Chapter XXII: Act I: Scene I

_A room in the Palace. One window and four doors. A table and two armchairs on the left of the room._

EVERSMANN, _taking snuff comfortably. Two Drummers of the Guard._

_Later_ FRAÜLEIN VON SONNSFELD.

_The drummers take up a position near the door to the left, leading to the apartments of the_ PRINCESS, _and execute a roll of the drums_.

FRAÜLEIN VON SONNSFELD (_opens the door and looks in_).

That will do.

[_The drummers play a second roll_.]

SONNSFELD (_looks in again_).

Yes, yes. We heard it.

[EVERSMANN _gives the sign again and the drummers play a third long roll_.]

SONNSFELD (_comes out angrily, speaks when the noise has subsided_).

This is unendurable! It is enough to ruin one's nerves--left wheel--march--out with you to the parade ground where you be long! [_The drummers march out still playing. When the noise can no longer be heard she continues_.] Eversmann, you ought to be ashamed of yourself. You should remind the King of the respect due to ladies.

EVERSMANN.

I obey my royal master's orders, ma'am. And inasmuch as late rising is a favorite vice of the youth of today, it has been ordered that the reveille be played at six o'clock every morning before the doors of the royal Princes and Princesses.

SONNSFELD.

Princess Wilhelmine is no longer a child.

EVERSMANN.

Her morning dreams are all the sweeter for that reason.

SONNSFELD.

Dreams of our final release--of despair--of death--

EVERSMANN.

Or possibly dreams of marriage--and the like--

SONNSFELD.

Have a care, Eversmann! The Crown Prince has won his freedom at last; he is keeping a most exact record of all that happens in Berlin and in the immediate environment of his severe father. It is well known that you influence the King more than do his ministers.

EVERSMANN.

If the poetic fancy of our Crown Prince, who, by the way, is my devoted young friend Fritz, cannot see the truth more clearly than that, then I have little respect for the imaginative power of poets. I--and influence? I twist His Majesty's stately pigtail every morning, clip his fine manly beard, fill his cozy little Dutch pipe for him each evening--and if in the course of these innocent employments His Most Sacred Majesty lets fall a hint, a remark--a little command possibly--why--naturally--

SONNSFELD.

You pick them up and weave them into a "nice innocent little influence" for yourself. Eh? An influence that has already earned you three city houses, five estates, and a carriage-and-four. Have a care that the Crown Prince does not auction off all these objects under the gallows-tree some fine day.

EVERSMANN.

Oh, but your Ladyship must have slept badly. Pray spare me these--predictions and prophesyings, which are made up of whole cloth. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is far too much, of a philosopher to take such revenge on a man who has no more dealings with His Majesty than to fill his pipe each evening, to braid his pigtail each morning, and to shave him in the good old German fashion every second day. Have I made my meaning clear?

[_He goes out._]

SONNSFELD.

Go your way, you old sinner! You may pretend to be ever so honest and simple--we know you and your like. Oh, what a life we lead here in this Court! Cannons thunder in the garden under our windows every morning or else they send up a company of soldiers to accustom us to early rising. After the morning prayer the Princess knits, sews, presses her linen, studies her catechism, and, alas! is forced to listen to a stupid sermon every day. At dinner, we get very little to eat; then the King takes his afternoon nap. He's forever quarreling with the Queen, they have scarcely a good word to say to each other, and yet the entire family are expected to look on at His Majesty's melodious snore-concert, and even to brush away the flies from the face of the sleeping Father of his country. If my Princess did not possess so much natural wit and spirit, the sweet creature would be quite crushed by such a life. If the King only knew that she is learning French secretly, and can almost write a polite little note already--! I hear her coming.

SCENE II

PRINCESS WILHELMINE _comes in, carrying a letter_.

WILHELMINE (_timidly_).

Can any one hear us?

SONNSFELD.

Not unless the walls have ears. Is the letter written?

WILHELMINE.

I hardly dare send it, dear Sonnsfeld. I know there are a hundred mistakes in it.

SONNSFELD.

A hundred? Then the letter must be much longer than Your Highness first planned it.

WILHELMINE.

I wrote that I fully appreciate the value of the services offered me, but that my position forces me to refuse any aid to my education which cannot be attained at least by the help of my mother, the Queen.

SONNSFELD.

Is that what you have written? And made a hundred mistakes? In that case we are just where we were before. I appreciate that an eighteen-year-old Princess has to consider history, posterity and so forth--but this conscientiousness will be your ruin. The King will continue to make a slave of you, the Queen to treat you as a child. You are the victim of the conflict between two characters who both perhaps desire what is best for you, but who are so totally different that you will never know whom or which one to please. The Crown Prince has made himself free--and how did he do it? Only by courage and independence. He tore himself loose from the oppressive bondage imposed on him by the caprice of others, and won the means to complete his education. And now he sends to you from Rheinsberg his friend, the Prince Hereditary of Baireuth, to be a support and protection to you and to the Queen--so that here in this Court where they drum, trumpet, and parade all day long, you may not finally, in your despair, seize a musket yourself and join the Potsdam Guards!

WILHELMINE.

You have a sense of humor, my dear Sonnsfeld. It is all well enough for my brother to make plans and send out emissaries, when he is safe in Rheinsberg. He knows that the path to the freedom he has won led past the very foot of the scaffold. I am of the sex whose duty it is to be patient. My father is so good at heart, gentler possibly, in his true self, than is my mother. She indeed, absorbed in her political ambitions, often turns from me with a harshness that accords ill with mother-love. It is my fate to endure this life. Ask yourself, dear friend, how could I trust to a chance adventurous stranger whom my brother sends to me from out of his wild, artistic circle in Rheinsberg--sends to me to be my knight and paladin? Such a thought could have been conceived only in the brains of that group of poets. I'll confess to you in secret that I should greatly enjoy being in the midst of the Rheinsberg merriment, disguised of course. But I'm in Berlin--not in Rheinsberg, and so I have gathered up my meagre scraps of French and thanked the Prince of Baireuth for his offer in a manner which is far more a refusal than an acceptance.

[_Hands_ SONNSFELD _the letter_.]

SONNSFELD.

And I am to dispatch this letter? [_With droll pathos_.] No, Your Highness, I cannot have anything to do with this forbidden correspondence.

WILHELMINE.

No joking please, Sonnsfeld. It was the only answer I could possibly send to the Prince's tender epistle.

SONNSFELD.

Impossible!--To become an accomplice to a forbidden correspondence in this Court might cost one's life.

WILHELMINE.

You will make me angry!--here, dispatch this letter, and quickly.

SONNSFELD.

No, Princess. But I know a better means, an absolutely sure means of dispatching the letter to its destination, and that is--[_She glances toward a door in the background_] deliver it yourself.

[_She slips out of a side door_.]

SCENE III

_The_ PRINCE HEREDITARY OF BAIREUTH, _dressed in the French taste of the period, as different as possible from the king's favorite garb, comes in cautiously._

WILHELMINE (_aside_).

The Prince of Baireuth!

THE PRINCE (_aside_).

Her very picture! It is the Princess! [_Aloud_.] I crave Your Highness' pardon that my impatience to deliver the greeting of Your Royal brother the Crown Prince in person--

WILHELMINE.

The Prince of Baireuth places me in no slight embarrassment by this early visit.

PRINCE.

The visit was not paid to you, Princess, but to this noble and venerable castle, these stairways, these galleries, these winding corridors--it was a visit of recognizance, Your Highness, such as must precede any important undertaking.

WILHELMINE.

Then you are preparing to do battle here?

PRINCE.

My intentions are not altogether peaceful, and yet, as Princess Wilhelmine doubtless knows, I am compelled to confine myself to a policy of defense solely.

WILHELMINE.

And even in this you cannot exercise too much care. [_Aside_.] The letter is no longer necessary. [_Aloud_.] How did you leave my brother? In good health? And thoroughly occupied?

PRINCE.

The Crown Prince leads a life of the gayest diversity in his exile. He has made of Rheinsberg a veritable little Court of the Muses, devoted now to serious study, now to poetic recreation. We have enjoyed unforgettably beautiful hours there; one would hardly believe that so much imagination could be developed and encouraged on the borders of Mecklenburg! We paint, we build, we model, we write. The regiment which is under the immediate command of our talented Prince serves merely to carry out, by military evolutions, the strategic descriptions of Polybius. In short, I should deeply regret leaving so delightful a spot had it not been for the flattering and important task intrusted to me. Princess, the Crown Prince desires full and true information, obtained at the source, as to the situation of his sister, his mother, here, that he may, if necessary, advise how this situation be improved, how any difficulties may be met.

WILHELMINE.

If it became known that I am granting an audience, here in this public hall, to a Prince who has not yet been presented either to my father or to my mother--I could prepare myself for several weeks in Fortress Küstrin.

[_She bows and turns as if to go_.]

PRINCE.

Princess! Then it is really true--that which is whispered, with horror, at every court in Europe? It is true that the King of Prussia tyrannizes not only his court, his entire environment, but his own family as well?

WILHELMINE.

Prince, you employ too harsh an expression for what I would rather term merely our own peculiar ceremonial. In Versailles they glide as on butterfly wings over the polished floors. Here we tread the earth with ringing spurs. In Versailles the Royal Family consider themselves but as a merry company, recognizing no ties as sacred save those of congeniality, no bond but that of--unfettered inclination. Here the Court is merely one big middle-class family, where a prayer is said before meat, where the parents must always be the first to speak, where strictest obedience must, if necessary, tolerate even absurdities; where one quarrels, out of one's mutual affection, sometimes--where we even torture one another and make life harder for one another--all out of love--

PRINCE.

Princess, I swear to you--this must be changed.

WILHELMINE.

And how, pray?

PRINCE.

The Crown Prince asked me to employ all conceivable means to free you from this barbarism. I am at your service entirely--command me. His first thought was for your mental needs. How is it with your knowledge of French?

WILHELMINE.

The King detests all things foreign, and most of all does he detest France, her literature, her language.

PRINCE.

The Crown Prince is aware of that. He sends you therefore, as a beginning, a member of his Rheinsberg circle, a talkative but very learned little man, a Frenchman, Laharpe by name--

WILHELMINE.

All instructors of the French language have been banished from Berlin by strictest order.

PRINCE.

Laharpe will come to you without his identity becoming known.

WILHELMINE.

That is impossible. No one dare approach me who cannot first satisfy the questioning of the Castle Guard.

PRINCE.

Cannot Laharpe instruct you in the apartments of your, Lady-in-waiting, Fraülein von Sonnsfeld? WILHELMINE. Impossible.

PRINCE.

In the Queen's rooms, then.

WILHELMINE.

Impossible.

THE PRINCE.

By Heaven! Do they never leave you alone for one hour?

WILHELMINE.

Oh yes, two hours every Sunday--in church.

PRINCE.

But this is appalling! Why, in Versailles every Princess has her own establishment when she is but ten years old--and even her very dolls have their ladies-in-waiting!

WILHELMINE.

The only place which I may visit occasionally, and remain in unaccompanied, are those rooms over there, in the lower story of the palace.

PRINCE.

The King's private library, no doubt?

WILHELMINE.

No.

PRINCE.

A gallery of family portraits?

WILHELMINE.

Do you see the smoke issuing from the open window?

PRINCE.

That is--oh, it cannot be--the kitchen?

WILHELMINE.

Not exactly--but hardly much better. It is, I have the honor to inform you, the Royal Prussian Laundry. Yes, Prince, the sister of the Prussian Crown Prince is permitted to remain in that room for an hour or two if she will, to look on at the washing, the starching, the ironing, the sorting-out of body and house linen--

PRINCE.

This--for a Princess?

WILHELMINE.

Do you see the little window with the flower pots and the bird in a tiny cage? The wife of our silver-cleaner lives there, and occasionally, when the poor daughter of a King is supposed to be busied, like any serving-maid, among the steaming pots and boilers, this same poor Princess slips in secretly to the good woman's little room. Ah! there, behind those flower-pots, I can laugh freely and merrily--there I can let the little linnet feed from my hand, and I can say to myself that with all my troubles, with all my sorrows, I am still happier than the poor little singer in his cage. For he will never regain his freedom no matter how sweetly he may sing ... in all the tongues of earth.

PRINCE (_aside_).

She is charming. [_Aloud_.] And Laharpe?

WILHELMINE.

If I must dare it--send the learned gentleman to me down there, Prince. In that little room I will obey my brother's command to perfect my French style. Among many other things I should really like to learn to say, in most elegant and modern French, these words: "Yes I _will_ dare to begin a new life. Remain my brother's friend--and my protector!" But for the moment--goodby.

[_She hurries out_.]

SCENE IV

PRINCE (_alone_).

Where am I? Was that a scene from the Arabian Nights? Or am I really on the banks of that homely river Spree which flows into the Havel? Of a truth this Prussian Court with its queer pigtails and gaiters is more romantic than I had thought. Laharpe down there behind the flower-pots! Laharpe tête-à-tête with a Princess who visits the kitchen and with a linnet which--happy bird--is privileged to bite her fingers. How beautiful she is--much fairer than the miniature Frederick wears next his heart! And yet I had fallen in love with this miniature. [_Looks about him_.] There is a spell that seems to hold me in these rooms, through which she glides like the Genius of the bower. [_Goes to the window_.] Down there in the square, the bayonets of the parading troops flash in the sunlight--and that door over yonder leads to the apartments of a Princess whose possession would mean the highest bliss earth can afford. And there--whither leads that door through which the kind guardian of this paradise disappeared?

[_He turns toward the second door at the back, to his right._]

SONNSFELD (_comes in quickly, excitedly_).

Away Prince--away, the Queen is approaching.

PRINCE.

The Queen? Where shall I go?

SONNSFELD.

Into that room over there--you may find some way out--no one must see you here.

[_She pushes him to an opposite side-door_.]

PRINCE.

My knowledge of the territory is growing rapidly. [_He goes out_.]

SCENE V

_The_ QUEEN _comes in, followed by two ladies-in-waiting. She motions them to leave her. They go out. The_ QUEEN _sinks into a chair_.

QUEEN.

Has my daughter risen? I worked so late into the night that I am still quite fatigued. These wretched politics! Have you seen Kamke?

SONNSFELD.

Your Majesty's lackey? No, Your Majesty.

QUEEN.

He's been gone so long. I sent him to the Prince of Baireuth.

PRINCE (_peeping out from the door, aside_).

To me?

QUEEN.

If I may judge by the letters the Prince brings me from my son, he himself will one day be one of the best sovereigns of our century.

PRINCE (_aside_).

The field is all in my favor.

QUEEN.

My son, who judges men so keenly, assures me that I may trust this Prince completely. And I need some one of force and character to aid me; I need such a one now more than ever.

SONNSFELD (_alarmed_).

Is there--is there anything new in the air, Your Majesty?

QUEEN.

I shall need to display all my strength, all my will-power. I shall have need of it to uphold the dignity of a monarchy whose natural head appears to forget more and more that Prussia has recently joined the ranks of the Great Powers of Europe.

SONNSFELD.

Your Majesty--is laying plots?

QUEEN.

I am consumed with curiosity to make the acquaintance of this Prince whom my son considers worthy of his friendship. [SONNSFELD _motions to the Prince_.] As soon as he arrives, dear Sonnsfeld--

SONNSFELD (_pointing to the PRINCE, who comes in_).

Kamke has just shown him in. Here he is, Your Majesty.

QUEEN (_rising_).

This is a surprise, Prince. I did not hear you enter.

PRINCE.

Your Majesty was so deeply absorbed in thought--

QUEEN (_aside_).

He has a pleasing exterior and intelligent eyes. [_Aloud_.] Did my messenger--

PRINCE.

The good fellow met me just as I was about to leave my hotel. He gave me Your Majesty's gracious command.

QUEEN. Prince--[_She sits down, motioning him to do the same_.]

My heartiest thanks for the letters from my worthy son. One sentence, which I reread many times, permits me to assume that he has informed you of a certain matter, a certain plan of mine--

PRINCE.

Certainly, Your Majesty. [_Aside_.] I haven't heard a word about it.

QUEEN.

It makes me very happy to know that in this matter, as indeed in most things, my son and I are so completely in accord. Then you, also, think as we do on this subject?

PRINCE.

Undoubtedly--undoubtedly, Your Majesty. [_Aside_.] If I only knew _what_ subject!

QUEEN.

My son writes me that I may rely entirely on your sympathy in this affair.

PRINCE.

He did not exaggerate, Your Majesty. When I parted from him, his last words, called after my moving carriage, were these: "Dear friend, my gracious mother, the Queen, will inform you as to all further details concerning the affair in question."

QUEEN.

That sounds very like him. I am quite ready to do as he says.

PRINCE (_aside_).

The plot thickens.

QUEEN.

You know that the Electors of Brandenburg have but recently become Kings of Prussia. Although a Hanoverian Princess myself, I find my happiness in Prussia's greatness, my pride in Prussia's fame. No state has such need to be careful in the choice of its alliances, political or matrimonial, as our own. And hence there is no subject so interesting and so important to our country at the moment as a certain question which is already exciting the Cabinets of Europe, a question--the answer to which you have doubtless already guessed.

PRINCE.

I think--I may say--that I understand Your Majesty entirely. [_Aside_.] What can she mean?

QUEEN.

No one can call me unduly proud. But if one belongs to a family which has recently had the honor of being chosen to fill the throne of England--if one is the daughter of a King, the wife of a King, the mother of a future King--you will understand that in this matter of my daughter's future--there are weighty considerations which force me to avoid any possible political mésalliance.

PRINCE.

Mésalliance? The Princess? Your daughter [_Bewildered_.] I must confess--I was but superficially informed of all these matters.

QUEEN.

What I am about to tell you, Prince, under the seal of your utmost discretion, is a secret and the result of the gravest negotiations and plans. You know what kind of a Court this is at which I live. I am denied the influence which should be my right as mother of my country. The King has surrounded himself with persons who have separated him from me. I dare not think how this company of corporals and sergeants will receive my deeply thought-out plans. How will the King be inclined in regard to a matter that is of such decisive importance for the happiness of his children and the fair fame of his house? In this, Prince, you see my need of a man of your intelligence, your insight, that I may know what to hope--or [_firmly_] if need be--what to dare!

PRINCE.

I shall be most eagerly anxious to justify Your Majesty's confidence. [_Aside_.] Good Heavens!

QUEEN.

Let me then inform you of a secret but completed negotiation in which all the nearest relatives of our house have already taken part, and into the nature of which I now initiate you, too, as my son's friend. My daughter is to become the wife of my nephew, the Prince of Wales; she will therefore be the future Queen of England.

PRINCE (_aside_).

Zounds! A nice rival this!

QUEEN.

So you see, Prince, the importance of the issue involved! Will you consent to mediate this question--a question of such importance to all Europe--with my husband?

PRINCE.

I? With the King? Mediate? Oh, of course, Your Majesty, with the greatest pleasure! [_Aside_.] What a detestable errand!

QUEEN.

Very well, then you can begin at once. The King will be here shortly. Introduce yourself to him. Use this favorable moment to draw from him an expression of his opinion concerning the throne of England, and let me know the result at once.

PRINCE.

I am still quite bewildered by this--this flattering commission. And when may I pay my respects to Your Majesty again?

QUEEN.

At almost any time. But I should prefer the evening hours, when those on whom I can rely gather around me, while the King is with those persons whom I mentioned a short time ago. Farewell now, my dear Prince of--oh, dear me, now my son has forgotten to write me whether it is Ansbach or Baireuth that you inherit. It is so easy to confuse these little principalities. Ansbach--Baireuth--Ansbach--yes, that was it. Very well, my dear Prince of Ansbach, remember, Prussia, Hanover and England!

[_She bows to him with proud condescension and goes out_.]

SCENE VI

PRINCE (_alone_).

The future Queen of England! And I--the Hereditary Prince of Ansbach! That was a cruel blow of fate. And I am to mediate these matters of international importance! This angelic being, whom I love more madly with every breath I draw--this exquisite sister of my dear Frederick--is destined to become a victim of political intrigue? Oh no, she cannot possibly love the Prince of Wales; she has never seen him. But will they consult her inclination? Will cold considerations of politics heed the cry of her heart?--The parade is over, the suite is entering the castle; I dare not meet the king now in this excited mood.

[_He looks about as if seeking some means of escape_. EVERSMANN _comes in carrying a large book. He has a pen stuck in behind one ear. He crosses to the door through which the_ QUEEN _has gone out_.]

PRINCE (_aside_).

Who's this?

[EVERSMANN _looks the_ PRINCE _over from head to foot, moves forward a few paces, then halts again_.]

PRINCE (_aside_).

Can any one have seen me?

EVERSMANN (_goes to the door, halts again, looks at the_ PRINCE _impudently_).

PRINCE.

Why are you looking at me, sirrah? I am the Prince Hereditary of Baireuth.

EVERSMANN (_is quite indifferent, comes down a few steps, bows very slightly_).

His Majesty is coming in from the parade, but does not grant audiences in this room.

PRINCE.

I thank you for the information, my good man.

EVERSMANN.

Don't mention it, pray.

PRINCE.

And who are you?

EVERSMANN. I? [_There is along pause_.]

I am Eversmann. [_He goes out into the_ QUEEN's _room_.]

PRINCE.

Eversmann? The Minister of Finance or the Head Steward, I wonder? He betrays parsimony in every shred of his garments. [_Drums and the sound of presented arms is heard back_ _of the rear entrance_.] The King is coming. The King? Why should I feel so timid, so oppressed, all of a sudden? Does my courage fail me because I am about to confront this curiosity of his century? I'd rather observe him from the side at first.

[_He draws back and stands close by the door to the left_.]

SCENE VII

_A loud knocking, as with a cane, is heard at the centre door_.

PRINCE.

Come in.

KING (_outside_).

Eversmann!

PRINCE.

Now, what's that?

KING (_still without, beats the door loudly with his cane_).

Eversmann!

PRINCE.

Surely this castle is haunted!

[_He slips into the door at the right_.]

KING (_knocking again, still outside_).

Eversmann! Doesn't the fellow hear?

EVERSMANN (_coming in hurriedly_).

The door is open, Your Majesty. [_Goes to centre door, opens it_.]

PRINCE (_looking in at his door_).

Your Majesty? Is that the King?

KING (_in corridor but not yet visible_).

Eversmann, have you forgotten that this is the day for revising the books?

EVERSMANN.

No, indeed, Your Majesty. I was occupied in balancing the books of Her Majesty the Queen.

QUEEN (_comes out from her door, listens timidly_).

Was that the King's voice?

KING (_outside_).

Eversmann, tell the castellan that eleven o'clock is closing hour for my wife's apartment, and that, if I see a light again in her rooms until after midnight, I will come over myself at the stroke of twelve to search into every corner and to discover what political plot is brewing there. You'd better tell my wife yourself, sirrah--so that she may obey orders.

EVERSMANN.

So that she may obey orders.

QUEEN.

Miserable lackey! [_Goes out_.]

PRINCE (_aside_).

Will he go now?

KING (_outside_).

Eversmann!

EVERSMANN.

Your Majesty!

KING.

Now go to my daughter too, the Princess Wilhelmine--

[WILHELMINE _opens her door softly_.]

EVERSMANN.

To Her Royal Highness--

KING.

And tell her to have a care--this Laharpe--is a rascal.

WILHELMINE (_aside_).

Laharpe?

PRINCE (_aside_).

What's that?

KING.

Laharpe is a rascal, I say.

EVERSMANN.

A rascal.

KING.

And tell my daughter that I will teach a lesson to the Crown Prince for sending these French vagabonds here, who pretend to be teachers of the language and are merely ordinary, good-for-nothing wigmakers.

WILHELMINE.

How disgusting!

[_She goes out_.]

PRINCE (_aside_).

Wigmakers?

KING (_still outside_).

And now get back to the books!

EVERSMANN.

At once, Your Majesty.

KING.

Eversmann--one thing more, Eversmann!

EVERSMANN.

Your Majesty?

KING.

If you should see the Prince Hereditary of Baireuth--

PRINCE (_aside_).

It's my turn now.

KING.

That French windbag who's been hanging about Berlin since yesterday--

PRINCE (_aside_).

Pleasing description!

EVERSMANN.

I'll tell him Your Majesty will not receive him.

PRINCE (_aside_).

Rascal!

KING.

No, Eversmann, tell him I have something very important to say to him--something very confidential.

PRINCE (_aside_).

Confidential? To me?

KING.

Concerning an important and pressing matter.

EVERSMANN.

Oh, yes, I know.

KING.

You know, sirrah? What do you know? You know nothing at all.

EVERSMANN.

I thought--one might guess--

KING.

Guess? What right have you to guess? You're not to guess at all. Understand? Idiot! Shoulder arms, march! [_As he goes off a short roll of drums is heard_.]

PRINCE (_crosses quickly to_ EVERSMANN).

What do you know? What do you think it is that the King has to say to me?

EVERSMANN.

Oh, Your Highness is still here?

PRINCE.

The King wishes to speak to me. Do you know why? Tell me what you think.

EVERSMANN.

If Your Highness promises not to betray me--I think it concerns a certain affair--between Prussia and Austria.

PRINCE.

Austria?

EVERSMANN.

Arch-Duke Leopold is willing, they say--that is if [_with a sly gesture toward the_ PRINCESS' _room_] if Princess Wilhelmine--

PRINCE (_excited_).

The Princess?

EVERSMANN.

Sh! You will probably be chosen to conduct the negotiations between Prussia and--

PRINCE (_beside himself_).

The Princess is--destined--

EVERSMANN.

To be the future Empress of Austria.

[_He goes out into the_ QUEEN'S _room_.]

PRINCE (_alone_).

Empress! Queen! And I--I who love her to desperation, I am to help bring about either of these alliances? That will mean a tragedy or [_after a pause he continues more cheerfully_]--Courage--courage--it may turn out a comedy after all, as merry a comedy as ever was played at any Royal Court. [_He goes out_.]