d and your eyes bright. Ah, gracious sir, the dear
White Lady kept her word, she saved you!"

"God bless her!" said the Electoral Prince solemnly. "But hark! old man,
tell nobody that I have been saved. You must not use such dangerous words,
not even think them. There was no need to save me, for I have been exposed
to no peril. I have not been sick at all, but only overcome by wine, and,
to speak plainly, drunk--do you hear, old man? I have been drunk two whole
days: such is the account you must give of my attack."

"I shall do so, your highness, since you order it; but it is a sin and a
shame that I should slander my own dear young master, who is such a sober,
steady Prince."

"Now, Dietrich," said the Electoral Prince, with a melancholy smile, "you
give me more praise than I deserve. I was not quite so sober in Holland."

"No, sir; in dear, blessed Holland, life was a different thing. It was
like heaven there, and when I looked at your grace I always felt as if I
saw before me Saint George himself, so bold, spirited, and happy you ever
seemed."

"And so I felt, too," said the Prince softly to himself. "But all that is
past now. _All_! The costly intoxication of happiness is at an end, and I
am sobered. Yes, yes," he continued aloud, springing with energy from his
couch, "you are quite right, old Dietrich. Now help this sober, steady
Prince to dress himself, that he may wait upon the Elector and Electress
and announce his recovery to them."

After the Electoral Prince had made his toilet, he repaired to the
Electoral apartments to pay his respects. George William received his son
with sullen peevishness of manner, hardly deigning to bestow upon him more
than a single glance of indifference.

"Why, you still look pale and weak," he said coolly. "It is no great honor
for a Prince to be overcome by a couple of glasses of wine, and to succumb
as if he had been struck by a cannon ball."

"Most gracious sir," replied Frederick William, smiling, "I hope yet to be
able to prove to your highness that I can stand against the fire of cannon
balls better than Count Schwarzenberg's wine, and that I can go to meet a
battery of artillery more bravely than a battery of bottles."

"I hope it will not be in your power to prove any such thing, sir," cried
the Elector impatiently. "I want to hear nothing about war, and you must
banish all thoughts of war and heroic deeds from your mind, and become a
peaceful, law-abiding citizen.