“No doubt,” said Burgsdorf to himself, “he has had me summoned in order to give me my discharge; he has not yet forgotten how desperate I was in the year ’38.  It is over with you, Conrad, and you can go home, because, like the old ass that you are, in sooth, you uttered aloud the pent-up agony of your soul!”

But while he was talking thus to himself with deep resentment, his countenance expressed nothing but devotion and anxiety; in humble, soldierly attitude he stood in the door.  The Elector had his eyes fixed upon some papers lying on the table before him, and seemed absorbed in their perusal.  Leuchtmar at last ventured to accost him.

“Gracious sir,” he said softly, “Colonel von Burgsdorf, whom you called, has come in and is waiting for your orders.”

“He is waiting!” cried the Elector.  “Then I shall certainly have to ask his pardon in the end, for well I know that Colonel Burgsdorf does not understand waiting.”

“Without doubt,” repeated Burgsdorf to himself, “he has summoned me merely to give me my discharge.”

“Colonel von Burgsdorf!” now cried the Elector, turning half toward him with grave, severe countenance, “just tell me how strong was the regiment which you enlisted for the Electoral army last year?”

“Most gracious sir, I enlisted two thousand four hundred men.”

“That is to say,” cried the Elector sternly, “you obtained the bounty money for recruiting two thousand four hundred men; but I would be glad to learn of you how many of those men actually existed.”

“Your highness,” stammered Burgsdorf in confusion, “I do not understand what your grace means.  If I obtained bounty money for two thousand four hundred men, they certainly existed.”

“So one would suppose, indeed,” replied the Elector; “yet it can not have been, for before me lies a letter from Count Schwarzenberg to my father, and only hear what the Stadtholder in the Mark writes.  Leuchtmar, come here please and read.”

Leuchtmar hastened forward, and, taking the paper which the Elector held out to him, read:  “’It is to be lamented that the officers contrive to pocket so much press money and hardly produce one out of every six men said to have been enlisted.  Colonel von Kehrdorf received pay and rations for twelve hundred men, and yet had not over eighty; General von Klitzing’s regiment ought to be two thousand strong, and in reality numbers only six hundred; Colonel Conrad von Burgsdorf gives out that he has two thousand four hundred recruits, and there are not quite six hundred of them.’”

“That is a lie—­a base lie!” cried Burgsdorf, whose face was purple with passion.  “The Stadtholder in the Mark has always been my enemy and opponent, and if he maintains that I only enlisted six hundred men—­”

“He maintains something quite untrue,” interrupted the Elector; “but he maintains no such thing.  You interrupted Leuchtmar; let him read to the end, and hear the conclusion.”  Leuchtmar read on:  “’And if you pick perhaps two hundred able-bodied men out of the six hundred, there remain four hundred feeble, sickly fellows, who would fall down like dead flies on the very first march.’"[35]