sir, that is the very
window niche in which I was once forced to stand in order to learn to wait.
I thank you, gracious sir, for in this hour you give me my revenge. Now it
is for my enemy to learn; and I beseech Your Grace to give me leave to
open my budget from Berlin. The parchment must hear it and learn. Oh, I
know how it feels to have to listen in silence to have to learn to wait!"

"Colonel Conrad von Burgsdorf," said the Elector with majesty, "you are
here to bring me tidings from Berlin. Speak out and be assured that no one
will venture to interrupt you. In the first place, have you executed my
orders?"

"Yes, gracious sir, according to the best of my abilities and the means at
my disposal."

"As their superior officer, have you required an oath of allegiance to me
from the commandants and garrisons of the forts?"

"I sent your orders everywhere, requiring the commandants to swear their
men into service in your name, and to come to Berlin that I might
administer the same oath to themselves."

"And have they done so? Have my officers and troops sworn to serve me
faithfully?"

"A few commandants have done so, but Kracht, Rochow, and Goldacker have
refused, declaring that they would rather blow their fortresses up than
swear fealty to the Elector. Hereupon I forthwith had the commandant of
Berlin, Colonel von Kracht, arrested, and would have proceeded in like
manner against the Commandants von Rochow and von Goldacker, but the
traitors got wind of my intentions. Goldacker left Brandenburg with thirty
horse, and, report says, went over to the Imperialists. Colonel von
Rochow, however, in his fortress assumed a warlike attitude, and gave out
that he was ready to do battle with the enemy to the death. Meanwhile
Margrave Ernest conferred with him under a flag of truce, and the
committee of investigation at Berlin diligently prosecuted their labors,
and brought to light heinous offenses committed by the two colonels and
Count John Adolphus von Schwarzenberg."

"Do you know the particulars? The colonels were accused of cheating and
embezzlement, were they not?"

"Yes," said Burgsdorf with a little embarrassment, "the question regards
the payment of the troops enlisted, for which the colonels received money,
and--and--"

"And yet the men were not enlisted," said the Elector, with an
imperceptible smile. "Had they done nothing more than this, I would have
pardoned them; if they had shown themselves in other res