“You need not cry, Ernest. You cannot help me. You have not plotted against me, and bribed my friends and servants. You have not spent the moments when my head lay on your breast in calculating how to betray me. You have not watched me from day to day, for something which you might seize upon to carry to my enemies as a symptom of insanity. If you gave me food I should not spit it out again in secret, for fear it might be poisoned!”
The boy’s eyes grew large with horror.
“What do you mean? Poison!” he cried.
“Yes; but have no fear, they will not poison you. But when you are King, Ernest, do not forget your people. That is a crime for which you will deserve to be punished as I am. Rule them, Ernest, but rule them yourself; let no Ministers come between you and them, and usurp your power from you. Govern them justly but kindly; if they make complaints, listen to them; if they have just grievances, redress them. Let no wrong be done with impunity in any corner of the land. Trust no reports from others; see with your own eyes and hear with your own ears. Remember that you are but the first of servants after all. Try to make your people happier; do not be content with mere submission, do not wait till discontent grows dangerous. Study their problems, find out their needs beforehand. Above all, love them, Ernest, and they will love you, and no traitors will ever dare to conspire against your throne, and tear your crown from you like this.”
He wrenched the diadem roughly from his head and made as if to cast it on the floor. But a new impulse suddenly coming to sway his mind, he strode up to where his young cousin stood trembling and speechless.
“Take it, it is yours. See, I crown you, Ernest V. of Franconia!”
And he thrust the circlet forcibly down upon the lad’s brow.
“No! No! Take it away!” cried Ernest, wildly. “It hurts me.”
“Why, so it should,” returned Maximilian, grimly. “Did you think crowns were pleasant things to wear? It will hurt you more presently, Ernest, it will grow red-hot, and sear a mark upon your forehead that will never wear away.”
“You frighten me! I do not know what all this means. I feel something inside me, as if my head would burst.”