The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Volume Vii Part 29

You are surprised? It was a slight mistake in ident.i.ty.

PRINCE (_embarra.s.sed_).

Your Majesty--I am a stranger--

KING.

It's of no consequence. You were deucedly insolent--but my people are thick-skinned. Well--I want to speak to you, my dear Prince of Baireuth.

Are you just come from Baireuth?

PRINCE.

Yes, Your Majesty--that is, I left Baireuth three years ago.

KING.

And where were you all this time?

PRINCE.

In--in England.

KING.

Ah--you spent much time in England?

PRINCE (_aside_).

I suppose he wants me to help him with Austria, and to disparage England. [_Aloud_.] In England? Yes, quite time enough to learn all about that unmannerly and extremely ridiculous country and its ways.

KING:

What's that? England ridiculous? Here, here, young friend--_we_ have some distance to go yet before we reach the point where England stands today. H'm--have you been in Italy? Or in Austria--or thereabouts?

PRINCE (_aside_).

Does he favor England? I thought it was Austria--yes, he favors Austria.

[_Aloud_.] Austria? Surely; a wonderful country--such development of industry--and commerce--such life and activity in all directions!

KING.

Activity? H'm! The activity in Austria isn't dangerous yet!

PRINCE (_aside_).

Then he does not favor Austria. I fancy I'm not ingratiating myself at all.

KING (_aside_).

Has Seckendorf, or any of the others, been talking to him? Is he trying to please me? [_Aloud_.] A nice little country, that Baireuth of yours.

Soil somewhat stony, though!--doesn't yield your father much revenue, I dare say!

PRINCE.

We're learning to improve the soil. [_Aside_.] These geographical prejudices!

KING.

Trying to improve it by the pleasure palaces your father is building?

What's got into the man? Puts up one gimcrack after another, as if he were Louis Quatorze--and runs his country into debt meanwhile. About how much debt does your country carry?

PRINCE (_aside_).

I don't know that myself. [_Aloud, saucily_.] Ten millions.

KING.

Ten millions?

PRINCE.

More or less.

KING.

Good heavens! Who is to pay that debt eventually? And with such a state of things in the exchequer you're traveling about Europe, taking money out of the country?

PRINCE.

I'm completing my education, sire.

KING.

In Versailles? In Rheinsburg? Well, never mind, we've had enough of that. [_He whistles the_ _first bars of the Dessauer March_.] Tell me, you've taken part in those heathenish performances--at my son's Court, I mean?

PRINCE.

The part of a confidant, Your Majesty.

KING.

Good! It was about these heathenish performances that I wanted to speak to you. Prince, they tell me you are a man of taste, a man who is well acquainted with those G.o.dless Greek and Roman doings. As it is in my mind to celebrate my daughter's wedding with all pomp worthy of my crown--I want to ask you--to consult with my son--as to how most gracefully and amusingly to entertain the Courts of Poland, Saxony, Brunswick and Mecklenburg, who will all be here for an entire week--in a word, how we can win much honor and glory by this wedding.

PRINCE.

Wedding? The Princess--your daughter's wedding?

KING.