"Just show me this note."
The painter handed him a small, neatly folded paper, which the count tore open and perused with a rapid glance.
"Nothing more, in fact, than a very warm recommendation," he said. "And this is all?"
"No, your excellency, the best part is yet to come. The Electress has appointed me her court painter. I receive the same salary as the recently deceased court painter, Mathias Ezizeken, namely, a yearly income of fifty dollars, board and rent free, with two suits of new clothes annually." [17]
"Now, indeed, you may well be content," laughed the count; "that is truly a magnificent appointment, and henceforth you become a prominent man at court here! But tell me, master, do you still accept in addition the little stipend I have allotted you?"
"Your excellency, I esteem myself happy indeed that your grace has granted it to me."
"And my treasurer has paid out to you the three thousand ducats?"
"Yes, your excellency, he has paid them out to me, and I am now released from all cares."
"You have only one care left, master," said Count Schwarzenberg—"this one care, that I may some day denounce you as a shameful deceiver, who has sold me a bad copy of his own manufacture for an original, and be assured that this deception may bring you to the gallows at any time if I choose it."
"But, most gracious sir," stammered the painter, pale as death, "I thought you had forgiven me, and—"