olonel Kottwitz-whom he believed to be
also capable of the deed-had led the cavalry into battle before
receiving the order, the Sovereign had declared that the commanding
officer was to be summoned before a court-martial and condemned to death
without respect of person. Now he simply carries out the sentence. The
Prince does not comprehend in the slightest; he would find it just as
natural if the trees should begin to speak and the stones to fly. He
must indeed obey, but as he gives up his sword, he declares bitterly
that if his "Cousin Frederick" wishes to play the role of Brutus, he
will not find in him a son who reveres him even under the executioner's
ax. That is all the more natural, as he is conscious of what he felt and
did on the battlefield in the moment when he received the news of the
death of his present judge. His friends try to calm him. The Elector
pays no attention to his passionate behavior, but with calm majesty
reads the inscriptions on the Swedish flags, and the Prince is led off
to prison. The noblest style is maintained throughout this scene, which
would have delighted the English of Shakespeare's day.

In the third act we find the Prince somewhat changed, but not to any
great extent. After thinking over the matter in solitude he has finally
grasped that the Elector could not allow the violation of his express
command to pass without some sort of punishment. But is it not
sufficient punishment for him to have spent some days in prison, and
does he not, moreover, deserve a reward because he entered it
voluntarily and did not strangle the jailer? Therefore he knows
positively that the first person to visit him will announce that he is
free, and when his friend Hohenzollern enters his cell, he exclaims
"Well, then, I'm free of my imprisonment." But when the latter examines
his position with very different eyes, when, by producing a series of
threatening facts each one more ominous than the other, he gradually
silences the Prince's emotion, which demonstrates exactly what the
Elector can do and what he cannot do, when he even tells him at last
that the death warrant is about to be brought for signature to the
Elector's cabinet, the Prince finally loses his foolish feeling of
security, and then of course he goes to the opposite extreme. Nay, when
the anxious Hohenzollern further informs him that the Swedish
ambassador, who has arrived on the occasion of the peace negotiations,
would ask the hand of the