blemen in the Mark will rally
exultingly about you, and the people will flock to you in crowds, and make
you so mighty and so strong that you need only to will and your will shall
be executed."

"What three words are those, Sir Colonel von Burgsdorf?"

"Those three words, your highness, which the people shouted up at the
palace window yesterday, when you got home. The three words, 'Down with
him!'"

"Down with _him_," repeated the Electoral Prince. "And who is this _him_?"

"It is Count Schwarzenberg, your highness--it is the minister who rules
here in the Mark as if it were his own property, and as if he were not
your father's Stadtholder, but the reigning Prince, who had obtained the
Mark as a fief from the Emperor of Germany, to whom alone he were
responsible. Look about you, Frederick William, look at these poor,
wretched apartments, in which you live--look at the decay of the princely
house, the embarrassments with which your father has to contend, and the
privations which your mother and sisters have to undergo. And then,
Prince, then look across at Broad Street, at Count Schwarzenberg's
palace. There all is glory and splendor, there are to be seen lackeys in
golden liveries, costly equipages, handsomely furnished halls. They
practice wanton luxury, they live amid pomp and pleasure, arrange
magnificent hunts and splendid entertainments, while the people cry out
for hunger. They make merry in Count Schwarzenberg's palace, and while the
burgher, whose last cent he has seized for the payment of taxes and
imposts, creeps about in rags, _he_ struts by in velvet clothes, decked
out with gold and precious stones, and laughingly boasts that half the
Mark of Brandenburg might be bought at the price of one of his court
suits. Most gracious Prince, yesterday the steward of your father, with
the Electoral consent, brought out the velvet caps which had been kept in
the Electoral wardrobe, took off the genuine silver lace with which they
were trimmed, and sold it to the Jews, in order to pay the servants their
month's wages,[24] and the count's servants yesterday received new
liveries, so thickly set with gold lace that the scarlet cloth was hardly
distinguishable underneath. The Stadtholder in the Mark revels in
superfluity, while the Elector in the Mark almost suffers want, and
esteems himself happy if he can give one piece of land after another to
his minister as security for the payment of debt. Oh, it is enough to
driv