ce. But in my poor
opinion, I doubted much whether his Electoral Highness would be able to
come to an understanding without detriment to his honour and truth,
_salvo honore et fide sua_.

"Then his Majesty interposed promptly: 'Yes, they will honour you when
they have deprived you of your land and people. The Imperialists will
keep faith with you as they have kept the capitulation.'

"I: 'It is necessary to look to the future, and consider how all will
fall to ruin if the undertaking does not prosper.'

"The King: 'That will happen if you remain inactive, and would have
done so already if I had not come. My loving cousin ought to do as I
have done, and commend the result to God. I have not lain on a bed for
fourteen days. I might have spared myself this trouble and sat at home
with my wife if I had had no greater considerations.'

"I: 'As your Kingly Majesty is content that his Electoral Highness
should become mediator, you must at least allow his Electoral Highness
to remain neutral.'

"The King: 'Yes, till I come to his country. Such an idea is mere
chaff, which the wind raises and blows away. _What kind of a thing is
that Neutrality? I do not understand it!_'

"I: 'Yet your Kingly Majesty understood it well in Prussia, where you
yourself suggested it to his Electoral Highness and to the city of
Dantzic.'

"The King: 'Not to the Elector, but certainly to the city of Dantzic,
for it was to my advantage.'

"After this he returned again to the subject of the Duke of Pomerania,
saying that the good prince had been well content with him. He would
have restored him Stralsund, Ruegen, Usedom, Wollin, and all the rest.
The Duke had desired that his Majesty should be his father. 'But I,'
said his Majesty, 'answered, I would rather be his son, as he has no
children.'

"Thereupon I answered: 'Yes, Kingly Majesty, that might very well be,
if his Electoral Highness could only maintain the law of primogeniture
in Pomerania.'

"The King: 'Yes, that may be very easily maintained by my loving
cousin; but he must defend it, and not, like Esau, sell it for a mess
of pottage.'"

Thus far goes the narrative.

When the great King, the lord of half Germany, sank into the dust in
battle, the wail of lamentation broke forth in all the Protestant
territories. Funeral services were performed in the towns and country,
endless elegies poured forth; even the enemy concealed their joy under
a manly sympathy, which at that time was