"Count Lesle, lord high chamberlain to the Emperor!" exclaimed the
Stadtholder in surprise. "Is it you? Are you direct from Regensburg?"
"Yes, Count Schwarzenberg, I have come here direct from Regensburg, to depart again without delay. My traveling carriage stands without before your door, and I shall presently enter it, and journey hence again. You will on that account excuse my want of ceremony, but as the Emperor Ferdinand permits me to enter his apartments at any time, I thought that the Stadtholder of the Mark would not be less affable. Moreover, I could not send in my name, for no one besides yourself is to know of my being here, and I wish to travel incognito. Will you, then, pardon me, Count Schwarzenberg, and am I excused?"
"I am the one to sue for forgiveness, on account of my impatience, and I do so most cordially. And now I entreat you, count, first of all, make yourself comfortable. Permit me to assist you in laying aside your cumbrous traveling habit, and accept some ease and refreshment."
With officious zeal he busied himself in aiding his visitor to emerge from his wrappings, and soon Count Lesle stood before the Stadtholder of the Mark in the beautiful, unique Spanish garb, such as was worn at the imperial court.
"How glorious you look in those magnificent velvet robes!" cried Count Schwarzenberg, with a sigh, "and how much your Spanish costume makes me long for the sumptuous life of the imperial court! Ah! my dear count, here among us you find hardly a trace of this costly, splendid living, and an imperial valet or house servant has more pleasure and enjoyment than an Electoral Stadtholder in the Mark."
"Yet it is a fine and sonorous title," said Count Lesle, smiling, while he stretched himself out comfortably in the great armchair which Count Schwarzenberg had rolled forward for him, "and it is also a great and influential office. The Emperor's Majesty knows very well what a mighty and potent man the Stadtholder in the Mark is, and that Count Schwarzenberg is really Elector of Brandenburg."
"His Imperial Majesty knows, too, that I have never yet ceased to be the faithful and devoted servant of the Emperor," cried Schwarzenberg, at the same time drawing a simple chair to the side of the count's fauteuil, and seating himself upon it. "His Imperial Majesty knows, I hope, that first and above all other things I place my duty to the Emperor, and that I have no higher aim than to subserve the interests of his Imperial Majesty."
"Yes, the Emperor, our most gracious Sovereign, knows that," said Count Lesle feelingly. "He does not for a moment doubt the fidelity and attachment of the Stadtholder in the Mark, who has always been mindful that the Elector is only the Emperor's vassal, and the Emperor the real lord of the whole German Empire."
"And to maintain this relation intact, yes, that is what I have made the greatest task of my life," cried Schwarzenberg, with animation. "It is a task, in truth, not easy to be accomplished, for the Emperor's supreme Government has many enemies here at the electoral court, and very many there are here who maintain that Brandenburg should free herself entirely from imperial vassalage, and that the Elector should be sole lord within his own domains. But now, dearest lord high chamberlain and count, tell me wherefore you have come here so unexpectedly, and what news do you bring from Regensburg?"
"Very serious and very subtle news I bring with me, count," replied Count Lesle, "and of such a tender, delicate nature that we could not willingly entrust it to paper, even in cipher, but could only transmit it from my lips to your ear, and thence to the locked-up recesses of your breast. Therefore I have come to you, and need hardly say that not a breath of our conversation is to escape, and that nobody must know of my having been here. The question is about the Electoral Prince of Brandenburg—that young man who has already tarried more than three years in the Netherlands, and is imbibing there the hated poison of insubordination and passion for freedom. It is high time that the Electoral Prince were recalled."