“I was silent because I was reflecting, gentlemen,” said the count, drawing a deep breath.  “This appearance of the commissioner empowered to administer to you your oaths of office is a challenge, thrown down to me by the Elector, for I am Director of the War Department, and to me alone should that duty have been committed of again binding the troops in the Mark to him by oath.  He insults me, and thereby insults the Emperor, for you all know that the Emperor is your commander in chief, and that you dare never break the oath to the Emperor, which I took from you after the conclusion of the peace of Prague.  You swore to do your duty for Emperor and Elector, and for this reason, on the recent accession of the present Elector, I only required the colonels to give me their hands in token of their obligations already assumed, for an oath is an oath, and you can not swear to serve one to-day and another to-morrow.”

“We can not and will not, either,” shouted Colonel Goldacker furiously.  “I have given my word to the Emperor.  I remain true to the Emperor, and the Emperor will protect us against the insolence of the little Elector.”

“Yes, the Emperor will protect us,” cried Colonel von Rochow.  “I shall take no new oath, for I have sworn to the Emperor, and not until the Emperor has released me from the oath, and I have made a new agreement with the Elector, can I swear to him.  Until that time the oath which I have taken to the Emperor remains binding.” [45]

“I, too, have sworn to serve the Emperor, and shall abide by my oath,” said the commandant of Berlin, as if weighing each word.  “No one has a right to command here but the Emperor and the Stadtholder in the Mark, whom the Elector himself appointed.  What that vagabond of a commissioner says is nothing to the purpose—­it signifies nothing to us.”

“No, it signifies nothing to us,” repeated the other gentlemen.  “From you alone, Sir Stadtholder, can we receive orders, for you are Director of the Council of War, the representative of the Emperor and Elector.  To you alone we belong.  Give us your orders; we are here to receive them!”

“Gentlemen,” said the Stadtholder, pointing with his finger to a sealed packet, lying on the writing table before him—­“gentlemen, you interrupted me by your entrance in the perusal of important dispatches, which had just arrived for me from the Elector’s cabinet.  See, there lies an unopened writing with the Electoral seal.  Allow me to read it, for it contains the Elector’s commands, which may harmonize with those of his accredited commissioner, or at least enter into particulars with regard to them.”