e?
What a wild, extravagant life the Electoral Prince must lead to be for
ever and ever wanting money, and no sooner are his debts paid than he
contracts new ones!"

"Husband," said the Electress soothingly, "it does not reflect upon the
life our son leads that he is out of money, but proves that he has not
received a sufficiently ample allowance. Just reflect that three years
ago, when he undertook this journey to Holland, you did not give him a red
cent, and that I had to give him from my little savings three thousand
dollars that he might be able to travel at all.[6] A considerable portion
of this must have been expended during the tedious journey, with his
retinue."

"If any one were to listen to you, Electress, he would really suppose that
the Electoral Prince had lived upon those three thousand dollars lent him
by you from that time up to the present. You forget, however, that,
already in the year 1636, therefore the very next year after the Electoral
Prince set out upon his journey, the states at the diet of Koenigsberg
voted the large sum of seven thousand dollars to the Electoral Prince for
the prosecution of his studies, over which they made a great outcry even
then, since the owner of each rood of land must be taxed five groschen to
pay for these acquirements, bringing down, no doubt, many a curse upon his
Latin and Greek.[7] From these two sources alone, then, he has had ten
thousand dollars to disburse in three years, which for so young a
gentleman would surely seem sufficient. Besides, just half a year ago, on
his repeated application to me for money, I sent him again one thousand
dollars, insomuch as he felt himself compelled to purchase a stately
equipage."

"That was the time, husband, when our son went from Leyden to Arnheim, to
reside there for a long while. There, of course, he was obliged to have a
small household about him, in order to maintain the dignity of his father
and his house, for there, too, dwelt the Princes of Orange and Nassau, and
our son, the Electoral Prince of Brandenburg, in order not to be surpassed
by them, must, like them, hold his court."

"And unfortunately living is very expensive in Holland," remarked the
Chamberlain von Schlieben. "Your Electoral Grace had sent one thousand
dollars to the Electoral Prince for the purchase of an equipage, but this
sum was by no means adequate. The coach alone cost seven hundred dollars."

"Seven hundred dollars!" cried the Elector, amaz