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.'