k of Your Highness, as a German
sovereign at the Diet of Regensburg, in Germany's very heart, is merely
your assistance in obtaining from the German Empire some little
concession for our harmless, innocent--manufactures.

KAMKE (_opens the door to the right_).

HOTHAM.

Everything else later. For the present--trust me. Over there are the
Queen's apartments. Farewell. [_He goes out_.]

SCENE VIII

PRINCE (_alone_).

Land! Land in sight! Something, surely, can be done now! With Hotham at
my right hand, I need only some female reinforcement at my left. The
moment seems favorable. I will try to draw little Sonnsfeld, the
Princess' lady-in-waiting, into the plot. She is waiting in the
anteroom. I'll knock. [_He goes softly to the_ PRINCESS' _door and
knocks_]. I hear a sound. [_He knocks again_.] The rustle of a gown--it
is she. [_He draws back a step and turns_.] First one must take these
little outposts and then--to the main battle.

[WILHELMINE _comes in_.]

PRINCE (_startled_).

Ah, it is you--yourself!

WILHELMINE.

Oh, then it was you, Prince? I have reason to be very angry with you.

PRINCE.

With me, Your Highness? Why with me?

WILHELMINE.

As if you did not know the insult you have offered me.

PRINCE.

Princess, would you drive me mad? I offer _you_ an insult?

WILHELMINE.

Have you not heard what sort of a person this learned Laharpe of yours
really is?

PRINCE.

Princess, Laharpe is one of the most intelligent of men and possessed of
a pretty wit. One might search long among your scholars here in Berlin
before finding his equal in cultivation.

WILHELMINE.

He is a wigmaker from Orleans!

PRINCE.

But I assure you, Princess, he is not a wigmaker. It is true Laharpe
does understand the splitting of hairs, but only in scientific
controversy; it is true he does use paint and powder, in that he paints
his thoughts in words of elegance, and lays on them the powder of
ingenious sophistry--an art that is better understood in France than
here. It is unfortunate enough, Your Highness, that your royal father's
kingdom should be in such bad repute that foreigners of wit, poetry, and
cultivation can be admitted only when they come bearing the passport of
wigmakers.

WILHELMINE.

But our plan has come to naught; Laharpe has been banished.

PRINCE.

A weak reflection of his brilliancy has remained, Princess. Do not think
me quite unworthy of taking his place. Grant me the blesse