GRUMBKOW.

Baronet Hotham is about to ask Your Majesty in person for his dismissal.

KING (paying no attention).

The incident is closed.  My ministers can attend to it now.  I prefer the customary procedure. [He sits down.]

GRUMBKOW (in the centre).

You see, Baronet Hotham—­

HOTHAM (to GRUMBKOW).

General, will you say to His Majesty that I deeply regret having failed in my mission?  Tell him—­

GRUMBKOW.

His Majesty is present.

HOTHAM.

Tell him that a country’s industries need centuries of preparation to be able to sell at the low prices quoted by English merchants.  Tell him—­

GRUMBKOW.

Will you not address His Majesty in person?

HOTHAM.

I prefer the customary procedure.

KING (sitting, absorbed in his note-book).

Very good.  And now, Grumbkow, tell him, for the account of the Prince of Wales—­that I’m planning to build a couple of new gates in Berlin, but for the present he’ll have to put up with the old ones through which to leave the city.

GRUMBKOW.  Very good.

HOTHAM.

And kindly add, General von Grumbkow, that as one may suppose the
Princess Wilhelmine to cherish the same feeling for her cousin, the
Prince of Wales, as—­

KING.

Pay no attention to that, Grumbkow.  But announce to the gentleman that my children are accustomed to obey my wishes, and that the affair with Vienna is as good as settled.  Understand?

GRUMBKOW.

Very well, Your Majesty.

HOTHAM.

And you might add, General von Grumbkow, that I have a favor to beg of
His Majesty before departing.

KING.

Grumbkow, you might casually inquire what sort of a favor it is he wants.

HOTHAM.

General—­

GRUMBKOW.

Baronet Hotham.

HOTHAM.

If His Majesty should seem inclined, out of the nobility of his heart, to make amends for the cruel manner in which he has just dismissed an ardent admirer of his military greatness, then tell him that I know of a finely-built, strong young man, a close friend of mine, of good family, who would deem it an honor to serve up from the ranks under His Majesty’s glorious flag.

KING.

Grumbkow, you may tell Baronet Hotham that his personality and manner have pleased me greatly, and that I most heartily wish all Englishmen were of his sort.  In the matter of the young man, you may ask him if the recruit will furnish his own equipment.

HOTHAM.

Kindly state, General, that the young man will take service in His Majesty’s army, fully equipped according to regulations, his hair and his heart in the right place, and that he furthermore brings with him a neat little inheritance of his own.