or of Brandenburg, and to
invest him with the duchy of Prussia. Hard conditions, truly, were those
imposed upon the young Elector, and heavy the sacrifices which the King
and, more pressingly yet, the members of the Polish Diet required. That
the Elector should pay a yearly tribute of thirty thousand florins,
besides a hundred thousand florins from the naval taxes, was a condition
to which he had agreed without a struggle; but much severer and more
humbling compliances he had to make.

They wished to make him feel that the King of Poland was still lord
paramount of Prussia, and that the Elector must give way to him. The
nobility of Prussia were therefore to have the right, in all civil and
difficult cases, to appeal from the decision of the Elector to that of the
King. On the other hand, the Elector was not, without the King's express
permission, to occupy a neutral position with regard to any enemy of
Poland; he was to receive the King's commissioners whenever it pleased the
latter to send them to inspect the fortresses of Memel and Pillau. But the
hardest thing was, that the Elector must pledge himself to protect and
exalt the Roman Catholic worship in Prussia with all his might, and to do
nothing for the further spread of the Reformed Church in Prussia. He was
to build up the decaying Catholic Church at Koenigsberg, and, besides that,
have a new one built. The Catholics were to be protected in the free
exercise of their worship, and guarded against every attack of the
Protestant preachers.

Hard and degrading were these conditions, but the Elector had accepted
them. He had bowed his proud heart and constrained it to be humble. Tears
of indignation had stood in his eyes as they handed him the document on
which were inscribed all these conditions; his hand had trembled when he
took the pen, but still he had appended his signature, and none but
Burgsdorf had seen the tears which fell from Frederick William's eyes upon
his hand as he signed.

"Burgsdorf," he said, pointing to his signature, "do you know what I have
written there?"

"No, your highness, that I do not. I am not stupid enough to give myself
much trouble deciphering the scratches of a pen. But I know and have read
what is written upon your face, sir."

"Well, and what stands written there, old friend?"

"Most gracious sir, it is written there that you suffer now, but will be
revenged hereafter. It says that you now in a submissive manner offer your
han