[He bends over him.]

  Arthur!  Hi!  Devil’s own!  What are you up to? 
  What are you doing here at dead of night?

THE PRINCE.  Ah, dear, old fellow!

HOHENZOLLERN.  Well, I’m hanged!  See here! 
  The cavalry’s a full hour down the road
  And you, their colonel, you lie here and sleep.

THE PRINCE.  What cavalry?

HOHENZOLLERN.  The Mamelukes, of course! 
  Sure as I live and breathe, the man’s forgot
  That he commands the riders of the Mark!

THE PRINCE (rising). 
  My helmet, quick then!  My cuirass!

HOHENZOLLERN.  Where are they?

THE PRINCE.  Off to the right there, Harry.—­On the stool.

HOHENZOLL.  Where?  On the stool?

THE PRINCE.  I laid them there, I thought—­

HOHENZOLLERN (regarding him). 
  Then go and get them from the stool yourself.

THE PRINCE.  What’s this glove doing here

[He stares at the glove in his hand.]

HOHENZOLLERN.  How should I know?
  [Aside.] Curses!  He must have torn that
  unobserved from the lady niece’s arm. [Abruptly.] Quick
  now, be off! 
  What are you waiting for?

THE PRINCE (casting the glove away again). 
  I’m coming, coming. 
  Hi, Frank!  The knave I told to wake me must
  have—­

HOHENZOLLERN (regarding him). 
  It’s raving mad he is!

THE PRINCE.  Upon my oath, Harry, my dear, I don’t know where I am.

HOHENZOLL.  In Fehrbellin, you muddle-headed dreamer—­
  You’re in a by-path of the Castle gardens.

THE PRINCE (to himself). 
  Engulf me, Night!  Unwittingly once more
  In slumber through the moonshine have I
  strayed! [He pulls himself together.]
  Forgive me!  Now I know!  Last night, recall,
  The heat was such one scarce could lie in bed. 
  I crept exhausted hither to this garden,
  And because Night with so sweet tenderness
  Encompassed me, fair-haired and odorous Night—­
  Even as the Persian bride wraps close her lover,
  Lo, here I laid my head upon her lap. 
  What is the clock now?

HOHENZOLLERN.  Half an hour of midnight.

THE PRINCE.  And you aver the troops are on the march?

HOHENZOLL.  Upon my word, sharp, stroke of ten, as planned. 
  The Princess Orange regiment in van,
  By this undoubtedly has reached the heights
  Of Hackelwitz, there in the face of Wrangel
  To cloak the army’s hid approach at dawn.

THE PRINCE.  Well, no harm’s done.  Old Kottwitz captains her
  And he knows every purpose of this march. 
  I should have been compelled, at all events
  By two, to come back hither for the council: 
  Those were the orders.  So it’s just as well
  I stayed in the beginning.  Let’s be off. 
  The Elector has no inkling?

HOHENZOLLERN.  Bah!  How should he? 
  He’s tight abed and snoozing long ago.