“You are learning and waiting,” cried Burgsdorf, beside himself, “and meanwhile your land is going wholly to ruin; the people are hungry and in despair; the noblemen are reduced to beggary or have, in their desperation, gone over to Schwarzenberg—­that is to say, to the Emperor—­who pays a rich annuity to each one who adheres faithfully to him.  And when your grace has waited and learned enough, then will come the day when Count Schwarzenberg will hunt you from your heritage, even as he has hunted the Margrave of Jaegerndorf; then will the Emperor give the Mark Brandenburg away, as he has done with Jaegerndorf, and his favorite, Schwarzenberg, is here ready to receive the welcome donation.  He has already ruled the Mark Brandenburg twenty years in the Emperor’s name, why should he not rule the Mark as its independent Sovereign?  Oh, gracious sir, it makes me raving mad just to think of it, and I can not believe that you are in earnest, that you actually thrust from you myself and those loyal to you, and will not enter into our plans.  My dear Prince, I have known you all your life.  I have carried you in my arms as a little boy; I have borne you under my cloak when you went with your mother to Kuestrin; I have staked upon you all the hopes of my life; and it would be a bitter grief to me to be obliged to think that you will have nothing to do with me and all your friends.”

“And think you, man,” asked the Electoral Prince, “that it would be no grief to my father if I should step forward as his adversary?  Think you that it would make for him a good name in history should the son present himself as his father’s enemy?  No, Burgsdorf; I repeat it to you, I am learning and waiting.”

“And I?  I have waited twenty years, to learn in this hour that all my waiting has been in vain.  The Mark is lost, and you, Electoral Prince, with it.  I shall tell your mother, I shall tell your friends, that you are lost to us.  Farewell, sir, and, if you will, go to Count Schwarzenberg and tell him that I am a traitor and conspirator.  I shall go back to Kuestrin, and if I were not ashamed, I could weep over myself and you.  No, I am not ashamed; look, sir, at least you have constrained me.”

And the tears gushed from his eyes and fell down upon his grizzly, gray beard.  He clapped his hands before his face and sobbed aloud.  The Electoral Prince turned pale.  He fixed a glance full of confidence and love upon the colonel, and had already opened his lips for an answer, which he would probably have afterward repented, when Burgsdorf suddenly drew his hands from before his face and angrily shook his head.

“I am a fool!” he said furiously, “and it would serve me right, old baby that I am, if you should laugh at me.  Farewell!”

He made a formal military salute, turned abruptly and crossed the apartment to the door.  Now, when his hand was already upon the latch, the Electoral Prince made a few steps forward.  Colonel Burgsdorf turned about.