rgsdorf!" now cried the Elector, turning half toward him
with grave, severe countenance, "just tell me how strong was the regiment
which you enlisted for the Electoral army last year?"

"Most gracious sir, I enlisted two thousand four hundred men."

"That is to say," cried the Elector sternly, "you obtained the bounty
money for recruiting two thousand four hundred men; but I would be glad to
learn of you how many of those men actually existed."

"Your highness," stammered Burgsdorf in confusion, "I do not understand
what your grace means. If I obtained bounty money for two thousand four
hundred men, they certainly existed."

"So one would suppose, indeed," replied the Elector; "yet it can not have
been, for before me lies a letter from Count Schwarzenberg to my father,
and only hear what the Stadtholder in the Mark writes. Leuchtmar, come
here please and read."

Leuchtmar hastened forward, and, taking the paper which the Elector held
out to him, read: "'It is to be lamented that the officers contrive to
pocket so much press money and hardly produce one out of every six men
said to have been enlisted. Colonel von Kehrdorf received pay and rations
for twelve hundred men, and yet had not over eighty; General von
Klitzing's regiment ought to be two thousand strong, and in reality
numbers only six hundred; Colonel Conrad von Burgsdorf gives out that he
has two thousand four hundred recruits, and there are not quite six
hundred of them.'"

"That is a lie--a base lie!" cried Burgsdorf, whose face was purple with
passion. "The Stadtholder in the Mark has always been my enemy and
opponent, and if he maintains that I only enlisted six hundred men--"

"He maintains something quite untrue," interrupted the Elector; "but he
maintains no such thing. You interrupted Leuchtmar; let him read to the
end, and hear the conclusion." Leuchtmar read on: "'And if you pick
perhaps two hundred able-bodied men out of the six hundred, there remain
four hundred feeble, sickly fellows, who would fall down like dead flies
on the very first march.'"[35]

"You see that Schwarzenberg does not maintain that you enlisted six
hundred able-bodied men."

"Your highness!" cried Burgsdorf, trembling with passion, "this I see,
that you have had me called here in order to dismiss me, to banish me
forever from your presence--and yet I have served you so faithfully, and
have always hoped that you would forgive me."

"Forgive?" asked the Elector. "Had I