“Sir Count!” cried the Princess, “now you become tiresome, for you have digressed from your subject!”

“From the Electoral Prince?  Oh, no; I have already come to him again, fairest Princess!  I said all Germany would consent to this marriage.  Poland, too, would rather invest the Catholic imperial house with the Prussian crown than the reformed Elector, and prefer an Austrian neighbor as friend to a Russian; only two European powers would look askance upon this union, and consequently do all they possibly could to prevent its consummation.”

“And who are these two powers, Sir Count?”

“One power is France, who would never consent to so striking an aggrandizement of the house of Austria, and can not passively submit to see it spread itself so extensively north, west, and east.”

“And the second power, count?”

“The second power is the Princess Ludovicka Hollandine of the Palatinate, who would never give up the handsome Electoral Prince, and would snatch at any means of preventing his marriage with any one else.  Will you condescend to acknowledge that I have told the truth?”

“Yes!” cried the Princess passionately—­“yes, you have told the truth!  I love him, and the only happiness upon earth for me is in becoming his wife!”

“Princess, I presume to make a proposal to you.  Let the two powers that wish not the marriage with an Austrian archduchess conclude together a league offensive and defensive.  The power France accedes to this with joy.  It promises to further and support the second power in all her plans, to lend her efficient aid, that the Princess Ludovicka Hollandine may wed the Electoral Prince of Brandenburg.”

“Oh, heavens, count, you would do that, you—­”

“France will do that, not I,” said the count passionately.  “No, not I, Princess, for you know well that I was rash enough to lift my eyes to your heavenly apparition, my heart—­But hush, you poor, foolish heart, suffer and be dumb, sacrifice yourself, and only busy yourself in making happy the sweet object of your warm and glowing love!  Princess, you love the Electoral Prince!  France offers you her assistance that you may marry him.  This marriage will throw the Elector as well as the German Emperor into the greatest rage; they will both refuse their consent; they will require Holland to deliver up the Electoral Prince; they will proclaim invalid the marriage between two minor lovers, and will cut off the Electoral Prince from all means of subsistence.”

“Oh, that is shocking, you give me a glimpse of a background which fills me with dread and horror,” lamented the Princess.

“Fear nothing, dread nothing,” whispered the count.  “France is here to support you.  France offers the young couple an asylum in Paris, and will receive them at her court with pleasure.  France will take care that the Electoral Prince and his wife want for nothing; she will pay him rich subsidies, contribute vast sums of money that the Electoral Prince may present his young bride with a costly outfit; and finally, in the name of her mother, the Electress of the Palatinate, provide the Princess with a truly princely income.”