my hands the reins of government, then I must
guide them, as circumstances direct, as determined by the contingencies of
the times and the good of the country; and I dare not bind myself
beforehand by any given word or by promises."

"You refuse, my son, to promise me that you will make amends for all the
evil done by that wicked enemy of your house, your family, and your
country?"

"Dearest mother, I know not of whom you speak, and who it is that has
burdened himself with so heinous a crime."

With impulsive movement the Electress laid her hand upon his arm, and
looked him steadily in the eye.

"Are you dissembling, or is that the truth?" she asked. "You do not know
of whom I speak? You do not know who is the enemy of your house and
family?"

"I am trying in vain to study it out, mother, and I beg you not to be
angry with me on that account, for your grace must reflect that I have
been absent almost four years, and am therefore a little unacquainted with
the situation of affairs here. If you had addressed that question to me
before my departure, most assuredly I should have replied without
hesitation, 'It is Count Schwarzenberg!' But I have since then found out
that I had done the count injustice in many things through my inexperience
and want of foresight; that he is a very great and experienced statesman
and politician, who with his far-seeing glances can discern much more
clearly than I with my unpracticed eyes the relations of things. Who knows
but that, after all, the peace of Prague has been a real blessing to our
land. When I behold its present pitiable and languishing condition as a
neutral, how can I avoid reflecting with horror upon what might have been
the state of things had we joined any decided war party. Had we sided
with the Swedes, the enmity of the powerful Emperor, vastly surpassing us
in material resources, would long since have destroyed us root and branch,
and my dear father would have most probably shared the same lamentable
fate as the Elector of the Palatinate, his brother-in-law, or the Margrave
of Liegnitz and Jaegerndorf, his cousin. He must have wandered with wife
and children an exile in foreign lands, or died of grief among strangers.
On the other hand, had we sided with the Emperor against the Swedes, a
raging, implacable foe would have quartered himself in the heart of our
dominions, and not merely Pomerania, but the Mark and the duchy of Prussia
would have been overrun-by his war