ful allegations against a Princess, whom I love,
your injurious accusations and slanders--all that was nothing more than a
well-studied role prepared for you by my father and his minister. Oh,
answer me not, do not deny it. I know what I say. Yes, I know that the
Emperor of Germany deigns to interest himself in the marriage of the
little Electoral Prince of Brandenburg. I know that his condescension goes
so far as to desire to bless me with the hand of an Austrian archduchess.
I know that on this account he has given strict orders and injunctions to
his devoted servant, who is my father's all-powerful minister, that I
shall be summoned away from The Hague; not, indeed, to reside at my
father's court, but to proceed to the imperial court. But, God be thanked,
the walls of the palace of Berlin are not o'er thick, and my mother has
quick ears and Gabriel Nietzel is a trusty messenger. Yes, sir, I know you
and your plans. I know, too, that the Emperor dreads my union with the
Princess Ludovicka; that he has had my father notified that he will never
sanction such a union, and that therefore my father and his Catholic
minister have dispatched hither messengers and envoys, with strict orders
never to suffer a matrimonial alliance with the Princess Ludovicka
Hollandine, but to do everything to prevent it. Everything to prevent it!
Do you understand me, sir? To calumniate also, and accuse and defame. But
all together you shall not succeed. I shall prove to the Emperor, the
Elector and his minister that I do not fear their wrath, and that the
Electoral Prince of Brandenburg will never, never be the vassal and
servant of the German Emperor; that he feels himself to be an independent
man, who claims for himself freedom of will and action, and who will only
wed in obedience to the dictates of his own heart and his own will. But
you, Leuchtmar, I herewith bid you farewell! We part to-day, and forever.
That we so part, believe me, is to me a lifelong pain, for never can I
forget what I owe you, and how faithful you have otherwise been to me.
Leuchtmar, it is dreadful that you have turned against me. Go, we have
parted! Go! And when you get home to Berlin, then say to my father's
Austrian minister, that I shall never forgive him for what he has this day
done to me, and that the Elector Frederick William will avenge the
Electoral Prince. Tell him that I shall never accept an Austrian
archduchess, a Catholic, as my wife--never become the hu