The three persons announced entered the Electoral cabinet. First came Count Martinitz with important air, dressed in the richly embroidered costume of a Spanish courtier, followed by an old man of venerable aspect and the bearing of a scholar, clad in a suit of black velvet, and by a young lord in a magnificent court dress. The Elector sprang up on beholding the latter, and a flush of indignation suffused his countenance.

“Count Martinitz,” he asked hastily, “whom do you bring to me?”

“Your highness,” replied. Martinitz, with firm, composed voice “your highness, I beg to be allowed to present these two lords to you. This is Dr. Gebhard, a very learned and wise man, the Emperor Ferdinand’s cabinet and privy counselor, sent by his Majesty to your highness, charged with a confidential and secret errand. Permit me now to present to your highness, this other gentleman.”

“I know him!” cried the Elector, with flashing eyes and angry mien. “I am only too well acquainted with Count Adolphus Schwarzenberg and all the plots and intrigues concocted by him in Berlin, and his efforts to lead my officers into insubordination and revolt. But when I ordered investigations to be made into these matters, and the count should have justified his actions, the boastful lord showed himself to be but a cowardly deserter!”

“Your highness!” exclaimed the count coming forward with long strides, and touching the hilt of the dress-sword hanging at his side “your highness, I have come to justify myself against the calumnies of my enemies. Will you be pleased to hear me patiently, and not impugn my honor as a gentleman and a count of the empire before you have listened to my justification?”

“You would justify yourself! Do you dare to attempt this?” asked the Elector indignantly. “Look, here on my table lies the paper which the States of the Mark have addressed to me, and in which they accuse you. The Emperor’s Majesty has sent me a scholar, who can certainly read it aright, if I perchance have made some mistake. Read, if you please, Dr. Gebhard, read these lines, and hear what the States write to me!”

He handed the imperial legate the document and pointed out with his finger the passage in point.

Dr. Gebhard read: “Count John Adolphus Schwarzenberg, however, eluded the investigation by flight in the night-time, and despite a guard set. In an unusual way and in utter contempt of your highness’s received orders, he secretly escaped."

“Now,” cried the Elector passionately, “would you maintain, that my States have reported to me what is not true?”

“It is true,” said Count Schwarzenberg. “I saw myself forced to escape unjust pursuit, and

“Forced by your bad conscience, sir,” interrupted the Elector impatiently. “You left it for others to draw out of the fire the chestnuts which you had thrown in, and when you found out that I was not the timid, powerless Prince you supposed me to be, who could be frightened at a contest with you and your faction and awed by your glory and dignity; when you saw that I would bring you to justice, you evaded the course of law and fled precipitately from the judges.”

“Because I knew that these judges were my enemies, and that he who was at their head, President von Goetze, had been my father’s implacable foe of old.”

“That is to say, he had been of old an honest, true Brandenburger, not merely having proved himself an incorruptible man, but never having condescended to bribe others for the sake of obtaining honor, position, or wealth for himself.”

“Your highness,” called out the count hastily, “would you defame my father even in his grave?”

“Have I pronounced your father’s name?” asked the Elector, with dignity.

“Is it not rather you who asperse your late father’s fame by referring to him what I said with regard to bribery?”

The count cast down his eyes and was silent. Frederick William now turned by a slow movement of the head to Count Martinitz.

“Sir Count,” he said gravely and ceremoniously, “I interrupted you in your presentation. Continue it, and introduce this gentleman to me. I must know in what capacity he dares return to my dominions and intrude upon my presence.”

“Your Electoral Highness, I have the honor of presenting to you the count of the empire, Adolphus John von Schwarzenberg, imperial privy counselor and chamberlain, also attache and associate of the Emperor’s ambassador extraordinary, furnished with a safe conduct signed by the Emperor himself.”

“I well knew,” cried the Elector, “that this gentleman had made sure of his own safety before venturing near me. That was the reason of my question. As imperial officer and chamberlain he is secure against my just wrath, and his Majesty’s safe conduct a glorious wall behind which to hide himself. Let him profit by it; I shall not see him behind the wall, but instead only a piece of white paper, on which his Imperial Majesty has inscribed his name, and accordingly I shall respect this piece of paper, which otherwise I would tear in twain.”

“Your highness!” cried Count Schwarzenberg “your highness, I

“Count von Martinitz,” interposed the Elector haughtily, “I empower you to say to the ambassador extraordinary of his Imperial Majesty, that I give him leave to deliver the Emperor’s message to me and to impart to me his Majesty’s desires.”

“Most respected lord and Elector,” said Dr. Gebhard with solemnity, “his Majesty the Emperor Ferdinand sends me to your highness in the assured hope that in your justice and exalted wisdom your grace will be superior to all personal enmities, and not visit upon the son faults, perhaps unintentional, committed against you by the father.”

“Of what father and son do you speak, sir?” asked the Elector.

“Of the father who for twenty years was the honored counselor and friend of Elector George William, who, faithful even beyond the tomb, forsook the earth no longer tenanted by his lord and Elector. Of the son who has committed no crime except that of being his father’s heir, and not allowing his patrimony to be diminished and torn from him. For this son, in the Emperor’s name, I would plead with your Electoral Highness for grace and favor, beseeching you not to deprive him of his rights, but to restore to him what belongs to him.”

“Tell me, Dr. Gebhard,” asked the Elector, “what those rights are of which I have deprived him, according to his Majesty’s opinion, and what things I have taken from him which belong to him?”

“Already in his father’s lifetime Count John Adolphus Schwarzenberg was elected his coadjutor in the Order of St. John, therefore on his father’s demise he had a right to the vacant dignity of grand master, and yet this has not been accorded him by your highness. As his father’s heir, Count John Adolphus received all his father’s property, and entered into possession of it. Yet this your highness did not allow him uncontested, and withheld what was his. Nay, your highness even instituted a criminal process against the young count, his father’s heir. This last proceeding is especially distasteful and annoying to his Majesty; the Emperor wishes above all things that your highness withdraw this criminal suit, referring it to the imperial court at Vienna, and that you again receive Count John into favor.”

Truly his Imperial Majesty asks and requires a great deal of me, cried Frederick William, with flashing eyes and cheeks flushed with anger. More than a prince dare give, who has to act not merely in subjection and dependence, but as Sovereign of his people. It seems to me as if no one had cause to interfere in this affair of Count Adolphus Schwarzenberg, for it concerns the interior interests of my realm. Within the limits of my own country I alone am lord and ruler, and only one lord there is, before whom I bow, and whom I recognize as my superior the law! Law is properly supreme within the Brandenburg provinces, and shall and must reign over high and low! But my favor, sir, my favor, can only flow spontaneously from within, and can not be arbitrarily bestowed even at an Emperor’s behest. I have not withdrawn my favor from Count Adolphus Schwarzenberg, for he never possessed it. Law and right alone must decide for or against him. Many of my subjects have brought accusations against him, and for these I am pledged to procure justice at the hands of the courts of justice. What was done in my lands must be also judged in my lands, else my subjects might be wounded in their sense of right; and to assign this suit to the imperial court at Vienna would be in the highest degree derogatory to the Electoral power and jurisdiction. I can not therefore gratify his Imperial Majesty in this wish. As concerns his right to the place of grand master, that appointment belongs not to me, but to the members of the order. They, however, will not elect the young count, and I can not compel them to do so. Lastly, as regards the estates claimed by the heir of the Stadtholder in the Mark, his title to them is wanting, and, moreover, there are no accounts to prove that the money for which the estates were mortgaged was ever used by the Stadtholder for my father’s benefit. Besides, even if such contracts existed, they were entered into without the consent of the States, and consequently by the laws of the land were null and void. This is the reply I have to make to the imperial envoy, of which I can alter and abate nothing, however I may deplore any apparent disrespect to his Imperial Majesty’s wishes. Return to Vienna, Dr. Gebhard, return with your associate and attache, and repeat to the Emperor what I have said to you. You are dismissed, gentlemen.”

“Your Electoral Highness will pardon me for venturing to add one more word,” said Count Martinitz, “but I am empowered to do so by the imperial order. The Emperor Ferdinand commissioned me in his own handwriting, in case that your highness refused to accede to the demands made by Dr. Gebhard

“Demands?” broke in the Elector. “I did not hear Dr. Gebhard make use of any such term. Mention was made only of imperial wishes and requests. You mean that in case I do not grant Dr. Gebhard’s requests Proceed, Count Martinitz.”

“I am in that case commissioned to desire your highness in the Emperor’s name to grant a private audience to the attache of the imperial embassy, the Emperor’s privy counselor and chamberlain, Count Adolphus von Schwarzenberg, as he wishes to make an important and confidential communication to your highness.”

Frederick William’s piercing eyes were fixed with a questioning expression upon the count’s face, whose eyes returned the look with a bold and steady gaze.

“You presume greatly upon the respect I owe the Emperor,” said the Elector after a pause. “I have wished to regard you hitherto merely as a piece of paper hallowed by the Emperor’s superscription. But now you voluntarily step forth from behind the protecting paper, and present yourself to me as a man, a self-dependent individual, who is responsible for his words and actions. Consider well what you risk, sir, and take my advice: retreat, while yet there is time! Ask me not to look upon you as you actually are, but be content, inasmuch as in you I respect the Emperor’s safe conduct. Reflect once again, and then speak!”

“Your Electoral Highness,” said the count after a pause, “the Emperor has condescended to request a secret audience for me of your grace. I entreat your highness to grant it to me.”

“You desire it? Be it so, then!” cried the Elector. “You, gentlemen, Count von Martinitz and Dr. Gebhard, are dismissed. Count Schwarzenberg may remain. For the Emperor’s sake I am ready to grant him the secret audience. Take your leave, gentlemen! Your audience is at an end!”

The two gentlemen bowed low and withdrew. The Elector followed them with his eyes until the door closed behind them. Then he slowly turned his head toward Count Schwarzenberg.

“Speak now,” he ordered coldly and severely. “Say what you have to say, but weigh well each word, and take heed of rousing my wrath, for I tell you the measure of my patience and forbearance is well-nigh exhausted! What would you have of me? What do you want?”

“Justice, your highness, justice! Enter into no contest with me! Take not away from me the estates given in pledge by the Elector George William to my father, which have not yet been redeemed. Acknowledge me as the Grand Master of the Knights of St. John, graciously nominate me Stadtholder in the Mark, and I swear to you that I shall be your faithful and devoted servant, your mediator with Emperor and empire! You see, your highness, I ask for nothing but justice!”

“Justice!” repeated Frederick William, while with flashing eyes he approached one step nearer the count. “Beware of reminding me that I have not exercised justice toward you! Ask it not, for then I must needs summon a guard and have you arrested! Then must I call a court-martial, have you tried, and see you mount the scaffold!”

“The scaffold!” exclaimed the count, turning pale. “But then the Emperor would call you to account for this deed of violence, and

“Deed of violence, you call it?” interposed the Elector. “You are mistaken, sir; it would only be a merited punishment! You deserve this punishment, not on account of anything done by your father, although in sooth you bore a full share in his deeds, but on account of your own crime.”

“Crime, your highness?”

“Yes, count, crime! You are a conspirator, a rebel! You incited my officers to revolt, entangled them in a conspiracy, and when I would have brought you to judgment you fled like a cowardly woman.”

“Your highness!” screamed the count, “I beseech you, weigh your words, provoke me not too much! Otherwise I might forget the respect due you.”

“And if you should venture, I have ample means of leading you back to the proper bounds, of forcing you to respect me, to fall down in the dust, and plead for pardon! Do you know what you are? Do you know what you were?”

“What I was I know,” cried the count. “I was the favored lover of your sister, Princess Charlotte Louise!”

“Ah! Now at last you drop your mask, now you show your real face. The face of a slanderer, a liar! For you utter a falsehood. You calumniate the virtue of a noble lady, and boast of a favor you never received.”

“I speak the truth, your highness, and am in a condition to prove it. Princess Charlotte Louise gave me her favor, and went further than was seemly for a modest maiden. She volunteered to grant me a rendezvous impelled by ardent love.”

“That is not true.”

“It is true, sir, and I can prove it! I have the writing with me, in which your sister invites me to a rendezvous in the castle at Berlin. She wrote it with her own hand, and signed it with her name. Until now, no one has known the secret, and no one shall know it if we can agree.”

“We agree?”

“Yes, your highness, we! Your sister’s letter is well worth what I ask. I demand nothing but my rights. Leave me my estates, acknowledge me as grand master, appoint me my father’s successor, give me the hand of Princess Charlotte Louise.”

“My sister’s hand to you?”

“To me, for I have a right to that hand. The Princess engaged herself to me, and granted me favors.”

“Wretched man, to boast of them!” interrupted the Elector.

“She appointed a meeting with me to take place by night,” continued the count quietly. “Your honor would be destroyed if any one knew of this. Let me keep it intact! Give me your sister’s hand! For I tell you if you do not the world shall hear of this faux pas on the part of the Princess. I shall publicly expose the letter she wrote to me, and a laugh of scorn will pursue both you and her through the whole of Germany! Give me your sister’s hand!”

“Were you the Emperor himself I would not give her to you. And if you were in a position to defame my whole house, I would not give her to you! And were my sister to fall at my feet weeping at my refusal, I would not give her to you! Yes, and if I knew that my lands and wealth would be doubled by this marriage, I would never give my sister to you! I asked you just now if you knew what you were and what you are. To the first question you replied that you were my sister’s lover. Now I will tell you what you are: you are the son of a poisoner and a murderer!”

“Sir!” screamed the count, bounding forward in fury and with a sudden movement drawing his dagger from its sheath “sir, you assail my father in his grave, I will defend him! You owe me satisfaction for this insult! It is not the Elector who stands before me, but a man who has wounded my honor, and I demand satisfaction. You dare not refuse it, or

“Or you will complete your father’s work, will you? Will hire murderers to do what you dare not attempt yourself? Oh, you may very probably find a second Gabriel Nietzel, whom you may goad on to crime, profiting by his agony and distress of mind to change a thoughtless deceiver into a poisoner! Do not stare at me in such amazement, as if you understood not my words! You know Gabriel Nietzel well, and your dagger would not have fallen from your hand if your conscience had not struck it down!”

“I know nothing of Gabriel Nietzel!” cried the count, “I only know that you have called my father a murderer and

“And, I did wrong in this, for certainly the murderous deed miscarried! I live! And he was forced to die. Do you know of what your father died?”

“Of grief, and the humiliations which you prepared for him!”

“No, he died of remorse. A stroke, they say, put an end to his life. Yes, it was conscience that smote him to the earth. Gabriel Nietzel stood before him and reminded him of his deeds, demanding of him his wife, whom your father murdered because she saved my life!”

“Horrible!” muttered the count, with sunken head and downcast eyes.

“Yes, horrible!” repeated the Elector. “Gabriel Nietzel was the avenging sword sent from on high for your father’s punishment. He, the unhappy one, himself confessed his crime to me, and I have forgiven him. I will forgive your father also, for he stands before a higher tribunal, and He who tries the heart, will reward him according to his deeds. But I am your judge, and your deeds accuse you before me! I could have you arrested and tried, and, believe me, I would do so, despite the imperial safe conduct, behind which you have ensconced yourself, but I honor in you the memory of my father, who loved yours, and would not have the world discover how shamefully the magnanimous heart of George William was deceived. Regarding the property you claim from me, let the law decide; regarding the military title you aspire to, let the knights of the order decide; but regarding the accusation which you bring against my sister, and the offer you make me on her account, the Princess alone is the proper person to consult. You shall speak with her this very hour, for I would not have your vain heart puffed up with the idea that the Princess loves you, and that it is only my tyranny which separates you from her. No, you shall speak with the Princess herself, and she shall decide the question between you. And that you may not suppose that I have influenced my sister, you shall speak to her before I communicate with her myself.”

He took the handbell and rang; a page appeared. “Request her Electoral Grace the Princess Charlotte Louise to have the kindness to come to me.”

“Your Electoral Grace,” said the page, “Colonel von Burgsdorf has just come into the antechamber, and urgently insists upon my announcing him to your grace.”

“Admit him and call the Princess. When the gracious young lady has entered the antechamber, let me know. Admit the colonel.”

“Here I am, your highness, here I am!” cried Conrad von Burgsdorf, coming in with hasty steps. “I am just from Berlin, and bring my dearest lord good news, and But what is that?” interrupted he, fixing his lively gray eyes upon Count Schwarzenberg, who, pale and visibly disconcerted, had withdrawn into one of the window niches.

For one moment Burgsdorf stood still, as if bewildered by the unexpected sight, then he sprang forward like a tiger, and laid his hands like iron claws upon the count’s shoulders.

“In the name of the Elector and the law, I arrest you Count Schwarzenberg!” he shrieked.

“Let him go, Burgsdorf,” commanded Frederick William.

“No, gracious sir,” cried Burgsdorf, “I can not, must not let him go. I must hold fast to my prisoner until I have put him in a safe prison. If I take my hands off him, he will surely find some mousehole to creep through. I know the fine gentleman, and have had experience of his mouselike nature. I thought I had him safe at Berlin, imprisoned in his own palace, and sentinels stationed everywhere. A man could not have escaped, but a mouse can find a hole to retire to almost anywhere. Master Mousy here slipped off through an underground passage. Fortunately I had stationed a couple of spies in front of the park, and one of them came to inform me that they had seen two suspicious personages issue from the park, while the other dogged their footsteps. I flew to horse, and, thinking that the young count would make for Spandow, raced with my men to the Spandow Gate. Exactly, they had just fled on before. We gave them chase. Huzza! that was a hunt! Already I thought I had the fugitives within my reach, and stretched out my hand to grasp them, when they galloped into the fortress, the gate was shut, and I stood baffled on the outside, and had my mortification increased by hearing Colonel Rochow’s mocks and jeers from the wall above. And now when I can take my revenge, when I at last have my prisoner trapped and caught, now, your highness commands me to let him go. No, your highness, it is impossible; for trust me, as soon as I let him go he will find his way to some mousehole. I arrest you in the name of the Elector and the law, Count John Adolphus von Schwarzenberg!”

“Burgsdorf!” cried the Elector in a commanding tone, “once more, I command you to let him go, and come here. Obey without delay!”

The colonel muttered between his teeth a few wild words of wrath, but released the count, and with bowed head and chagrined air slunk toward the Elector.

“You treat me like a well-trained pointer, your highness!” he growled. “You whistle for me, and I drop the prey which you would not have me keep.”

“You do yourself too much honor, old Burgsdorf,” said the Elector, smiling. “A well-trained pointer does not follow a false scent, and that was what you were doing just now. Did you expect to find a fugitive in your master’s cabinet? You thought that this was Count John Adolphus Schwarzenberg, whom I was compelled to arraign as a criminal, and who, in his consciousness of guilt, took refuge from trial in flight. Look closely at what is in the window niche and acknowledge that you were mistaken, and that it is not Count Adolphus Schwarzenberg.”

Colonel Burgsdorf, perfectly bewildered, gazed with wide-open eyes first on the Elector and then on the count, who returned his stare with a scornful smile.

“Most gracious sir,” he then cried, “my head is not clear enough to discern your meaning, and I stick to it: that is Count Adolphus Schwarzenberg, my escaped prisoner.”

“And I repeat it, you are mistaken, your old eyes deceive you! Look once more right sharply and closely, and you will perceive your error and comprehend that this is not Count Adolphus Schwarzenberg, to whom I could never have granted an audience in my cabinet. Only look closer and you will see, old Burgsdorf, that there is nought in the window niche but a great sheet of parchment, inscribed with manifold characters, furnished with the seal of the empire, and signed by the Emperor Ferdinand’s own hand. I know that you do not read with ease, and therefore will tell you what is marked on this parchment, and what it means. It means a safe conduct, and the Emperor himself has written upon it that this parchment must be held in honor and sacred from all attack.”

“Ah!” cried the colonel “ah! I begin to understand now.”

“Well truly that is a fortunate circumstance,” said the Elector, smiling.

“Yes, your highness,” repeated Burgsdorf, “I begin to understand. Let me examine the thing narrowly once again.”

He covered his eyes with his hand, as if he were blinded by a ray of light, and again stared at the window niche.

“Yes, indeed,” he said slowly “yes, I see it quite plainly and distinctly now. Yes, that is no man, but a veritable piece of parchment, and I recognize, too, the imperial seal and the Emperor’s handwriting. Where were my eyes that I did not see it from the first, and what a stupid fool I was to suppose that I saw a man there! What misfortune would have ensued if I had defaced the Emperor’s handwriting or broken the seal, perhaps!”

“It would have been a wrong done to Imperial Majesty itself,” smiled the Elector, “and might have brought me under the ban of the empire, or perhaps produced a war.”

“Good heavens! a war about an ass’s hide,” exclaimed Burgsdorf, with an expression of horror.

“Surely, your highness,” shrieked the count, stepping forth from his place of retirement, pale and trembling with passion, “you can not ask me any longer to submit in silence to such gross insults.”

“Gracious sir,” asked Burgsdorf, “may the ass’s hide speak? May a piece of parchment, merely because hallowed by the Emperor’s signature, venture to leave its place and threaten?”

“Hush, Burgsdorf! And you, sir, step back into your recess, stay in the place pointed out to you, and wait.”

“Learn to wait!” cried Burgsdorf. “Oh, gracious sir, that is the very window niche in which I was once forced to stand in order to learn to wait. I thank you, gracious sir, for in this hour you give me my revenge. Now it is for my enemy to learn; and I beseech Your Grace to give me leave to open my budget from Berlin. The parchment must hear it and learn. Oh, I know how it feels to have to listen in silence to have to learn to wait!”

“Colonel Conrad von Burgsdorf,” said the Elector with majesty, “you are here to bring me tidings from Berlin. Speak out and be assured that no one will venture to interrupt you. In the first place, have you executed my orders?”

“Yes, gracious sir, according to the best of my abilities and the means at my disposal.”

“As their superior officer, have you required an oath of allegiance to me from the commandants and garrisons of the forts?”

“I sent your orders everywhere, requiring the commandants to swear their men into service in your name, and to come to Berlin that I might administer the same oath to themselves.”

“And have they done so? Have my officers and troops sworn to serve me faithfully?”

“A few commandants have done so, but Kracht, Rochow, and Goldacker have refused, declaring that they would rather blow their fortresses up than swear fealty to the Elector. Hereupon I forthwith had the commandant of Berlin, Colonel von Kracht, arrested, and would have proceeded in like manner against the Commandants von Rochow and von Goldacker, but the traitors got wind of my intentions. Goldacker left Brandenburg with thirty horse, and, report says, went over to the Imperialists. Colonel von Rochow, however, in his fortress assumed a warlike attitude, and gave out that he was ready to do battle with the enemy to the death. Meanwhile Margrave Ernest conferred with him under a flag of truce, and the committee of investigation at Berlin diligently prosecuted their labors, and brought to light heinous offenses committed by the two colonels and Count John Adolphus von Schwarzenberg.”

“Do you know the particulars? The colonels were accused of cheating and embezzlement, were they not?”

“Yes,” said Burgsdorf with a little embarrassment, “the question regards the payment of the troops enlisted, for which the colonels received money, and and

“And yet the men were not enlisted,” said the Elector, with an imperceptible smile. “Had they done nothing more than this, I would have pardoned them; if they had shown themselves in other respects true and faithful, and repented of their folly.”

“But this they have by no means done!” cried Burgsdorf eagerly. “They have rather shown themselves to be obstinate and untoward. Goldacker has been extorting bonds in Fuerstenwald, plundering whole villages, and putting the magistrates in chains, because they would not say that Goldacker gave the press money to the young fellows of the village, although these had not made their appearance. Colonel von Rochow put the clerk of his muster roll in irons, and had him condemned to the gallows by a court-martial, because the poor fellow would not bear false witness and swear that the colonel had made payments to him. When the Stadtholder demanded the clerk’s release, Colonel von Rochow insolently refused to give him up, and now the margrave ordered me to arrest him. But von Rochow did as his accomplices he fled and made his escape to the Imperialists.”

“Let the Imperialists keep Goldacker and Rochow,” said the Elector. “I would have them know that I from this time forth cheerfully resign their services, and yield them up with good grace to the Emperor and empire. With these two, therefore, we have done. Tell me now, how the Schwarzenberg affair stands. We gave orders that in due time the papers found in the palace of the deceased count should be sealed and handed over to the committee of investigation. Was this done, and has it perhaps been made evident from the examination of the papers, that the son of the Stadtholder was innocent of complicity in the intrigues of his father and friends, and been falsely accused by us?”

“On the contrary, your highness, it was proved that Count John Adolphus had conspired, not merely with the rebellious officers, but with other persons not subjects of your highness. Among the papers of the old count was found the young gentleman’s secret correspondence. It was in cipher, it is true, but there are very learned men on the committee of investigation, and they discovered the key, and were able to read the letters. Oh, most gracious sir, all your faithful servants were shamefully slandered and calumniated in these letters. Your highness even was not spared, and the young gentleman expressly wrote that he would do all he possibly could to effect the downfall of the Elector Frederick William. Of the States, he said that they were almost all friends of the Swedes and foes of the Emperor, and, above all, he represented me, Conrad von Burgsdorf, as a bitter enemy to the Emperor, and said that on that account all orders came to me. But the States will complain to the Emperor that the rebellious slanderer, Count Schwarzenberg, has blackened them so abominably and accused them of high treason.”

“They can do so,” said the Elector “they can call the slanderer to account, and you can do so too, Burgsdorf, if it seems necessary to you.”

“But it does not seem at all necessary to me, your highness,” cried the colonel. “I have only one master, yourself, and if I had injured your grace I should have been guilty of high treason. Henceforth I shall be nothing but the most devoted and diligent servant of my dear young lord and Elector, and I care very little about Schwarzenberg’s having aspersed me to the Emperor if I am only blessed with your favor.”

“I have recognized you as a true and faithful servant,” said the Elector kindly, “and I am no ingrate. You shall experience this hereafter, for I shall find means to reward my old friend as he deserves!”

“Your highness, you have rewarded me already,” cried Burgsdorf “you have called me your friend, my Elector, and I thank you out of a full heart.”

The Elector nodded. “In time all the world shall learn that I honor and esteem you as my friend,” he said. “But now tell me, what progress has been made in quieting the refractory soldiery in the Mark? Have you begun that difficult task?”

“We have begun, your highness, and will also end, although at first there was much insubordination and mutiny, and although the cart had been driven so deep into the mire that we could not have drawn it out altogether without great difficulty, even if there had been more of us.”

The door of the antechamber opened, and the page made his appearance.

“In accordance with your highness’s request, the Princess has entered the antechamber.”

“Beg the young lady to wait a moment. I will come directly to conduct her grace into my cabinet.”

“Burgsdorf,” said the Elector, turning to the colonel, “go up now, and pay your respects to my mother. You can tell her what is going on at Berlin. Her grace will hear you gladly, for she takes great interest in the cities of Berlin and Cologne.”

“Very curious stories I can tell the Electress, since your highness accords me that permission!” cried the colonel. “Many thrilling affairs have happened, and

“Go now, my friend,” said the Elector, pointing to the door through which Burgsdorf had entered. Then he crossed over to the opposite end of the apartment himself and opened the door of the inner room.