Nor is that the worst of it, for this foreigner and his
paramour are suffered to transact the State affairs, while the
Prince takes the salary and leaves all things to go to wrack. There
will follow upon this some manifest judgment which, though I am old,
I may survive to see.'
'Good man, you are in the wrong about Gondremark,' said Fritz,
showing a greatly increased animation; 'but for all the rest, you
speak the God's truth like a good patriot. As for the Prince, if he
would take and strangle his wife, I would forgive him yet.'
'Nay, Fritz,' said the old man, 'that would be to add iniquity to
evil. For you perceive, sir,' he continued, once more addressing
himself to the unfortunate Prince, 'this Otto has himself to thank
for these disorders. He has his young wife and his principality,
and he has sworn to cherish both.'
'Sworn at the altar!' echoed Fritz. 'But put your faith in
princes!'
'Well, sir, he leaves them both to an adventurer from East Prussia,'
pursued the farmer: 'leaves the girl to be seduced and to go on from
bad to worse, till her name's become a tap-room by-word, and she not
yet twenty; leaves the country to be overtaxed, and bullied with
armaments, and jockied into war - '
'War!' cried Otto.
'So they say, sir; those that watch their ongoings, say to war,'
asseverated Killian. 'Well, sir, that is very sad; it is a sad
thing for this poor, wicked girl to go down to hell with people's
curses; it's a sad thing for a tight little happy country to be
misconducted; but whoever may complain, I humbly conceive, sir, that
this Otto cannot.
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