WILHELMINE.
Then you are preparing to do battle here?
PRINCE.
My intentions are not altogether peaceful, and yet, as Princess Wilhelmine doubtless knows, I am compelled to confine myself to a policy of defense solely.
WILHELMINE.
And even in this you cannot exercise too much care. [_Aside_.] The letter is no longer necessary. [_Aloud_.] How did you leave my brother?
In good health? And thoroughly occupied?
PRINCE.
The Crown Prince leads a life of the gayest diversity in his exile. He has made of Rheinsberg a veritable little Court of the Muses, devoted now to serious study, now to poetic recreation. We have enjoyed unforgettably beautiful hours there; one would hardly believe that so much imagination could be developed and encouraged on the borders of Mecklenburg! We paint, we build, we model, we write. The regiment which is under the immediate command of our talented Prince serves merely to carry out, by military evolutions, the strategic descriptions of Polybius. In short, I should deeply regret leaving so delightful a spot had it not been for the flattering and important task intrusted to me.
Princess, the Crown Prince desires full and true information, obtained at the source, as to the situation of his sister, his mother, here, that he may, if necessary, advise how this situation be improved, how any difficulties may be met.
WILHELMINE.
If it became known that I am granting an audience, here in this public hall, to a Prince who has not yet been presented either to my father or to my mother--I could prepare myself for several weeks in Fortress Kustrin.
[_She bows and turns as if to go_.]
PRINCE.
Princess! Then it is really true--that which is whispered, with horror, at every court in Europe? It is true that the King of Prussia tyrannizes not only his court, his entire environment, but his own family as well?
WILHELMINE.
Prince, you employ too harsh an expression for what I would rather term merely our own peculiar ceremonial. In Versailles they glide as on b.u.t.terfly wings over the polished floors. Here we tread the earth with ringing spurs. In Versailles the Royal Family consider themselves but as a merry company, recognizing no ties as sacred save those of congeniality, no bond but that of--unfettered inclination. Here the Court is merely one big middle-cla.s.s family, where a prayer is said before meat, where the parents must always be the first to speak, where strictest obedience must, if necessary, tolerate even absurdities; where one quarrels, out of one"s mutual affection, sometimes--where we even torture one another and make life harder for one another--all out of love--
PRINCE.
Princess, I swear to you--this must be changed.
WILHELMINE.
And how, pray?
PRINCE.
The Crown Prince asked me to employ all conceivable means to free you from this barbarism. I am at your service entirely--command me. His first thought was for your mental needs. How is it with your knowledge of French?
WILHELMINE.
The King detests all things foreign, and most of all does he detest France, her literature, her language.
PRINCE.
The Crown Prince is aware of that. He sends you therefore, as a beginning, a member of his Rheinsberg circle, a talkative but very learned little man, a Frenchman, Laharpe by name--
WILHELMINE.
All instructors of the French language have been banished from Berlin by strictest order.
PRINCE.
Laharpe will come to you without his ident.i.ty becoming known.
WILHELMINE.
That is impossible. No one dare approach me who cannot first satisfy the questioning of the Castle Guard.
PRINCE.
Cannot Laharpe instruct you in the apartments of your, Lady-in-waiting, Fraulein von Sonnsfeld? WILHELMINE. Impossible.
PRINCE.
In the Queen"s rooms, then.
WILHELMINE.
Impossible.
THE PRINCE.
By Heaven! Do they never leave you alone for one hour?
WILHELMINE.
Oh yes, two hours every Sunday--in church.
PRINCE.
But this is appalling! Why, in Versailles every Princess has her own establishment when she is but ten years old--and even her very dolls have their ladies-in-waiting!
WILHELMINE.
The only place which I may visit occasionally, and remain in unaccompanied, are those rooms over there, in the lower story of the palace.
PRINCE.
The King"s private library, no doubt?
WILHELMINE.
No.