'O, six-and-thirty!' he protested. 'A man is not yet old at
six-and-thirty. I am that age myself.'

'I should have taken you for more, sir,' piped the old farmer. 'But if
that be so, you are of an age with Master Ottekin, as people call him;
and, I would wager a crown, have done more service in your time. Though
it seems young by comparison with men of a great age like me, yet it's
some way through life for all that; and the mere fools and fiddlers are
beginning to grow weary and to look old. Yes, sir, by six-and-thirty, if
a man be a follower of God's laws, he should have made himself a home and
a good name to live by; he should have got a wife and a blessing on his
marriage; and his works, as the Word says, should begin to follow him.'

'Ah, well, the Prince is married,' cried Fritz, with a coarse burst of
laughter.

'That seems to entertain you, sir,' said Otto.

'Ay,' said the young boor. 'Did you not know that? I thought all Europe
knew it!' And he added a pantomime of a nature to explain his accusation
to the dullest.

'Ah, sir,' said Mr. Gottesheim, 'it is very plain that you are not from
hereabouts! But the truth is, that the whole princely family and Court
are rips and rascals, not one to mend another. They live, sir, in
idleness and--what most commonly follows it--corruption. The Princess
has a lover--a Baron, as he calls himself, from East Prussia; and the
Prince is so little of a man, sir, that he holds the candle. 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 th