commissions of the Elector and his Minister Schwarzenberg;
naturally you will be in earnest in executing them."

"Prince, I have undertaken the commissions, the behests of the Elector;
but from himself and not from his minister did I obtain them. I have sworn
to execute them, and do you know why?"

"Why? Simply because you are your master's obedient servant."

"No, Prince, because I am a faithful servant of my country, and because I
have a heart to feel for her affliction and distress. The Elector has
commanded me to travel to The Hague, and to convey his strict injunction
to the Electoral Prince that he shall immediately set out and return home
to Berlin. The Elector bids me say to your highness that he has committed
to me five thousand dollars to defray the expenses of your journey back
and for the liquidation of the most pressing debts. Should this sum not
suffice, then am I empowered, in the name of his Electoral Highness, to
give security for the payment of the other debts, and your highness is so
to arrange your journey that your suite may follow in the least expensive
way possible. I was to urge on you seriously and decidedly the propriety
of departure, and your father bids me state to you that he has his own
peculiarly strong reasons for esteeming a further sojourn in Holland
neither safe, profitable, nor reputable. I was to assure your highness
that you were not to be recalled, in order to be forced into a repulsive
marriage. At the same time, the Elector desires that you return
unembarrassed by engagements, and that you by no means entangle yourself
by marriage without his knowledge and consent, for to such a union would
the Elector not agree, nor ratify it."[18]

"Is that all you have to say to me?" asked the Prince, when Marwitz was
silent.

"Prince, it is all I have to say to you in the Elector's name, and I have
herewith executed the commission intrusted to me. But I have something
still to add. I have still to execute the commissions given me by your
future land, by your future subjects. I have to transmit to you the tears
of the wretched, the sighs of the impoverished, the cries of the
despairing, the agonized shriek of all the provinces, all the towns, all
the villages, houses, and huts in the Mark. Prince, from the depth of
their affliction all hearts uplift themselves to you; in the midst of
their despair, the oppressed, the downtrodden, the tormented all venture
to hope in you, and in spirit they