n, he had
accidentally made the acquaintance of a young man, who was passing
through Berlin on his way to Gotha, the duke having offered to
advance him the capital necessary to found a factory for the making of
porcelain according to a process of his own invention. The specimens
exhibited convinced Gotzkowsky that this young man was fully
acquainted with the secret of porcelain-making, and he had therefore
immediately determined to forestall the Duke of Gotha.

Money had in this instance, as usual, exercised its charm, and nothing
more was necessary than to outbid the terms agreed on with the duke.
A few thousand dollars more offered, and double purchase-money, had
secured the secret of porcelain-making to Gotzkowsky, and bound the
inventor down in Berlin for life.[1]

The arrangements necessary for the first attempts were made in one of
the out-buildings of his house, and the articles offered to the king
were the first-fruits of his factory. The king listened to him with
intense interest, and when Gotzkowsky had finished, he nodded to him
with a smile.

"The Marquis d'Argens is right. I wish myself I had many such citizens
as you are. It would be a fine thing to be a king if all one's
subjects were true men, and made it worth one's while to be to them a
kind father and lord. You have fulfilled a favorite wish of mine; and
let me tell you, I do not think you will call the porcelain factory
yours long. I think it will soon be a royal factory."

"I founded it for your majesty."

"Good, good! you have given me a pleasure, I will give you one in
return. Ask some favor for yourself. You are silent. Do you know of
nothing to ask for?"

"Oh, yes, indeed," said Gotzkowsky, ardently, "I have a great favor to
ask--have pity on the poor inhabitants of this town!"

The king frowned and pressed his lips angrily together. "Do you know
that I have generally forbidden any one to trouble me with these
Leipsic jeremiades?"

"I know it, sire."

The king looked at him with astonishment. "And yet you do it?"

"Yes, sire, I do it because I relied on the kind, noble heart of my
king, and because humanity bade me not to fear your majesty's anger,
when it became a question of mercy to the oppressed."

"And for this reason you wanted to bribe me with your bits of
porcelain. Oh, you are a reckoner, but this time you have reckoned
without your host. No pity for these obstinate Leipsigers. They must
pay the eleven hundred thousand do