“It means, Mr. Comedian, it means, that already this morning, while you supposed I was sleeping, I have had an interview with Gabriel Nietzel, my mother’s court painter.  Ah! now start back and be amazed.  Yes, Gabriel Nietzel sat by my bed for more than an hour, and brought me a verbal message from my mother.  She had also intrusted him with a letter for me, but on his journey here he has been robbed and the letter taken from him.  Oh, I imagine the robbers took much more interest in the letters than in the effects of the painter, and Count Schwarzenberg and yourself both well know their contents.  But happily my mother gave good Gabriel Nietzel a message to bring by word of mouth as well, which they could not steal from him, Baron von Leuchtmar.  Can you understand now why I call you a comedian, who has studied his part well?”

“No, Electoral Prince of Brandenburg, I can not yet.”

“Well, sir, then I shall tell you.  Your virtuous indignation against the Media Nocte, your shameful allegations against a Princess, whom I love, your injurious accusations and slanders—­all that was nothing more than a well-studied role prepared for you by my father and his minister.  Oh, answer me not, do not deny it.  I know what I say.  Yes, I know that the Emperor of Germany deigns to interest himself in the marriage of the little Electoral Prince of Brandenburg.  I know that his condescension goes so far as to desire to bless me with the hand of an Austrian archduchess.  I know that on this account he has given strict orders and injunctions to his devoted servant, who is my father’s all-powerful minister, that I shall be summoned away from The Hague; not, indeed, to reside at my father’s court, but to proceed to the imperial court.  But, God be thanked, the walls of the palace of Berlin are not o’er thick, and my mother has quick ears and Gabriel Nietzel is a trusty messenger.  Yes, sir, I know you and your plans.  I know, too, that the Emperor dreads my union with the Princess Ludovicka; that he has had my father notified that he will never sanction such a union, and that therefore my father and his Catholic minister have dispatched hither messengers and envoys, with strict orders never to suffer a matrimonial alliance with the Princess Ludovicka Hollandine, but to do everything to prevent it.  Everything to prevent it!  Do you understand me, sir?  To calumniate also, and accuse and defame.  But all together you shall not succeed.  I shall prove to the Emperor, the Elector and his minister that I do not fear their wrath, and that the Electoral Prince of Brandenburg will never, never be the vassal and servant of the German Emperor; that he feels himself to be an independent man, who claims for himself freedom of will and action, and who will only wed in obedience to the dictates of his own heart and his own will.  But you, Leuchtmar, I herewith bid you farewell!  We part to-day, and forever.  That we so part, believe me, is to me a lifelong pain, for never can