The prince regarded the smiling courtier earnestly, almost angrily.
"Do you know," he said, "that what you say appears to me very
immoral?"

"Immoral?" asked Pollnitz, astonished; "what is that? Your princely
highness knows that I received my education at the French court,
under the protection of the Regent of Orleans and the Princess of
the Palatinate, and there I never heard this word immoral. Perhaps
your highness will have the kindness to explain it to me."

"That would be preaching to deaf ears," said the prince, shrugging
his shoulders. "We will not quarrel about the meaning of a word. I
only wish to make you understand that I would not marry at my
brother's bon plaisir. I will not continue this race of miserable
princes, that are entirely useless, and consequently a burden to the
state. Oh! if Heaven would only give me the opportunity to
distinguish myself before this people, and give to this name that is
go small, so unworthy, a splendor, a color, a signification!"

"Your highness is ambitous," said Pollnitz, as the prince, now
silent, paced his room with deep emotion.

"Yes, I am ambitious--I thirst for action, renown, and activity. I
despise this monotonous, colorless existence, without end or aim. By
God! how happy I should be, if, instead of a prince, I could be a
simple private man, proprietor of a small landed estate, with a few
hundred subjects, that I should endeavor to make happy! But I am
nothing but a king's brother, have nothing but my empty title and
the star upon my coat. My income is so small, so pitiful, that it
would scarcely suffice to pay the few servants I have, if, at the