don, pardon: slay me, your Majesty;
but there is the naked truth, and the whole of it, and I have nothing
more to say!" Hereupon ensues despatch of the Equerry; and hereupon, as
we may conjecture, the Equerry's return with Fritz and the Trio is an
unspeakable relief to Friedrich Wilhelm.

Friedrich Wilhelm now summons Buddenbrock and Company straightway;
shows, in a suppressed-volcanic manner, with questions and
statements,--obliged to SUPPRESS oneself in foreign hospitable Serene
Houses,--what atrocity of scandal and terror has been on the edge of
happening: "And you three, Rochow, Waldau, Buddenbrock, mark it, you
three are responsible; and shall answer, I now tell you, with your
heads. Death the penalty, unless you bring HIM to our own Country
again,--'living or dead,'" added the Suppressed-Volcano, in low
metallic tone; and the sparkling eyes of him, the red tint, and rustling
gestures, make the words too credible to us. [Ranke, i. 307.]

What Friedrich Wilhelm got to speak about with the old Kur-Pfalz, during
their serene passages of hospitality at Mannheim, is not very clear to
me; his Prussian Majesty is privately in such a desperate humor, and
the old Kur-Pfalz privately so discrepant on all manner of points,
especially on the Julich-and-Berg point. They could talk freely about
the old Turk Campaigns, Battle of Zentha, [11th September, 1697;
Eugene's crowning feat;--breaking of the Grand Turk's back in this
world; who has staggered about, less and less of a terror and outrage,
more and more of a nuisance growing unbearable, ever since that day.
See Hormayr (iii. 97-101) for some description of this useful bit of
Heroism.] and Prince Eugene; very freely about the Heidelberg Tun. But
it is known old Karl Philip had his agents at the Congress of Soissons,
to secure that Berg-and-Julich interest for the Sulzbachs and him:
directly in the teeth of Friedrich Wilhelm. How that may have gone,
since the Treaty of Seville broke out to astonish mankind,--will be
unsafe to talk about. For the rest, old Karl Philip has frankly adopted
the Pragmatic Sanction; but then he has, likewise, privately made league
with France to secure him in that Julich-and-Berg matter, should the
Kaiser break promise;--league which may much obstruct said Sanction.
Nay privately he is casting glances on his Bavarian Cousin, elegant
ambitious Karl Albert. Kurfurst of Baiern,--are not we all from the same
Wittelsbach stock, Cousins from of old?--and