ll ever penetrate my
thick skull. You are a great statesman, your highness; on my knees I
implore your pardon for having doubted you, and beseech you, reject me
not, sir! Forget the nonsense I gave utterance to that time at Berlin, and
take the old broadsword into your service. It desires nothing better than
to be worn out in your service, to fly out of its scabbard at your bidding
and slash away at the enemy."

"To slash away at the enemy!" repeated the Elector. "First of all, stand
up, old colonel. There," he continued, smiling, holding out his hand to
him, "I must help you a little, for your old limbs have grown stiff in my
father's service. And now, just tell me, old broadsword, what you think
of it. How will you attack the enemy for me now? Enemies enough we have,
indeed, but too few soldiers, I should think, to cope with them. Or think
you that we could soon set an army on foot? Would you go out to battle
with your regiment of two thousand six hundred men, and win back for me my
contested territories?"

"I beg your highness not to speak of my two thousand six hundred men. You
know well that they have long since melted away, because there was no
money wherewith to pay them."

"Well then," said the Elector, "I will gratify you by forgetting that
splendid regiment, and by no longer reminding you of the things that were.
But this I tell you, Burgsdorf, under my administration everything must
correspond, and what is noted down on paper must really exist. And now we
shall see if you are acquainted with our military affairs."

"Alas! most noble sir," sighed Burgsdorf, "would that I did not know, for
it is a most sorrowful knowledge to an old soldier and in a most
distressing condition is the Brandenburg military department."

"Yes, indeed!" exclaimed the Elector. "The knights no longer take horse,
the citizens no longer care to defend their towns and gates, the States
refuse to pay subsidies for the support of the army, and our coffers are
exhausted. It is no wonder if there can be no talk of an army. How much
infantry and cavalry have we in all, Burgsdorf?"

"Most gracious sir," sighed the colonel, "in the Mark and Prussia together
we have not more than twenty companies of infantry, allowing a hundred and
twenty-five men to each."

"That would make two thousand five hundred men," said the Elector--"a
small nucleus for an army, truly; but something, nevertheless, provided
that these men are attached to me, and owe