Yes, Prince. My artillery will furnish the salutes, and I will see to the reviews and parades my self. But it is in the evening that our guests grow weary in Berlin--they go to sleep in their chairs. Beer drinking and pipe smoking is not yet to every one"s taste. We"ll have to swim with the stream, therefore, and provide suitable amus.e.m.e.nts--illumination, operas, allegorical presentations, and such fol-da-rol--all about Prussia and England.
PRINCE.
England?
KING (_rises_).
Zounds! that ran over my tongue like a hare hurrying across the highway. H"m--I mean a sort of spectacle--oh, say unicorn--eagle--eagle--unicorn--leopard--intermingled--Prussia and England--and it must be in rhyme--in verse, as it were.
PRINCE.
England? This news comes with such a surprise! The whole country, Europe--the world--will wonder how England came to deserve such honor.
KING.
Oh, ho! don"t flatter the old--lackey! It"s an old affair, this one with England; my wife has been working at it for years.
PRINCE.
The Queen? Why, I fancied--that Her Majesty the Queen was much more in favor of Austria--
KING. Austria? [_Aside_.]
I might have known she would want to put her own will through. [_Aloud with decision_.] No. I received today a dispatch from our Amba.s.sador, who a.s.sures me that England is thinking seriously of this plan, of this marriage arranged in all secrecy. The Prince of Wales has taken ship from England; it is supposed that he is already landed on the Hanoverian coast. Meanwhile, a plenipotentiary has left London, in strictest _incognito_, on his way to treat with me concerning all the details of the marriage. The envoy is likely to arrive at any moment. You would place me under obligations to you, therefore--
PRINCE (_in despair_).
Shall it be a pastoral masque?
KING.
Yes. And the Crown Prince can play the flute for it, since he has learned that art behind my back.
PRINCE (_turns to go, but comes back_).
And the ladies and gentlemen of the Court are to act in it?
KING.
Surely. Give every one of them something to say, only not me. But Grumbkow must act in it. Yes, Grumbkow must be in it--and the ladies Viereck and Sonnsfeld--and Seckendorf--and--
PRINCE (_as above_).
Must it be in English or in French?
KING.
Neither. In German, good, pure, fiery German--High German, you understand, not the Berlin flavor. [_Confidentially_.] And if you could bring in a little Dutch somewhere--certain considerations of commerce would render that very pleasing to me; it will be spoken of in the papers and the Amba.s.sador of Holland will be there--you see, it"s about the importation of tobacco. [_Makes gestures as of smoking and whispers into the_ PRINCE"S _ear_.] But I suppose a fine young gentleman like yourself doesn"t smoke.
PRINCE (_in despair_).
No, Your Majesty--but my imagination is smoking like any volcano already.
A LACKEY (_coming in_).
The Privy Councilors urgently pray Your Majesty to receive them.
KING.
Gad, but they must be eaten up by curiosity! Bring them in. [_The lackey goes out_.] Well, as I was saying--an allegorical marriage masque--that"s what. Not quite in the style of Versailles. And yet I want the pre-marital feast to be fine enough to compare favorably with the one they rigged up in Dresden. Now--as for Holland. Put in some verses about the colonies, Prince, about the land where tobacco grows.
You know--it"s the land where the--
PRINCE (_beside himself_).
Where the Bong-tree grows! [_He goes out_.]
SCENE VI
GRUMBKOW _and_ SECKENDORF _come in. Each carries under his arm a small bundle of red-bound books_.
GRUMBKOW.
Forgive us, Your Majesty--but it is incredible that such unprecedented crimes should occur in the very bosom of the Royal Family!
KING.
What"s the matter now?
GRUMBKOW.
Your Majesty has already been informed about the Frenchman who was found wandering through the streets of Berlin without any proper pa.s.sport or identification, the man who had the temerity to say he had come to teach Princess Wilhelmine his language.
KING.
It was only a wigmaker from Orleans.
SECKENDORF.
Oh, but we have discovered further complications, Your Majesty! Books were found in this man"s possession, books which point to a dangerous connection with Rheinsberg.
GRUMBKOW.
Convince yourself, Your Majesty. These immoral French writings are all marked with the initials of His Highness the Crown Prince.
SECKENDORF.
F.P.R.