Cleves!" cried Leuchtmar joyfully. "Oh, my dear Prince,
that is truly a princely gift!"

"Yet it is not the Prince, but the grateful scholar who gives it to you,"
said Frederick William, "and in proof of this I have written these words,
which I will read to you myself." He bent over the paper, and read: "We
have voluntarily and with due consideration promised and engaged to give
to Baron Leuchtmar von Kalkhun this estate of Neuenhof, out of the
particular and friendly affection which we bear to him. We also swear that
if we hereafter attain to power and authority, and our much-esteemed
Romilian von Leuchtmar be to our sorrow cut off by death, we in the same
way will this estate to his eldest son, and grant him the enjoyment of all
that we assigned and destined for his father in his lifetime."[23]

"That is indeed to carry happiness and reward beyond the grave!" cried
Leuchtmar, with tears in his eyes. "Oh, I thank you, my Prince, thank you
from my inmost soul, for myself and my children!"

"You have nothing at all to thank me for, friend," said the Prince. "I
shall ever be much more in your debt. If, however, I some day become a
good Prince to my country and a father to my people, then you must reflect
that this is the return I make to you, my teacher, my educator! You see I
hope in the future, and think that I shall succeed in evading murderous
designs and fulfill my aims. But, indeed, your warning I may never forget,
and circumspect I _must_ be first of all. Wear a mask, as Brutus did! Let
me embrace you once more, friend Leuchtmar; look me once more in the eye.
And now--I hear some one coming! Farewell, Leuchtmar! I put on my mask and
not for a moment can I withdraw it from my features."

V.--BRUTUS.

The door was now opened, a valet entered and announced, "Her highness the
Electress!" And before the Electoral Prince had time to advance, the
Electress had entered the room.

"I come to welcome you once more, my Frederick!" she cried, stretching out
her arms to her son. "Entirely without witnesses, simply as his mother
would I greet my son, and tell him how happy I am that he is once more
here."

She flung her arms around her son's neck, and pressed him ardently to her
bosom. Baron Leuchtmar, who upon the Electress's approach had stepped
aside, now crept softly through the apartment to the door, and was already
in the act of opening it, when the Electress quickly raised her head and
looked around.

"St