. The
two had a long conversation together, Leuchtmar listening with thoughtful
mien to Marwitz's narration of the state of affairs at home.

"Marwitz," he said, at the close of their conversation, "we have been good
and tried friends from our childhood; I know that the electoral house and
our fatherland lie as near to your heart as to my own, and that I can
trust you. I therefore tell you, you have come at a fortunate hour, and
God sends you! The heart of the Prince is wrung by a mighty sorrow, and he
probably knows no way out of his griefs. You will show him one, and if he
is actually the aspiring and noble-hearted Prince, whom God has sent for
the blessing of his house and the hope of his country, then will he
appreciate this way and walk in it. Go to him now, Marwitz, and lay before
him candidly and without reserve, as you have done before me, the
deplorable condition of things in our native land."

"You will come with me, Leuchtmar, and present me to the Electoral Prince?"

"No, baron. You must suffer yourself to be announced by the chamberlain,
for the Prince dismissed me yesterday in wrath. Hush, my friend! say not a
word, it is not so bad! The heart of the Prince has reached a crisis in
its history which will soon be past, and then, well then, he will call me
of himself again. But I shall wait for that. I can not intrude upon him
now."

"My friend," sighed Marwitz, "I begin to be afraid. If you do not support
me, I will surely fail in my errand, and, like Schlieben, be forced to
return disappointed to Berlin."

"I think not. Only be of good courage and speak boldly, as your heart and
your love of country dictate."

"Is the Electoral Prince already up?" he asked of the man in waiting, and,
as he received nothing but a shrug of the shoulders in reply, Leuchtmar
beckoned to him to come nearer, and retired with him into a recess of one
of the windows.

"Well, what is it, old Dietrich? You have seen the Electoral Prince
already, have you not?"

"Yes, baron. He has not been to bed at all, but still has on the clothes
he wore when he went away last night. He is just as pale as a sheet, and
his eyes which usually shine so gloriously are to-day quite dim. He called
me, and I thought he was about to order breakfast, but no! Something quite
different he wanted, and it struck me as peculiarly strange. The Electoral
Prince asked me who was on duty this week, I or the second valet,
Eberhard? I told him Eberhard, for