bids me state to you that he has his own peculiarly strong reasons for esteeming a further sojourn in Holland neither safe, profitable, nor reputable.  I was to assure your highness that you were not to be recalled, in order to be forced into a repulsive marriage.  At the same time, the Elector desires that you return unembarrassed by engagements, and that you by no means entangle yourself by marriage without his knowledge and consent, for to such a union would the Elector not agree, nor ratify it."[18]

“Is that all you have to say to me?” asked the Prince, when Marwitz was silent.

“Prince, it is all I have to say to you in the Elector’s name, and I have herewith executed the commission intrusted to me.  But I have something still to add.  I have still to execute the commissions given me by your future land, by your future subjects.  I have to transmit to you the tears of the wretched, the sighs of the impoverished, the cries of the despairing, the agonized shriek of all the provinces, all the towns, all the villages, houses, and huts in the Mark.  Prince, from the depth of their affliction all hearts uplift themselves to you; in the midst of their despair, the oppressed, the downtrodden, the tormented all venture to hope in you, and in spirit they kneel before you and with outstretched hands entreat you, as I do now, ’Pity our distress, future Elector of Brandenburg, have compassion upon the lands and provinces which shall one day constitute your state.  Turn not a deaf ear to the prayers, the hopes of your future subjects.’”

Marwitz had sunk upon the floor, and stretched his clasped hands out to the Prince, who looked thoughtfully into his excited face.

“And what would my future subjects have, what do they desire of me?”

“That you forthwith, without delay, return to the Mark by the speediest way possible.”

“I?” cried the Electoral Prince, with a mocking smile.  “Your wishes and entreaties, and those of the Brandenburgers, coincide very exactly with my father’s orders!”

“Yes, they do coincide, but spring from different motives.  Prince, we implore, we entreat you to return; no longer give us over to the caprice, the villainy, the tyranny and avarice of Count von Schwarzenberg.  He is the evil demon of your father, of your country.  Come home and frighten him away!”

The Prince started, and for a moment a deep glow suffused his pale countenance.  His look penetrated deeper into the baron’s uplifted, beseeching eyes, as if through them he would read into the very depths of his heart.

“Stand up, Marwitz,” he said, after a long pause—­“stand up, for you are too old and too venerable to kneel before so young a man as myself.  Else, sit down near me, and explain your words more clearly.  What good can my return home do, and how think you that I can benefit the land?  And first and foremost, why do you call Count Schwarzenberg the evil demon of my father and his country?”