“Well! you really suppose that I could be envious and jealous?” cried the count, laughing.  “No, most worthy colonel, with my whole heart I yield you the palm for being the first and most rapid drinker at the electoral court, and for emptying a quart cup of wine at one draught.”

“And it is no trifling art, you must know, Sir Count,” said Burgsdorf, with an important air.  “Think not that it is a mere pleasure—­no, it is a task too, and at times a difficult one.”

“We did not observe it as such yesterday, Colonel von Burgsdorf,” retorted the count.  “You proved yourself yesterday a truly intrepid hero in drinking at the electoral table.  For it is in fact an heroic deed to quaff eighteen quarts of wine in one hour, as you did yesterday.”

“Well,” said Burgsdorf, flattered, “we had a drinking-match, and the Elector had offered a fine prize to the best drinker.  I had long desired to obtain possession of the pretty and flourishing little village Danzien, and, behold! this was the very prize the Elector had offered; so I was obliged to do what I could, and have to thank God that I came off victor.  I drank all the other gentlemen under the table, and was alone left standing, with my eighteen quarts of wine aboard.” [10]

“Now,” said the Stadtholder, smiling, “I think you did not leave me under the table, for I kept erect in spite of you, Colonel Burgsdorf.  I hope also to keep my position yet longer, and never to be thrust under the table by you.”

He looked full in the colonel’s bloated and wine-flushed face with a cold, proud glance, and smiled when he saw how Burgsdorf’s brow darkened and his eyes flashed with fierce hatred.

“You will remain standing, Sir Stadtholder, so long as God and the Elector please,” said Burgsdorf slowly.  “Many an one falls, and under the table, too, although he may not be drunk with wine, but with pride and ambition, avarice and rapacity.”

“Enough, Burgsdorf, enough,” replied the count haughtily.  “I did not summon you here to hold with you a controversy about words, for well do I know that you are as mighty in words as in drinking.  I have had you summoned that you might receive your orders, and do and perform whatever the Stadtholder in the Mark commands and enjoins upon you, in the names of the Emperor’s Majesty and his Electoral Grace.  General von Klitzing, I have nominated you commander in chief of all the fortifications, as you, Colonels von Kracht, von Rochow, and von Burgsdorf, commandants of Berlin, Spandow, and Kuestrin.  You may perceive from this that a new era has dawned, and that we have great things to expect from the future.  Gentlemen, the time for waiting and delay is past.  The Elector has concluded a treaty with the Emperor, by which the Emperor declares that the dukedom of Pomerania is the natural heritage of the Elector of Brandenburg, and invests him with it.  It is true that at present the Swedes occupy Pomerania, and will not evacuate.  But to that very end we must labor, to force the presumptuous Swedes to do this; and thereto the Elector has pledged himself to raise an army of five-and-twenty thousand men.  To superintend these levies is the affair of the colonels and staff officers, therefore also your affair.”