a comedy, where they fight with pasteboard swords and tin soldiers."
"That was the fault of the states and cities, who would not grant the Elector taxes for the equipment of regiments," returned the count, with emphasis. "Besides, ever since the peace of Prague the Elector has been pledged to neutrality. And if you can take part neither for nor against, can fight neither for friend nor foe, then it is better to have no soldiers, and no swords that can not be unsheathed. But now all will be different, and therefore the Elector nominates you, General von Klitzing, commandant general of all the Brandenburg fortresses, their garrisons, and all the electoral forces collectively."
"That is indeed an important and honorable appointment," cried the general, "and I shall esteem myself happy if I can now succeed in bringing the electoral forces into action."
"That must be done the first thing, general, yes, indeed, that must be done," cried Burgsdorf, laughing. "Alack! up to this time we have had no soldiers, for the couple of wretched fellows in each of the forts and the Elector's bodyguard could hardly be accounted such, and made but a poor show."
"Upon you, gentlemen, upon you it will henceforth devolve to create an army," said Schwarzenberg solemnly. "Colonel von Kracht, in virtue of my office as Stadtholder in the Mark, I this day pronounce you commandant of the fortresses of Berlin and Cologne; with the same fullness of power, I appoint you, Colonel von Rochow, commandant of Spandow; and lastly you, Colonel von Burgsdorf, I constitute commandant of the Fortress Küstrin."
"I should have been better pleased if you had made me commandant of Berlin," growled Conrad von Burgsdorf. "They lead such a dull, wearisome life at Fortress Küstrin, and I wish that Kracht and I could change places with one another. He knows the people of Küstrin well, and understands how to get along with them, for the late commandant of Küstrin was his father. Let us exchange with one another, von Kracht—here is my hand, give me yours! You are commandant of Küstrin and I of Berlin!"
"Slowly, colonel," replied Baron von Kracht; "we must yield to order and authority, and submit ourselves to whatever the Stadtholder in the Mark has found good to arrange for us."
"Well said, Sir Commandant of Berlin!" cried Schwarzenberg. "I was silent, because I wished to hear your answer. It follows, therefore, Colonel von Burgsdorf, that you go as commandant to Fortress Küstrin."
"I know very well that you send me away to remove me as far as possible from your residence Berlin," growled Burgsdorf. "You can not bear to see that the Elector is attached to me, and calls me his friend. You can not bear that another should execute and perform what you yourself can not execute and perform. I saw plainly yesterday the look of hatred and ill will which you darted at me, across the Elector's table, while the great drinking match that I had proposed was going on. It was right plain to be seen how much vexed you were, that there was anything in which Conrad von Burgsdorf could excel the wise, the learned, and the most worshipful Count Adam von Schwarzenberg."
"Well! you really suppose that I could be envious and jealous?" cried the count, laughing. "No, most worthy colonel, with my whole heart I yield you the palm for being the first and most rapid drinker at the electoral court, and for emptying a quart cup of wine at one draught."
"And it is no trifling art, you must know, Sir Count," said Burgsdorf, with an important air. "Think not that it is a mere pleasure—no, it is a task too, and at times a difficult one."
"We did not observe it as such yesterday, Colonel von Burgsdorf," retorted the count. "You proved yourself yesterday a truly intrepid hero in drinking at the electoral table. For it is in fact an heroic deed to quaff eighteen quarts of wine in one hour, as you did yesterday."
"Well," said Burgsdorf, flattered, "we had a drinking-match, and the Elector had offered a fine prize to the best drinker. I had long desired to obtain possession of the pretty and flourishing little village Danzien, and, behold! this was the very prize the Elector had offered; so I was obliged to do what I could, and have to thank God that I came off victor. I drank all the other gentlemen under the table, and was alone left standing, with my eighteen quarts of wine aboard." [10]
"Now," said the Stadtholder, smiling, "I think you did not leave me under the table, for I kept erect in spite of you, Colonel Burgsdorf. I hope also to keep my position yet longer, and never to be thrust under the table by you."
He looked full in the colonel's bloated and wine-flushed face with a cold, proud glance, and smiled when he saw how Burgsdorf's brow darkened and his eyes flashed with fierce hatred.
"You will remain standing, Sir Stadtholder, so long as God and the Elector please," said Burgsdorf slowly. "Many an one falls, and under the table, too, although he may not be drunk with wine, but with pride and ambition, avarice and rapacity."
"Enough, Burgsdorf, enough," replied the count haughtily. "I did not summon you here to hold with you a controversy about words, for well do I know that you are as mighty in words as in drinking. I have had you summoned that you might receive your orders, and do and perform whatever the Stadtholder in the Mark commands and enjoins upon you, in the names of the Emperor's Majesty and his Electoral Grace. General von Klitzing, I have nominated you commander in chief of all the fortifications, as you, Colonels von Kracht, von Rochow, and von Burgsdorf, commandants of Berlin, Spandow, and Küstrin. You may perceive from this that a new era has dawned, and that we have great things to expect from the future. Gentlemen, the time for waiting and delay is past. The Elector has concluded a treaty with the Emperor, by which the Emperor declares that the dukedom of Pomerania is the natural heritage of the Elector of Brandenburg, and invests him with it. It is true that at present the Swedes occupy Pomerania, and will not evacuate. But to that very end we must labor, to force the presumptuous Swedes to do this; and thereto the Elector has pledged himself to raise an army of five-and-twenty thousand men. To superintend these levies is the affair of the colonels and staff officers, therefore also your affair."
"The only question is, where is the money to come from to effect such levies," said General Klitzing.
"Yes, that is the question," exclaimed the three colonels impatiently.
"And the answer runs: The Emperor's Majesty has assigned money for that purpose. The Emperor's Majesty has granted the Elector a release from the payment of two hundred Roman-months which the Elector owed him, and with these two hundred Roman-months, which amount to three hundred and sixty-five thousand florins, troops are to be levied. But besides this, the Emperor expressly adds sixty thousand dollars, to be employed in enlisting soldiers; and the money will be paid out to those leaders and colonels who have recruited such and such a number of soldiers. For each soldier they get eight rixdollars."
"I shall recruit!" shouted Burgsdorf. "I shall go as commandant to
Küstrin, and enlist a regiment besides!"
"It is a matter of course that we all recruit," said General von Klitzing, "for such is the command and desire of the Elector, and him as our commander in chief we are bound to obey."
"By no means, general!" cried the count hastily. "Your commander in chief is the Emperor of Germany. The soldiers whom you shall enlist will of course be subject to the command of the Elector, but they must take an oath of allegiance to the Emperor and the empire, which runs thus, that they will be obedient to the Emperor, and in his stead to the Elector of Brandenburg, in order that the dukedom of Pomerania be recovered to the Elector, its natural sovereign.[11] According to the compact between the Emperor and the Elector, the official oath of military governors must also conform to this formula, and the commandants of fortresses be taken into the service of the Emperor and the empire. First and foremost is the obedience and fealty they owe to the Emperor."
"I do not understand that; it does not penetrate through my thick skull!" cried Burgsdorf impatiently. "How will it be if the Emperor's commands go counter to those of the Elector? If the Emperor orders us to do this, and the Elector that?"
"That will never happen," replied the count gravely.
"The Elector is much too loyal and faithful a vassal of the Emperor not to coincide always with the latter's gracious purposes and desires. I have now told you all that it is needful for you to know, have given you your commissions and announced your several ranks, and it only remains to administer to you the prescribed oath. In view of my absolute power as Stadtholder in the Mark, and as head of the electoral council of war, I will now receive your oath of fidelity to the Emperor and the Elector, and you must engage and swear to fulfill constantly and faithfully your duties to Emperor, empire, and Elector."
And just as the count dictated, without delay or contradiction, the four lords repeated the formula of the oath, and swore obedience, good faith, and service, first to the Emperor and the empire, and then to the Elector of Brandenburg. Thereupon the count dismissed them, exhorting them to repair instantly to their fortresses, and there to begin enlisting soldiers for the army of the Elector.
The count's countenance cleared up and assumed a triumphant expression when the four officers had left his cabinet, and he was now once more alone.
"I shall now be rid of that quarrelsome and dangerous man, Burgsdorf," he said complacently, as he sank apparently exhausted into an easy chair. "I have rendered him harmless and shoved him aside without his being really conscious of it. He does not suspect that we advanced and promoted the others only to remove him, Burgsdorf, to a distance, without exciting remark or scandal, and in order to be freed from his scurrilous tongue and insolent presence. I am truly glad and content that we have succeeded in this, and at the same time have taken these unreflecting and short-sighted gentlemen into service and allegiance to the Emperor and the empire." With a hurried "Who is there?" the count interrupted himself, starting from his seat. "Who dares to enter here unannounced?"
"I dare," said an earnest voice, and a tall, slender gentleman, wholly enveloped in a heavy traveling coat, his head covered with a great fur cap, strode through the apartment toward the count.
"Count Lesle, lord high chamberlain to the Emperor!" exclaimed the
Stadtholder in surprise. "Is it you? Are you direct from Regensburg?"
"Yes, Count Schwarzenberg, I have come here direct from Regensburg, to depart again without delay. My traveling carriage stands without before your door, and I shall presently enter it, and journey hence again. You will on that account excuse my want of ceremony, but as the Emperor Ferdinand permits me to enter his apartments at any time, I thought that the Stadtholder of the Mark would not be less affable. Moreover, I could not send in my name, for no one besides yourself is to know of my being here, and I wish to travel incognito. Will you, then, pardon me, Count Schwarzenberg, and am I excused?"
"I am the one to sue for forgiveness, on account of my impatience, and I do so most cordially. And now I entreat you, count, first of all, make yourself comfortable. Permit me to assist you in laying aside your cumbrous traveling habit, and accept some ease and refreshment."
With officious zeal he busied himself in aiding his visitor to emerge from his wrappings, and soon Count Lesle stood before the Stadtholder of the Mark in the beautiful, unique Spanish garb, such as was worn at the imperial court.
"How glorious you look in those magnificent velvet robes!" cried Count Schwarzenberg, with a sigh, "and how much your Spanish costume makes me long for the sumptuous life of the imperial court! Ah! my dear count, here among us you find hardly a trace of this costly, splendid living, and an imperial valet or house servant has more pleasure and enjoyment than an Electoral Stadtholder in the Mark."
"Yet it is a fine and sonorous title," said Count Lesle, smiling, while he stretched himself out comfortably in the great armchair which Count Schwarzenberg had rolled forward for him, "and it is also a great and influential office. The Emperor's Majesty knows very well what a mighty and potent man the Stadtholder in the Mark is, and that Count Schwarzenberg is really Elector of Brandenburg."
"His Imperial Majesty knows, too, that I have never yet ceased to be the faithful and devoted servant of the Emperor," cried Schwarzenberg, at the same time drawing a simple chair to the side of the count's fauteuil, and seating himself upon it. "His Imperial Majesty knows, I hope, that first and above all other things I place my duty to the Emperor, and that I have no higher aim than to subserve the interests of his Imperial Majesty."
"Yes, the Emperor, our most gracious Sovereign, knows that," said Count Lesle feelingly. "He does not for a moment doubt the fidelity and attachment of the Stadtholder in the Mark, who has always been mindful that the Elector is only the Emperor's vassal, and the Emperor the real lord of the whole German Empire."
"And to maintain this relation intact, yes, that is what I have made the greatest task of my life," cried Schwarzenberg, with animation. "It is a task, in truth, not easy to be accomplished, for the Emperor's supreme Government has many enemies here at the electoral court, and very many there are here who maintain that Brandenburg should free herself entirely from imperial vassalage, and that the Elector should be sole lord within his own domains. But now, dearest lord high chamberlain and count, tell me wherefore you have come here so unexpectedly, and what news do you bring from Regensburg?"
"Very serious and very subtle news I bring with me, count," replied Count Lesle, "and of such a tender, delicate nature that we could not willingly entrust it to paper, even in cipher, but could only transmit it from my lips to your ear, and thence to the locked-up recesses of your breast. Therefore I have come to you, and need hardly say that not a breath of our conversation is to escape, and that nobody must know of my having been here. The question is about the Electoral Prince of Brandenburg—that young man who has already tarried more than three years in the Netherlands, and is imbibing there the hated poison of insubordination and passion for freedom. It is high time that the Electoral Prince were recalled."
"Recalled!" cried Count Schwarzenberg, starting up amazed. "But, Count Lesle, you do not know the Electoral Prince. You do not know the danger that would accrue now if this restless, ambitious, and fiery young man were to return home. My enemies and the secret opponents of the Emperor here desire nothing more ardently than just this very thing, and the Rochows and Schönungs and all the reformers have already brought matters to such a pass that the Elector himself presses most urgently for his son's return home, and has even peremptorily required it of him. It is a plot of all the Swedish wellwishers, all the anti-imperialists of this court, believe me. They wish to place the Electoral Prince at their head, and hope by this means to bring it about that the weak and vacillating Elector shall secede from the Emperor and ally himself with the Swedes. They teased and goaded the Elector, until he even sent his Chamberlain von Schlieben to The Hague in order to fetch the Prince, and the latter has but to-day returned from his vain expedition."
"From his vain expedition, do you say? The Electoral Prince remains at The Hague, then, despite the strict commands, the pressing messages of his father? You see by that what fruit his stay at The Hague has already produced, and that the poison which he has imbibed there is even now at work. The Electoral Prince seems to be thoughtful and studious. And so much the more dangerous is it to leave him any longer at The Hague, where all are ill disposed toward the Spaniards, where is to be found the real hearthstone of the great European opposition to the house of Hapsburg, where the Prince of Orange is his instructor in the art of war, and can educate him to be a skillful and dangerous warrior and an enemy of the Emperor."
"All that is very true!" said Schwarzenberg gloomily. "But for all that he is less to be dreaded there than here, where he would cross all our plans and bring to nothing all our schemes. The Electoral Prince is a dangerous opponent, believe me. There is something bewitching in his character, and he would be in a position either to carry the Elector along with him in his career or to induce George William to follow his father's example, and resign the government in favor of his son, the Electoral Prince Frederick William. And do you know, Count Lesle, what would be the first act of Frederick William's reign? To depose me, to take all power out of my hands, and to institute a new course of policy for the house of Brandenburg!"
"Only get him here first, count, and then it is your affair to guard against this extreme. Take example from what happened on one occasion in Spain, where also rioters and innovators thronged around the heir to the throne, by his abettance to overturn existing institutions and hurl the King from his throne. My God! You know the story of King Philip and his son Carlos. Hardly fifty years have elapsed since then. Profit by this example, and learn from this story that if the son is dangerous, you have only to render him suspected by his father, and he becomes innocuous. If the son is the enemy of his father, then the father must also be made the enemy of his son, that in this way an equilibrium be preserved. You are much too great a statesman and too acute a diplomatist not to know how to act in this matter. But the urgency of the case is pressing. You must have him under your own eyes, under your own guardianship."
"It is true," said Schwarzenberg thoughtfully, "he imbibes deadly poison there, and is quite too enthusiastic in his admiration of the Protestant leader, the Prince of Orange. His letters to his parents overflow with enthusiasm for the Orange general, whom he calls his master and teacher in the art of war, and lavishes upon him extravagant praise."
"And they are giving themselves trouble enough to link the young Prince yet more closely to the house of Orange, and the enemies of Spain and Hapsburg," said Count Lesle emphatically. "The Emperor has obtained exact accounts as to the practices going on at The Hague, whereby the Electoral Prince may be brought into the land of Cleves and united by marriage with the Palatinate house, whereby he may be brought equally under the influence of the sovereign States and the Prince of Orange, and estranged from the Holy Roman Empire.[12]
"He is to marry a princess of the Palatinate!" exclaimed the Stadtholder. "Ah! now I understand why the Electress, despite her tender love for her only son, constantly endeavors to keep him away, and to prolong his stay at The Hague. I always thought until now that it was on my account. I thought that the Electress believed me to have evil and malign intentions with regard to the Electoral Prince, and for that reason alone was opposed to her son's return. But now I see into it; she is for this Palatinate marriage, she wishes by that means to bind her son more closely to her own house and its interests, to alienate him further from the Emperor and the Holy Roman Empire. It is the daughter of the banished Bohemian King, the Princess Ludovicka Hollandine, who is to be the tie to unite him to Orange and the Palatinate. All this becomes suddenly clear to me, and I can not imagine how I could have been so blind and so innocent as not to have divined and penetrated into this earlier. The Electoral Prince does, indeed, in each of his letters make mention of the little household over which the banished Bohemian Queen, the Electress of the Palatinate, presides at Doornward, not far from The Hague."
"She has now removed her residence farther, to The Hague itself," said Count Lesle dryly; "without doubt, because winter approaches, and it will be more comfortable for the Electoral Prince not to find it necessary to travel that long way to Doornward to see his dearly beloved one. She must be quite a pretty girl, the Princess Ludovicka Hollandine, and, moreover, of very tender complexion, and not at all disposed to play the prude with the young, handsome Electoral Prince, who seems particularly to please her."
"And the Electress is particularly partial to her sister-in-law, the Electress of the Palatinate," said Schwarzenberg thoughtfully. "Tears always come into her eyes whenever she speaks of her, and calls to mind her brother's unhappy fate.[13] It would, indeed, be for the advantage of her house if the daughter of her banished brother should again exalt the honor of her family, and find in Brandenburg amends for the lost Palatinate. For when women take it into their heads to meddle with politics, then are their hearts always interested; and even in politics, match making is their especial delight. Yes, yes, Count Lesle, I see into it now; you are right. The Electoral Prince is to wed the Palatinate Princess, and the Electress favors this match."
"But the Emperor would be displeased at it in the highest degree," cried Count Lesle. "It is therefore impossible that this alliance take place. You must do everything to prevent the Elector from granting his consent, and however many are for it, and blow upon one horn, yet the Elector must strike no note in harmony with this Palatinate marriage."[14]
"No, the Elector will not and shall not," replied the count decidedly. "It is for me to prevent him, and—You are indeed right. There is nothing left to be done but to summon the Electoral Prince from The Hague."
"It would be pleasant to the Emperor if the Electoral Prince came to his court," remarked Count Lesle; "it would be a token of confidence, and make an impression throughout the Holy Roman Empire upon friend and foe."
"Alas! the most important requisite of all is wanting—we want money," sighed Count Schwarzenberg, shrugging his shoulders.
"Well, that shall furnish no ground for objection, Sir Stadtholder. The Emperor commissioned me expressly to announce to you that his Imperial Majesty would gladly hold himself ready to furnish some assistance, yes, if needful, all the money required for the expenses of this journey.[15] And the Emperor would not be niggardly with his supplies of money for traveling, but give such sums that the Electoral Prince need not come merely to his Majesty at Vienna, but also make a little excursion to Innsprück. For at Innsprück the Archduke Leopold now holds his court, and the Electoral Prince could not fail to enjoy himself there, for the court at Innsprück is brilliantly gay, and the archduke's youthful daughter, Clara Isabella, is peculiarly fond of pleasure, and is a beautiful and attractive young lady."
With a sudden movement of the head Count Schwarzenberg turned toward
Lesle. "You do not mean it?" he asked hesitatingly.
Count Lesle nodded. "It is much to be desired," he said, smiling.
"But I fear it is impossible!" cried Schwarzenberg. "Every one here will be opposed to it; no one in favor of it. It is simply not to be thought of, and impossible that the Electoral Prince should marry a Catholic."
"It only seems probable, and to effect it, it is only necessary to go to work in the right way," said Count Lesle quietly. "You see by yourself how the inconceivable can still become matter of reality. Would it not have been supposed impossible that at this court, where there are none but heretics, where Reformers and Lutherans contend for precedence, that a Catholic and an imperialist could have become prime minister and confidential adviser to the Elector? And yet so it is, and for twenty years past the Catholic Count Schwarzenberg has been the favorite and I may say the controller of the Elector of Brandenburg. And why should not the Catholic minister and Stadtholder be able to negotiate a Catholic alliance? You underrate your power, count, and are by far too modest."
"Say rather I know the ground on which I tread, Count Lesle. Believe me, it is slippery and marshy soil, and a single incautious step may cause me to sink."
"Then guard against an incautious step, but advance boldly forward in the interests of his Imperial Majesty, and be assured that Ferdinand will prove himself to be a grateful and a gracious lord. And now, count, you know all that I came to communicate to you, and it is time for me to set out again."
"Will you set forth again so soon, Count Lesle, before you have done me the honor of taking a little breakfast and drinking a glass of wine with me?"
"Thank you, count, thank you most cordially. You know well, however, that the master's business is before all things else. My imperial master awaits me at Regensburg, and I shall then have the honor of being permitted to accompany him to Vienna. His Imperial Majesty is a strict and punctilious lord, and has calculated to the very day and hour when I may again reach the imperial palace. For our interview here he allowed me one hour; and, lo! the cock of your great wall clock had just stepped out and crowed eleven as I entered your room, and is already here, crowing twelve as loud as he can. It is therefore time for me to depart. I have briefly made you acquainted with the Emperor's intentions and desires, and your wise and fertile brain will know how to enlarge and construe. Farewell, Sir Stadtholder in the Mark, farewell, and may every blessing attend you!"
Count Lesle had risen and drawn his fur cap once more far over his brow. Schwarzenberg assisted him to don his ample and heavy wrappings, and then escorted him to the door.
"Permit me at least to conduct you to your carriage, Count Lesle," he said.
"Impossible, count; that would excite remark among your people, and give rise to conjectures on all sides. I gave myself out on entering as one of your officials from Sonnenburg, and your dignity does not suffer you to act toward your officials as toward an equal. Farewell, then!"
Count Lesle stepped out briskly, and hurriedly closed the palace door. Schwarzenberg stood listening to the retreating footsteps of the imperial legate until they died away in the long corridor. Then he slowly turned away and sank with a sigh into the armchair which Count Lesle had recently occupied.
"Strange tidings those," he muttered to himself. "I must now then adopt a wholly different line of action—must derange and newly model all my plans. What I would altogether avoid I must now do—must recall the Electoral Prince; must yield to him the precedence at court, both in rank and position; must—" All at once he started up and shrank, as if a sudden flash of lightning had interrupted his train of thought. "If it must be," he said quite softly to himself, "if nothing else is left for me, and I see myself in danger, then I will do it. I shall resort to this last expedient."
But even while he pronounced the words he grew pale and cast around him a timid, anxious glance, as if he dreaded being overheard by some traitorous ear. Then he leaned his head upon the back of the armchair, and sat, long, silent, and motionless, wholly absorbed in deep and earnest thought.
"Yes, it shall be so," he said at last. "He must leave The Hague; but it does not signify necessarily that he will arrive here so soon. The way is long, the roads are unsafe, and he must travel cautiously and circumspectly, for many cutthroats wander about, and who knows whether the Swedes may not make the attempt to capture and carry off the young Prince, or murder him, that he may not some day contest with them the possession of Pomerania. All this must, indeed, be risked; then—Master Gabriel Nietzel must nevertheless still go to The Hague; only I shall give him other instructions, and he will have a wholly different errand to fulfill. Yes, yes, it shall be so; I shall have him summoned directly."
He had already stretched out his hand for the whistle, when the outer door opened, and the valet entered.
"Pardon, your excellency. A lackey has just come from the palace. The Elector begs and entreats of your grace that you will have the kindness to repair forthwith to the Elector's residence."
"Present my respects to the Elector, and say that I shall do myself the honor of waiting upon him. Go, tell the lackey that, and have my carriage of state ordered out forthwith."
"Most gracious sir, I beg your pardon, but your excellency can not possibly go in the great carriage of state."
"Well, and why not?"
"Your excellency knows that it has been raining four days without intermission, and the ground is so soaked through that a man can not cross the streets or square without sinking up to his knees, how much less then a heavy vehicle. The carriage of the strange gentleman who has just been with your excellency remained stuck fast a few steps from here, and the coachman and footman, with a couple of our stableboys, are still busied in trying to pull it out of the mud."
"Heaven defend us!" cried the count, traversing the apartment with rapid strides; "then I must go myself directly and help the gentleman—"
But he suddenly bethought himself, and slowly stepped back from the door. "With the help of my stableboys, he must already be again on the road—my official from Sonnenburg," he said. "You think, then, that I can not take the great coach of state?"
"Not possibly, gracious sir. It is a morass, such as has not been for ages, and the townspeople have already brought out their mud carriages again."
"What is that? What are mud carriages?"
"Your excellency, I mean the stilts on which they parade around when the mud is very bad."
The count laughed. "The end of it is that nothing is left for me to do but to betake myself to stilts likewise in order to reach the electoral palace."
"It would be the easiest way, indeed," replied the lackey; "only it is not quite consistent with respect. But the great coach can not go."
"Then let them take my light hunting chaise, and attach four of my best coursers. In ten minutes I must be in the carriage."
V.—THE ELECTOR AND HIS FAVORITE.
In exactly ten minutes the hunting chaise stood in the inner court of the count's palace, and, as this was paved with huge granite flagstones, the count succeeded in reaching his carriage without spattering his white silk stockings, extending as far as the knee, or soiling his delicate velvet slippers, with their brilliant buckles and high red heels. Then the lackeys opened the great trellised gate of gilded iron, and with loud thundering the carriage rolled from the court out into the street. The coachman lashed the air with his whip, and the four coursers flew, hardly touching the ground with their pretty feet. The mud, to be true, splashed in mighty waves from the wheels and hoofs, giving the benefit of its floods to many an honest burger's wife who could not on her stilts immediately escape; often, indeed, was heard the anguished squeak or piteous howl of some sucking pig or dog over which the hunting equipage had rolled; but it paused not for these, and in a few moments halted in safety before the mean little portal of that small, dark mansion, honored with the title of the Elector's residential palace, which was situated on the other side of the cathedral square, near the Spree and the pleasure garden.
Before the portal stood a wretched carriage, covered with mud and drawn by four raw-boned horses, whose trappings and harness were wholly wanting in polish and neatness.
"The Elector means to ride out, it seems," said the count to himself, with a contemptuous glance at the poor electoral equipage.
"Drive a little aside!" screamed the count's well-dressed coachman from his box. "Let his excellency the Stadtholder drive up to the door, for it is just impossible for the count to alight here in this mud."
But the coachman only shook his head proudly, in token of refusal, and darted a look full of inexpressible contempt upon the Stadtholder's presumptuous driver.
"Drive out of the way!" shouted the count's coachman.
"Here I stand, and here I mean to stay until the Elector comes!"
"Let him remain, William, and speak not another word," commanded Count Schwarzenberg. "Drive my carriage up so close to the electoral carriage that I can conveniently step in."
The coachman obeyed, and the electoral charioteer, who had begun the contention with the supercilious driver of the Stadtholder with inward satisfaction, and hoped for a long protraction of the same, now felt himself foiled, and saw with inexpressible astonishment the coachman turn around, with rapid sweep make the circuit of the square, and draw up close beside the electoral equipage. Before he yet comprehended the object of this manoeuvre, the count had stretched forth his arm, opened with his own hand the door of the electoral coach, stepped into it, opened the door on the other side, and stepped out on the broad leather-covered plank which extended like a sort of drawbridge from the threshold of the palace garden to the electoral carriage.
"Bravo, Schwarzenberg, bravo!" called out a laughing voice, and as the count, standing midway on the plank, looked up, he saw the Elector above at the open window, nodding to him with friendly gesture, and greeting him with a cheerful smile.
"That was good for the brazen scoundrel, Fritz Long," called down the
Elector; "how could the rascal dare not to move out of the way for the
Stadtholder?"
"He did right, your Electoral Grace!" called up Schwarzenberg, as he hastily doffed his gold-edged hat with its waving plumes, and bowed so low that the tips of the white feathers surmounting the black ones touched the damp ground.
"Put on your hat, and come up," said the Elector. "It is cold down there."
"Only permit me first, most gracious sir, to do a little act of justice," cried Schwarzenberg, turning with a pleasant smile to the electoral coachman, who stared at him with sullen mien.
"Fritz Long," he said, with amiable condescension—"Fritz Long, you have acted as became a brave and trusty electoral coachman. You are perfectly right; you must never drive out of the way, even should the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire himself come to visit the Elector. In recognition of your honesty and truth, accept this present from me."
And the count drew from the side pocket of his richly embroidered vest two gold pieces, and laid them in the immense hand, gloved in a dirty, yellow gauntlet, which the Elector's joyfully surprised state coachman reached out to him. The count again nodded affably to him, and passed through the palace portal. "I hope," he said to himself, while he slowly ascended the broad wooden stairs—"I hope that in the next riot my fellows will properly punish the shameless rascal, and take out the two gold coins I have given him in little pieces on his broad back."
The Elector advanced as far as the antechamber to meet his beloved minister, and opened the door himself. "Listen, Schwarzenberg," he said, with a smile; "you are such a capital man. You know how to help in all emergencies, and even when they drive you into the deepest mud you know how to come forth dry-shod and clean."
"Well, I may indeed have learned something of diplomacy and strategy at the electoral court," answered the minister, at the same time offering the support of his shoulder to assist the Elector in returning to his cabinet. "Your grace has summoned me, and I feared lest intelligence of a disquieting nature had reached your highness, the—"
"Very disquieting intelligence, indeed," sighed the Elector, as he sank down groaning into his leather armchair. "But I suppose you know it already. Schlieben is back, and our son comes not with him; he only writes us a lamentable letter, in which he explains that he can not come home at this season of the year, and in the present conjunction of the times."
"But that is rebellion!" exclaimed Schwarzenberg warmly; "that is putting himself in downright opposition to his Sovereign and his father!"
"You look upon it in that light too, then, Schwarzenberg?" asked George William. "You agree with me that the Electoral Prince has acted like a disobedient son and disrespectful subject?"
"Oh, my God!" sighed Schwarzenberg; "would that I could not agree with your highness! Would that an excuse might be found for this conduct of the Electoral Prince! It is painful to see how boldly the young gentleman dares to resist the supremacy of his father."
"It is rebellion, is it not?" asked George, his excitement waxing continually. "We send our own Chamberlain Schlieben to The Hague; we write our son a letter with our own hand, enjoining him to return home; we, moreover, inform him verbally through Schlieben of the urgent necessity of his return, and still our son insists that he will remain at The Hague, and has the spirit to send Schlieben home without accompanying him."
"That is indeed to put himself in open opposition and rebellion against his most gracious lord and father. And now your Electoral Highness must persist in requiring the Electoral Prince to set out and come back."
"He must and shall come back, must he not? The Electress, indeed, intercedes for him, and would gladly persuade us that we should grant our son one year's longer sojourn at The Hague, to perfect himself in all sorts of knowledge."
"Your highness," said Schwarzenberg softly, edging himself closer to the
Elector's ear—"your highness, the Electress knows very well that the
Electoral Prince has something in view at The Hague totally different from
the acquisition of knowledge."
"Well, and what may that be?"
"A marriage, your highness. A marriage with the daughter of the widowed
Electress of the Palatinate—with the fair Ludovicka Hollandine."
"That would indeed he a fine, plausible marriage!" cried the Elector, starting up. "A Princess of nothing, the daughter of an outlawed Prince, put under the ban by the Emperor!"
"But this Prince was the Electress's brother. It would be very pleasant to her grace's tender heart to exalt her prostrate house once more and bring it into consideration again, and she would therefore gladly see her brother's daughter some day a reigning Princess. Besides, the future Electress would then owe her mother-in-law a lifelong debt of gratitude, and the Dowager Electress might exert great influence and share in the government of her son."
"Yes, indeed, they all count upon my death," groaned the Elector; "they all long for the time when I shall be gathered to my fathers. They grudge me life, although, forsooth, it is no light, enjoyable thing to me, but has brought me trouble, deprivation, and want enough. But still, they grudge it to me, and if they could shorten it, would all do so."
"But I, my beloved master and Elector—I stand by you. I have placed it before myself as my sacred aim in life to guard you as a faithful dog guards his master, and to turn aside from you all that threatens you with danger and vexation. The Emperor, too, as your supreme protector, keeps his benignant eye fixed upon you, his much-loved vassal, and his wrath would crush all that should endeavor to injure you. There are, indeed, many here who think that the Elector of Brandenburg ought to make himself free and independent of that very Emperor, beneficent though he be, and, because your highness stands in their way, they attach themselves to the son, and, placing him at their head, wish to constitute him an opponent of the Emperor and empire. The Electress has probably not yet forgiven and forgotten that the Emperor put her brother under the ban of the empire, and banished him from country and friends. And the Prince of Orange, and the Sovereign States, the Swedes and all the enemies of his Imperial Highness and your Electoral Grace, would all unite their efforts to render the Electoral Prince a pliant tool in their hands. Therefore they wish to detain him yet longer at The Hague, and so to bind him there that he shall be wholly theirs, linked by an indissoluble chain. On that account they wish to bring about this marriage with the Princess Ludovicka Hollandine. I must confide to your highness the information that report has already bruited it abroad, and that it is spoken of at the imperial court. I have to-day received dispatches from Vienna which apprise me that the Emperor is very much opposed to this matrimonial project, and will never give his consent to it."
"And I, too, shall never give my consent!" screamed the Elector. "I will not again be brought to feud and strife with Emperor and empire. I will not range myself on the side of the Emperor's foes, and neither shall my son. I have always said that the Electoral Prince was staying far too long in foreign parts, and that he would return an alien. But you would never agree to it, Adam Schwarzenberg; you always thought that the Electoral Prince was much better off in his place than here, where the malcontents and disturbers of the peace would, throng about him, and that he could only learn what, was good and profitable there, while here he would learn much that was evil. And now it proves that the air there is much worse for him still, and that the tempters have more power over him there than here."
"I was blind and short-sighted when I fancied myself wise," replied Schwarzenberg, in a tone of contrition; "I was presumptuous enough to suppose I knew better than my Elector and lord, and now acknowledge in deep abasement how very wrong I was, and how far superior to myself my noble and beloved Electoral Lord is in penetration and foresight. I crave your pardon, most gracious sir, crave it in penitence and humiliation."
The proud Count von Schwarzenberg bowed his knee before the Elector, and with a glance of earnest entreaty pressed his lips to his Sovereign's hand. George William, flattered and enraptured by this humility on the part of his almighty favorite, bent forward and imprinted a kiss upon his lofty forehead.
"Rise, my Adam, rise," he said tenderly. "It does not become the grand master of the German orders, the rich and distinguished count of the empire, to kneel before the little Elector, who is not master of an army, but so poor that he knows not how he shall live and pay his servants; who has nothing of his possessions but the name, and nothing of his position but the burden! Stand up, Adam Schwarzenberg, for I love to see you erect and stately at my side, and to be able to look up to you as to a staff on which I may lean, and which is strong enough to bear me."
Count Schwarzenberg arose from his knees, and, resting his elbows upon the high back of the armchair, inclined his head toward the Elector, who looked up at him with glances of fond affection.
"My lord's coffers, then, are actually empty?" he asked.
"So empty, Adam Schwarzenberg, that my servants can not obtain their wages, and if a beggar were to accost me on my way to church, I could give him nothing, because not a florin is to be found in my own purse—so empty, that our whole project of the Electoral Prince's return threatens to be wrecked thereby, for our son has incurred debts which we are not able to liquidate. Schlieben informs us that the debts of the Electoral Prince amount probably to seven thousand dollars, and, besides that, he needs at least two thousand dollars more to defray the expenses of his journey home, together with his retinue, his carriage, and his horses."