apartments of the Electress and her princesses, as well as from the robber
nests and dens of the squires and waylayers of the Mark, and from the
fortresses and garrisons. We, too, my son, voyage together in the same
boat; I am the pilot, you unfurl the sails, and upon our flag in
mysterious and invisible colors is inscribed this device: Good
Imperialists, good Catholics!"

"Yes, good Imperialists and good Catholics," replied the young count
energetically. "But, dearest father, let us add besides, quite softly,
good Schwarzenbergians!"

"Yes, my son, that will we. For, in addition to those great and holy
interests, to keep one's own interests a little in view is manly and
justifiable. My heavens! life would have been perfectly hateful and
abominable in this dirty, cheerless Berlin if we had not seen above us a
glittering star, to which we could look up when all was so dismal here
below, which shone upon our path and cheered us when we feared to sink in
the mud and mire. This star, my son, do you know its name?"

"Its name is Fame, its name is Love, _cher pere_."

"Well, for the sake of fame I will put up with love, foolish dreamer. You
may bring it on board our boat as ballast. But if a storm should come and
necessity impel, we shall throw our ballast overboard."

"Dear father, if you do that, you will throw overboard likewise my
happiness and life!" exclaimed Count Adolphus warmly. "If you call love
ballast, then forget not, father, that in this ballast your son's heart is
included."

"Enamored fool, you really have a heart? Do you believe so?"

"I believe so, most noble father, because I feel it, because--"

A hasty knock, thrice repeated, at the door of the antechamber interrupted
him, and in obedience to the Stadtholder's summons, the lackey Balthasar
hurriedly entered.

"Most gracious sir," he said, "it is a courier from the Commandant von
Rochow at Spandow, who desires to speak with your lordship on most urgent
business."

"I am going, most gracious father, I am going," cried the young count,
speedily rising. "I can no longer lay claim to the Stadtholder's precious
time."

"And you have very important affairs of your own to attend to, have you
not?" asked his father. "You have been long enough diplomatist and
politician, and that curious thing, whose possession you boast, the heart,
will now assert its rights?"

The young man laughed and pressed the count's extended hand tenderly to
his lips. Then h