"That I will," cried the king, slightly striking the table with his hand; "should my exile endure twenty or thirty years, I will never cease to struggle for my rights!"
"Your majesty is perfectly justified in this resolution," said Meding. "War has been declared against you, and no peace concluded with you. Your majesty is a recognized enemy, and you can act accordingly; but you must then expect the other side to proceed in a similar way. For us, your majesty's servants, duty is clearly defined. Since your majesty has willed to continue the struggle, all our opinions must be governed by this determination. The possession of domains in the kingdom of Hanover would make you completely dependent upon the Prussian government. Every landowner, in concluding arrangements, must recognize almost daily the authority of the present possessors of the country. All this does not accord with the attitude your majesty desires to maintain. Besides--forgive me, your majesty, but I cannot forget a maxim taught me by my great master in politics, Herr von Manteuffel----"
"A Prussian maxim," said the crown prince, laughing.
"Your royal highness," replied Meding gravely, "the maxims I learnt and followed in the Prussian service, I will never deny. From following these maxims implicitly, I have now the honour of standing beside my king in his misfortunes. Circumstances,--my love and my duty to my royal master,--may make me the enemy of the land of my birth, but deny and scoff at it I never will."
The crown prince was silent.
"You are perfectly right," cried the king energetically. "You would be no true servant to me if you denied your former masters. Well, then, Herr von Manteuffel--?"
"Herr von Manteuffel," continued Meding, "used to say, 'A good general thinks first of a retreat.' In the struggle which your majesty undertakes, I think anxiously of a retreat; and it appears to me unworthy of the Guelphs to continue to be landowners in the country where they wore the crown. An independent capital will be the basis of obtaining fresh possessions in a country which, after the loss of the throne of Hanover, opens a great and glorious future to princes of the house of Guelph--in England."
"But shall we then give up all the possessions of our family, so full of remembrances?" cried the crown prince.
"If his majesty recovers the crown of Hanover," said Meding, "he will also recover possession of the royal domains; if not, these remembrances can only be painful. I certainly believe, too," he added, "that Prussia will grant no domains without an express recognition of her sovereignty."
The king was thoughtfully silent.