“I said to my jailer:  ’There are not half a dozen people in this world who know me by sight, and among that half-dozen no Elector is included.  Outside the Palace at Frankfort I am acquainted with a sword maker or two, and about a score of good fellows who are friends of theirs, but to them I am merely a fencing-master.  Now, seven hundred thalers a month pass through your honest hands to mine, and will continue to do so.  Your son seems to be even more silent than yourself, and he is a young fellow whom I suspect knows the difference between a thaler and a button on his own coat.  If you do what I wish, there will be some slight risk, but think of the reward immediate and in future!  At once you come into an income of seven hundred thalers a month.  If I am elected Emperor, I shall ennoble you, and present you with the best post in the land.  If you don’t do what I wish, I shall cause your head cut off as the first act of my first day of power.’”

“You did not threaten to slit his throat with your own sword, failing your elevation?” asked the merchant, with a smile.

“No.  He was quite safe from my vengeance unless I came to the throne.”

“In that case I should say the custodian need not fear the future.  But please go on with your account.”

“I proposed that his son and I should exchange costumes; in short, the young man was to take my place, occupying the suite of rooms assigned to me in the Castle.  I told his father there was not the slightest fear of discovery, for if the Archbishop of Mayence sent some one to see that the Prince was safe, or even came himself, all the young man need do was to follow my example and keep silent, for I had said nothing from the time I was roused in my room in the Saalhof until I was lodged in Ehrenfels.  I promised, if set at liberty, to keep within touch of Frankfort, where, at the first rumor of any crisis, I could return instantly to Ehrenfels.

“The custodian is a slow-minded man, although not so laggard in coming to an agreement as yourself.  He took a week to turn the matter over in his mind, and then made the plunge.  He is now jailer to his own son, and that young peasant lives in a style he never dreamed of before.  The Archbishops are satisfied, because they believe I cannot escape from the stronghold—­like yourself, holding but a poor opinion of my abilities; and their devout Lordships know that outside the fortress no person, not even my mother, wishes me forth.  I took in my wallet five hundred thalers, and fared like the peasant I seemed to be, down the Rhine, now on one side, now on the other, until I came to the ancient town of Castra Bonnensia of the Romans, which name the inhabitants now shorten to Bonn.  There I found the Archbishop in residence, and not at Cologne, as I had supposed.  The town being thronged with soldiers and inquisitive people of Cologne’s court, I returned up the Rhine again, remembering I had gone rather far afield, and although you may not believe it, I called upon my old friend the custodian of Ehrenfels, and enjoyed an excellent meal with him, consuming some of the seductive wine that is grown on the same side of the river about a league above Ehrenfels.”