“From his vain expedition, do you say?  The Electoral Prince remains at The Hague, then, despite the strict commands, the pressing messages of his father?  You see by that what fruit his stay at The Hague has already produced, and that the poison which he has imbibed there is even now at work.  The Electoral Prince seems to be thoughtful and studious.  And so much the more dangerous is it to leave him any longer at The Hague, where all are ill disposed toward the Spaniards, where is to be found the real hearthstone of the great European opposition to the house of Hapsburg, where the Prince of Orange is his instructor in the art of war, and can educate him to be a skillful and dangerous warrior and an enemy of the Emperor.”

“All that is very true!” said Schwarzenberg gloomily.  “But for all that he is less to be dreaded there than here, where he would cross all our plans and bring to nothing all our schemes.  The Electoral Prince is a dangerous opponent, believe me.  There is something bewitching in his character, and he would be in a position either to carry the Elector along with him in his career or to induce George William to follow his father’s example, and resign the government in favor of his son, the Electoral Prince Frederick William.  And do you know, Count Lesle, what would be the first act of Frederick William’s reign?  To depose me, to take all power out of my hands, and to institute a new course of policy for the house of Brandenburg!”

“Only get him here first, count, and then it is your affair to guard against this extreme.  Take example from what happened on one occasion in Spain, where also rioters and innovators thronged around the heir to the throne, by his abettance to overturn existing institutions and hurl the King from his throne.  My God!  You know the story of King Philip and his son Carlos.  Hardly fifty years have elapsed since then.  Profit by this example, and learn from this story that if the son is dangerous, you have only to render him suspected by his father, and he becomes innocuous.  If the son is the enemy of his father, then the father must also be made the enemy of his son, that in this way an equilibrium be preserved.  You are much too great a statesman and too acute a diplomatist not to know how to act in this matter.  But the urgency of the case is pressing.  You must have him under your own eyes, under your own guardianship.”

“It is true,” said Schwarzenberg thoughtfully, “he imbibes deadly poison there, and is quite too enthusiastic in his admiration of the Protestant leader, the Prince of Orange.  His letters to his parents overflow with enthusiasm for the Orange general, whom he calls his master and teacher in the art of war, and lavishes upon him extravagant praise.”

“And they are giving themselves trouble enough to link the young Prince yet more closely to the house of Orange, and the enemies of Spain and Hapsburg,” said Count Lesle emphatically.  “The Emperor has obtained exact accounts as to the practices going on at The Hague, whereby the Electoral Prince may be brought into the land of Cleves and united by marriage with the Palatinate house, whereby he may be brought equally under the influence of the sovereign States and the Prince of Orange, and estranged from the Holy Roman Empire.[12]