--[_much moved_] Heavens--it is three years since I have touched
that noble, that magical instrument.

SONNSFELD.

Come now! I'm the cavalier, Princess, and you are the lady.

[ECKHOF _plays one of the simple naive dance tunes of the day. The two
ladies dance._]

SONNSFELD.

Bravo, Eckhof! This is going nicely--ah, what joy to dance once more!
This way now la--la--la! [_She hums the melody._]

SCENE II

_During the dance the_ KING _comes in softly through the door to the
right. He starts when he sees the dancers and the grenadier playing the
violin. They do not notice him. He comes-nearer and attempts to join the
dance unobserved._

WILHELMINE.

Sonnsfeld, that's not right! Now it's the gentleman's turn. [_Holds her
hand out behind her back_]--Like this.

[_The_ KING _takes her hand gently with one finger and dances a few
steps._]

WILHELMINE.

How clumsy, dear friend. [_Dancing._] And your hand is strangely rough
today.

[_She turns and sees the_ KING, _who had begun to hum the tune in a
gruff voice. The three start in alarm_. ECKHOF _salutes with the
violin._]

KING (_angry_).

Very nice--very pretty indeed! Are these the sayings of Solomon? Music
and dancing in my castle by broad daylight? And a Prussian grenadier
playing the violin to the prisoner he is set to watch?

SONNSFELD.

Pardon, Your Majesty--it was we who forced him.

KING.

Forced him? Forced a soldier? Forced him to violate his duty in this
devilish manner? I'll have to invent a punishment for him such as the
Prussian army has never yet seen.

WILHELMINE.

Have mercy, Your Majesty--have mercy!

KING.

I'll talk to you later. As for you, Conrad Eckhof, I know that is your
name--I will tell you what your punishment shall be. You are discharged
from the army that serves under my glorious flag, discharged in disgrace.
But you are not to be honored by being sent to a convict company or into
the worthy station of a subject. Listen to the fate I have decreed for
you. A troop of German comedians has taken quarters in the Warehouse in
the Cloister street. These mountebanks--_histriones_--are in straits
because their clown--for whom they sent to Leipzig, has not arrived. You
are to take off the honorable Prussian uniform and to join this group of
mountebanks, sent there by me, as a warning to every one. You are to
become an actor, a clown of clowns-and henceforth amuse the German nation
with your foolish and criminal jokes an