Chapter 27

_The_ KING _comes in, in dress uniform, with the grand cordon_.

PRINCE (_looking at him_).

Is that not--

KING.

You are surprised? It was a slight mistake in identity.

PRINCE (_embarrassed_).

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 godless 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.

Yes, Prince. My artillery will furnish the salutes, and I will see to the reviews and parades my self. But it is in the evening that our guests grow weary in Berlin--they go to sleep in their chairs. Beer drinking and pipe smoking is not yet to every one's taste. We'll have to swim with the stream, therefore, and provide suitable amusements--illumination, operas, allegorical presentations, and such fol-da-rol--all about Prussia and England.

PRINCE.

England?

KING (_rises_).

Zounds! that ran over my tongue like a hare hurrying across the highway. H'm--I mean a sort of spectacle--oh, say unicorn--eagle--eagle--unicorn--leopard--intermingled--Prussia and England--and it must be in rhyme--in verse, as it were.

PRINCE.

England? This news comes with such a surprise! The whole country, Europe--the world--will wonder how England came to deserve such honor.

KING.

Oh, ho! don't flatter the old--lackey! It's an old affair, this one with England; my wife has been working at it for years.

PRINCE.

The Queen? Why, I fancied--that Her Majesty the Queen was much more in favor of Austria--

KING. Austria? [_Aside_.]

I might have known she would want to put her own will through. [_Aloud with decision_.] No. I received today a dispatch from our Ambassador, who assures me that England is thinking seriously of this plan, of this marriage arranged in all secrecy. The Prince of Wales has taken ship from England; it is supposed that he is already landed on the Hanoverian coast. Meanwhile, a plenipotentiary has left London, in strictest _incognito_, on his way to treat with me concerning all the details of the marriage. The envoy is likely to arrive at any moment. You would place me under obligations to you, therefore--

PRINCE (_in despair_).

Shall it be a pastoral masque?

KING.

Yes. And the Crown Prince can play the flute for it, since he has learned that art behind my back.

PRINCE (_turns to go, but comes back_).

And the ladies and gentlemen of the Court are to act in it?

KING.

Surely. Give every one of them something to say, only not me. But Grumbkow must act in it. Yes, Grumbkow must be in it--and the ladies Viereck and Sonnsfeld--and Seckendorf--and--

PRINCE (_as above_).

Must it be in English or in French?

KING.

Neither. In German, good, pure, fiery German--High German, you understand, not the Berlin flavor. [_Confidentially_.] And if you could bring in a little Dutch somewhere--certain considerations of commerce would render that very pleasing to me; it will be spoken of in the papers and the Ambassador of Holland will be there--you see, it's about the importation of tobacco. [_Makes gestures as of smoking and whispers into the_ PRINCE'S _ear_.] But I suppose a fine young gentleman like yourself doesn't smoke.

PRINCE (_in despair_).

No, Your Majesty--but my imagination is smoking like any volcano already.

A LACKEY (_coming in_).

The Privy Councilors urgently pray Your Majesty to receive them.

KING.

Gad, but they must be eaten up by curiosity! Bring them in. [_The lackey goes out_.] Well, as I was saying--an allegorical marriage masque--that's what. Not quite in the style of Versailles. And yet I want the pre-marital feast to be fine enough to compare favorably with the one they rigged up in Dresden. Now--as for Holland. Put in some verses about the colonies, Prince, about the land where tobacco grows. You know--it's the land where the--

PRINCE (_beside himself_).

Where the Bong-tree grows! [_He goes out_.]