Part 54 (1/2)
”Your majesty,” answered Herzberg, smiling, ”these gentlemen are Colonel Bischofswerder and the councillor of the exchequer, Woellner, whom your majesty has commanded to appear before you.”
”You are the two gentlemen who work miracles, and have the effrontery to summon the spirit of our ancestor, the great elector, and the Emperor Marcus Aurelius?”
”Sire,” stammered Bischofswerder, ”we have tried to summon spirits.”
”And I too,” cried the king, ”only they will not come; therefore I wished to see the enchanters, and would like to purchase the secret.”
”Pardon me, most gracious sire,” said Woellner, humbly, ”you must first be received in the holy order of the Rosicrucians.”
”Thanks,” cried the king, ”I am not ready for the like follies, and whilst I live the Invisibles must take heed not to become too visible, or they will be taken care of. I will not permit Prussia to retrograde.
It has cost too much trouble to enlighten the people, bring them to reason, and banish hypocrisy. Say to the Rosicrucians that they shall leave the crown prince in peace, or I will chase them to the devil, who will receive them with open arms! It could do no harm to appeal to the prince's conscience to lead an honorable life, and direct his thoughts more to study than to love, but you shall not make a hypocrite of him and misuse his natural good-nature. If the Rosicrucians try to force the prince and rule him, I will show them that I am master, and will no longer suffer their absurdities, but will break up the whole nest of them! I have been much, annoyed at the deep despondency of the crown prince. You shall not represent to him that baseness and virtue are the same, and that he is the latter when he betrays those to whom he has sworn fidelity and affection. An honorable man must, above all, he cognizant of benefits, and not forsake those who have sacrificed their honor and love to him, and have proved their fidelity. Have you understood me, gentlemen?”
”It will be my holy duty to follow strictly your majesty's commands,”
said Bischofswerder.
”And I also will strive to promote the will of my king,” a.s.serted Woellner.
”It will be necessary to do so, or you two gentlemen may find yourselves at Spandau. I would say to you once for all, I will not suffer any sects; every one can wors.h.i.+p G.o.d in his own way. No one shall have the arrogant presumption to declare himself one of the elect. We are all sinners. The Rosicrucians are not better than the Illuminati or Freemasons, and none are more worthy than the tailor and cobbler who does his duty. Adieu!”
The king nodded quickly and pointed to the door out of which the two brothers were about to disappear, when he called them back.
”If the prince is not at the palace on your return, I advise you not to pursue him, but reflect that the Invisibles may have summoned him to a communion of spirits; I believe, too, that I kept you waiting; but without doubt you were comforted by the Fathers, who bore you away upon their wings, and gave you food and drink! Those who are protected by the spirits, and can summon them at pleasure, can never want. If you are hungry, call up the departed Lucullus, that he may provide for you to eat; and if you have no earthly seat, summon Semiramis that she may send you her hanging gardens for the quiet repose of the elect! I am rejoiced that you have enjoyed such celestial refreshments in the corridor.
Adieu!”
The king gazed sadly after them. Approaching Herzberg, he said: ”I felt, as I looked at the two rogues, that it was a pity to grow old. Did you think that I would let them off so easily?”
”Sire, I really do not understand you,” replied Herzberg, shrugging his shoulders. ”I know not, in your most active youthful days, how you could have done otherwise.”
”I will tell you that, if I were not an old man, void of decision and energy, I would have had these fellows taken to Spandau for life!” said the king, striking the table with his staff.
”Your majesty does yourself injustice,” said Herzberg, smiling. ”You were ever a just monarch in your most ardent youth, and never set aside the law. These men were not guilty of any positive crime.”
”They are daily and hourly guilty of enticing away from me the crown prince, and making the future ruler of my country an obscurer, a necromancer, and at the same time a libertine! I was obliged to overlook his youthful preference for Wilhelmine Enke, and wink at this amour, for I know that crown prince is human, and his affections are to be consulted. If he cannot love the wife which diplomacy chooses for him, then he must be permitted the chosen one of his heart to console him for the forced marriage. At the same time this person was pa.s.sable, and without the usual fault of such creatures, a desire to rule and mingle in politics. She seems to be unambitious and unpretentious. These Rosicrucians would banish her by increasing the number of favorites, that they may rule him, and make the future King of Prussia a complete tool in their hands. They excite his mind, which is not too well balanced, and rob him by their witchcraft of the intellect that he has.
They promise him to find the philosopher's stone, and make a fool of him. Am I not right?”
”I must acknowledge that you are,” sighed Herzberg.
”And admit also that it would be just to send these in, famous fellows as criminals to Spandau.”
”Sire, unfortunately, there are crimes and offences which the law does not reach, and which cannot be judged.”
”When I was young,” said the king, ”I tore up and stamped upon every weed that I found in my garden. Shall I now let these two grow and infect the air, because the law gives me no right to crush them?
Formerly I would have torn them leaf from leaf, but now I am old and useless, my hand is weak, and lacks the strength to uproot them, therefore I suffer them to stand, and all the other abominable things which these rogues bring to pa.s.s. A cloud is rising, from which a storm will one day burst over Prussia; but I cannot dissipate it, for the little strength and breath that remains I have need of for the government; and, moreover, I have no superfluous time for the future, but must live and work only for the present.”
”But the blessing of your exertions will be felt in the future. The deeds of a great man are not extinguished with his death, but s.h.i.+ne like a star, disseminating light beyond his grave!”