“Well, here you are at last,” exclaimed Elector Frederick William, holding out his hand to Baron Leuchtmar von Kalkhun. “You have at last returned from your difficult journey.”

“Yes, gracious sir, you may well call it a difficult journey. Four long months of endless debate, wrangling, and dispute with those arrogant Swedish lords, who were ever ready to take but never to give. Such was my experience day by day for four long months.”

“Yes, you are right,” said the Elector thoughtfully. “Four months have indeed elapsed since you set out upon your journey and I undertook the duties of ruler. My God! it seems to me as if many years had rolled by since then, and as if I had become an old, old man! I do not believe I have laughed once during these four months, or enjoyed one quarter of an hour of pleasure or relaxation. Discord and discussion everywhere with Emperor and empire, with the States, with Poland, Juliers and Cleves. They are all my foes, and not one single hand is held out to me in friendship. I have felt at times right lonely, Leuchtmar, and sorely sighed for you. It could not be, though, and I have learned already to submit to necessity. Necessity alone is the despotic mistress of all princes, and we nothing but her humble vassals. It is a humiliating thought, but nevertheless true. I must learn to endure mortifications, and to consider them but the price which I pay for my future.”

“It grieves me to perceive that your highness is somewhat downcast and discouraged,” sighed Leuchtmar, looking sadly at the Elector’s pale, sober countenance, upon which the last four months had indeed left the imprint of years.

“Downcast? Yes,” cried Frederick William; “for my affairs progress but slowly, and to gain anything I am compelled on all sides to make unpleasant concessions and to submit to irksome restraints. But discouraged no, Leuchtmar, I am not discouraged, and by God’s help never shall be! I know my purpose, which I shall pursue with immovable steadfastness, and, although the results of these first four months of government are barely discernible, I comfort myself that in as many years I shall have accomplished much. It is strange, Leuchtmar, that you have returned to-day, the very day which brings home my Polish ambassador with the tidings that the King of Poland is ready solemnly to invest me with the dukedom of Prussia, thanks to our money and our fair speeches. This very day I also expect decisive news from Colonel von Burgsdorf at Berlin. On the self-same day I sent you forth. You were like doves sent from a storm-tossed ark to seek for land. Almost at the same time you return to the ark, but I fear that none of you brings with him an olive branch.”

“Yet, most noble sir, I do bring you a small olive leaf,” replied Leuchtmar, with a gentle smile. “I come to announce to your grace that I have at last succeeded, after a four months’ contest, in wringing from the Swedish lords a few concessions, and concluding an armistice, which is to be binding for two years.”

“A two years’ cessation of hostilities is equivalent to ten years of refreshment, of reinvigoration!” cried the Elector with radiant looks. “Tell me, Leuchtmar, what concessions did these hard-headed Swedes make at the last moment?”

“Your highness, they have pledged themselves not to allow their soldiery to enter the Mark, unless unavoidably compelled to march through on their way elsewhere, and that then they shall be quartered and fed only under the direction of an Electoral commissary; and that, moreover, separate agreements shall be entered into with regard to the maintenance of the Swedish garrisons of forts in Pomerania and the Mark.”

“Yes,” murmured the Elector, with dejected mien, “so low are we reduced that if they even acknowledge our natural rights, it strikes us in the light of a concession, a grant, and we must esteem ourselves happy in having obtained it! Ah! Leuchtmar, when will the time come when I can take my revenge for these humiliations, the time when they will bow to me, and when it will be for me to concede and grant favors? Hush, ambitious heart, be soft and still! Go on, tell me what further settlements you concluded with the Swedes.”

“Gracious sir, I have no other concessions to mention, except that something has been done for the protection of our mutual traffic by sea and land. But that is as much to the advantage of the Swedes as of ourselves. The demands of the Swedes are truly far greater than their concessions!”

“What do they demand?”

“They demand in advance that they be left in undisturbed possession of the fortresses they are now masters of.”

“I have not the power to take them by force of arms!” cried the Elector, shrugging his shoulders. “Let them keep what I can not force from them! What else?”

“They demand, besides, that the Werben fortress be delivered up to them.”

“I will not deliver it up to them!” cried the Elector; “but I will have it destroyed, that it be not seized by the Imperialists. What else?”

“The Swedes further desire that the Kuestrin Pass be closed to imperial troops.”

“To that I willingly consent, for it is in accordance with my own interests,” said Frederick William, smiling. “By Kuestrin is the road to Stettin, and it is important for us, too, that this way be closed to the Imperialists. Methinks a time will come when it shall be closed to the Swedes as well, and once closed, I shall not open it again. What else?”

“The Swedes crave the privilege of having a resident at Kuestrin, who shall attend to carrying out this article.”

“That I shall never consent to!” cried the Elector passionately. “No, that can not be, for such a permission would involve degradation, and the concessions which I am willing to make for the welfare of my torn and bleeding land need not go to the extent of degradation. I must have an armistice, that my subjects may recover from the effects of these bloody, trying times, and gather strength for renewed existence. I must have an armistice, in order to gain time for the re-establishment of law and order. But there need be no armistice tending to dishonor me, and place me under Swedish surveillance in the midst of my own land. No, no Swedish spy, no resident at Kuestrin that is the condition of my agreeing to the armistice. All else I acquiesce in.”

“And I hope to prevail upon the Swedish lords to recede from this claim yet,” said Leuchtmar. “Rest is very essential to them also just at this time, for they have enough to do to contend with the Imperialists, and the Danes are threatening them with war. They will not desire to be embroiled with Brandenburg at the same time. I will guarantee the conclusion of the armistice, and, if it meets your highness’s approbation, will travel again to Sweden to effect this alteration and then bring the articles to your highness for your signature.”

“So be it, dear Leuchtmar. Return to Stockholm. Strike the iron while it is hot. Much I hope from this armistice. It will make the lords of Warsaw, Regensburg, and Vienna more pliant and yielding, for it will show them that the Elector of Brandenburg is no longer drifting helplessly about in a leaky boat, but that he has succeeded at least in stopping one hole and keeping himself above water! And now, friend Leuchtmar, how fared you in your secret mission? Did you hand my letter to the young Queen?”

“Yes, your highness; I even had the opportunity of delivering it to her in a private audience without witnesses.”

“And did she accept it in a kind and friendly manner?”

“Gracious sir,” replied Leuchtmar, smiling, “a queen of fourteen years of age is very sensitive with regard to her dignity, and takes it very ill if she is not treated with due reverence and extreme devotion.”

“Was my missive wanting in these respects?” asked Frederick William.

“I beg your highness’s pardon, but the young Queen seemed to be rather of this opinion. She was visibly delighted when I handed her your letter, and especially delighted that she received it secretly, without witnesses, and not in the presence of Chancellor Oxenstiern, whose guardianship seems to be very irksome and unpleasant to her. The young Queen blushed, sir, when she took your letter, and I must confess that at this moment she looked pretty and graceful enough to be the wife of my gracious master. But her countenance soon became clouded, as she read your communication, whose contents seemed to afford her little satisfaction.”

“But she answered my letter, did she not, and you bring me her reply?”

“Oh, yes, most gracious sir, she answered it, and I have with me Queen Christina’s reply. But I must beforehand make your grace an apology for this answer.”

“Well, let me see it, Leuchtmar. Give me the answer.”

Leuchtmar drew a folded paper from his pocket, and handed it to the Elector, who unfolded it. A number of torn bits of paper fell to the floor.

“What is that, Leuchtmar?” asked the Elector in amazement.

“Your highness,” replied Leuchtmar, “that is Queen Christina’s answer.”

The Elector picked up a few of the larger scraps of paper, and examined them attentively. “It seems to me, Leuchtmar,” he said, “that I recognize specimens of my own penmanship. Yes, yes, it is my writing!”

“Yes, indeed, your highness, it is your own writing. It is your letter to Queen Christina of Sweden.”

“She sends it back to me torn?”

“She tore it with her own exalted hands, trampled it under her royal feet, and literally wept for rage.”

“My heavens! what have I done to enrage her little Majesty so?”

“In the first place, noble sir, you wrote to the Queen in German instead of Latin, and she found that very wanting in respect, and thought you might have given yourself the trouble to write to her in the language most agreeable to her. In the second place, you addressed the young Queen as ‘Your highness,’ when she is entitled to be called ’Most serene highness.’ She is certain of that, for Oxenstiern had told her that he gained the title for her as an especial prerogative for her from your father and the house of Brandenburg. And in the third place, the Queen was annoyed that your writing was so cold and serious, and contained so few love words. ’If the Elector had nothing more to say to me than is contained in this letter,’ cried the Queen, ’he need not have troubled himself to send it privately. This is a political document, which might have been handed by his envoy to the assembled States, and read aloud in public. But, if I do run the risk of receiving and reading a letter secretly, contrary to the high chancellor’s wishes, let it at least be a love letter. I merely gave you audience because I was curious to get a love letter at last, and to know how such feelings are expressed. This is no love letter, though, and to such a note I have no other answer than this.’ And then the Queen tore the letter into little bits and scattered them on the floor. I gathered up the pieces, in which she aided me assiduously, lest Chancellor Oxenstiern, whom she momentarily expected, might notice something peculiar, and suspect that she had received a secret missive. I asked her most serene highness if I should bring your grace these torn bits of paper as her answer. She replied with a bewitching smile that I must do so. Her cousin Frederick William might thereby learn to write her a better letter, when she would give him a better answer. This, gracious sir, is the story of the letter you intrusted to me for Queen Christina of Sweden.”

The Elector laughed aloud. “A charming story!” he cried, “for which I must thank my young relative, for she has lighted my somber existence by a ray of sunshine. It pleases me that my cousin is so forward, and thereby candid. The little maid of fourteen sighs for a love letter, and hopes that her cousin Frederick William, who sues for her hand, will write her one, and is so innocent as to suppose that he woos her because he loves her. Poor child, disappointed in her curiosity and her wish to know herself beloved! Yes, yes, it is the perpetual longing of the young heart to be loved, and when the first love letter is received, the foolish young creature fancies itself the happiest being upon earth, and feels itself transported into the blessedness of paradise. Alas! they know not that all this is only an illusion, a sweet morning dream from which they will speedily be roused by rude, ungentle hands. Leuchtmar, I can not gratify the little Queen of Sweden in her wish; I can write her no love letter, for I would be guilty of deceiving this young heart. No, I can utter no tender protestations, while my heart is still bleeding from inflicted wounds. But a cordial, friendly letter I will write to my dear cousin. I will write to her in faultless Latin, and couch it in most reverential terms. Who knows, perhaps I may yet win her heart, and she heal mine! I will write the letter, and you shall secretly transmit it to Queen Christina. I will so express it that it shall not seem to her fitted to be read before the assembled States, even though it be no love letter. Go now, Leuchtmar, and rest after the fatigues of your journey. But to-morrow evening, when business is ended, come to me in my cabinet, and let us read a couple of Horace’s odes for my strength and encouragement, as we used to do when I was still a free young man and not the Elector, the slave of position.”

He offered the baron his hand, and affectionately conducted him to the door himself. Just at this moment that door was quickly opened, and a page appeared.

“Your Electoral Highness,” was his announcement, “the imperial envoy, Count Martinitz, craves an audience for himself, a special messenger from the Emperor, and his attendant.”

“Admit his Majesty’s envoys,” replied Frederick William, as he again crossed the room and seated himself in the armchair before his writing table.