“Live, my Adam, live merrily, then, and joyously, for you well know that I love you,” replied George William, nodding to the count in most friendly manner.  “And how could it be otherwise, when I know that I can depend upon your love, and that you are the only one truly interested in my not being called away yet awhile, and in having me tarry a little longer upon earth.  Come, my friend, sit down.  Draw up your armchair close to my side—­no, opposite to me, that I may look at you.  I love dearly to behold your handsome, noble face, and then console myself with the thought that, after all, the Elector of Brandenburg can not be such a pitiful little Prince, since such a proud, distinguished lord as Count Schwarzenberg is his minister.”

“Say his servant, his slave, his humble subject, most gracious sir!  Yes, look at me, my much-loved master, and read in my countenance that I am devoted to you with my whole heart and soul.  Ah! who knows how much longer you will read that in my face, and how soon it may come to pass that poor Adam Schwarzenberg will be thrust aside and no longer find a place in your heart!  Oh, dearest sir, when I think of that, I feel perfectly wretched and inconsolable, and I would rather hide my head and weep and mourn, than go smilingly to meet the joyful countenance of him who will come to supplant me in your affections!”

“Nobody shall do that, Adam, and I know not, indeed, who could be bold enough even to attempt it.”

“Most gracious sir, the Electoral Prince will attempt it!  He who, when a mere little child, was my opponent.  He, who has been brought up by his mother and other relatives to mistrust me.  He will grudge me the smallest place in his father’s heart, and will do everything to contest it with me!”

“But he will not succeed, be assured of that, my Adam, he will not succeed in it.  I only know too well that in you I have a faithful, devoted servant, in the Electoral Prince a rebellious and refractory son; that with you all is bound up in my life; with him all in my death!”

“Oh, no, your highness, no, it is impossible that the Electoral Prince could be so heartless and degenerate as to wish for his father’s death.  No, I must take the part of the Electoral Prince against you.  You accuse him falsely, most gracious sir; he surely loves you, and it is only his ambition and youthful arrogance that sometimes lead him to do what is not right, and what surely he would not do if he only reflected better.  Out of youthful presumption he undertook, despite your commands to the contrary, to remain longer at The Hague, and even to send back the Chamberlain von Schlieben, whom you had dispatched to him with strict orders to bring him home.  And only his stormy, boundless ambition is at fault now in inducing him to appear here in rather an unbecoming manner.  But you must not be angry with him for it, dear sir, and on that very account have I come to you to-day, to beg and implore you most earnestly not to admit any feelings of resentment into your mind this day, which is to restore to you the Electoral Prince.”