Prince Otto | Page 7

will be done"; but if the prince
meets with a reverse, he may have to blame himself for the attempt.
And perhaps, if all the kings in Europe were to confine themselves to

innocent amusement, the subjects would be the better off.'
'Ay,' said the young man Fritz, 'you are in the right of it there. That was
a true word spoken. And I see you are like me, a good patriot and an
enemy to princes.'
Otto was somewhat abashed at this deduction, and he made haste to
change his ground. 'But,' said he, 'you surprise me by what you say of
this Prince Otto. I have heard him, I must own, more favourably
painted. I was told he was, in his heart, a good fellow, and the enemy of
no one but himself.'
'And so he is, sir,' said the girl, 'a very handsome, pleasant prince; and
we know some who would shed their blood for him.'
'O! Kuno!' said Fritz. 'An ignoramus!'
'Ay, Kuno, to be sure,' quavered the old farmer. 'Well, since this
gentleman is a stranger to these parts, and curious about the Prince, I do
believe that story might divert him. This Kuno, you must know, sir, is
one of the hunt servants, and a most ignorant, intemperate man: a right
Grunewalder, as we say in Gerolstein. We know him well, in this house;
for he has come as far as here after his stray dogs; and I make all
welcome, sir, without account of state or nation. And, indeed, between
Gerolstein and Grunewald the peace has held so long that the roads
stand open like my door; and a man will make no more of the frontier
than the very birds themselves.'
'Ay,' said Otto, 'it has been a long peace - a peace of centuries.'
'Centuries, as you say,' returned Killian; 'the more the pity that it should
not be for ever. Well, sir, this Kuno was one day in fault, and Otto, who
has a quick temper, up with his whip and thrashed him, they do say,
soundly. Kuno took it as best he could, but at last he broke out, and
dared the Prince to throw his whip away and wrestle like a man; for we
are all great at wrestling in these parts, and it's so that we generally
settle our disputes. Well, sir, the Prince did so; and, being a weakly
creature, found the tables turned; for the man whom he had just been
thrashing like a negro slave, lifted him with a back grip and threw him
heels overhead.'
'He broke his bridle-arm,' cried Fritz - 'and some say his nose. Serve
him right, say I! Man to man, which is the better at that?'
'And then?' asked Otto.
'O, then Kuno carried him home; and they were the best of friends from

that day forth. I don't say it's a discreditable story, you observe,'
continued Mr. Gottesheim; 'but it's droll, and that's the fact. A man
should think before he strikes; for, as my nephew says, man to man was
the old valuation.'
'Now, if you were to ask me,' said Otto, 'I should perhaps surprise you.
I think it was the Prince that conquered.'
'And, sir, you would be right,' replied Killian seriously. 'In the eyes of
God, I do not question but you would be right; but men, sir, look at
these things differently, and they laugh.'
'They made a song of it,' observed Fritz. 'How does it go? Ta-tum-
ta-ra . . .'
'Well,' interrupted Otto, who had no great anxiety to hear the song, 'the
Prince is young; he may yet mend.'
'Not so young, by your leave,' cried Fritz. 'A man of forty.'
'Thirty-six,' corrected Mr. Gottesheim.
'O,' cried Ottilia, in obvious disillusion, 'a man of middle age! And they
said he was so handsome when he was young!'
'And bald, too,' added Fritz.
Otto passed his hand among his locks. At that moment he was far from
happy, and even the tedious evenings at Mittwalden Palace began to
smile upon him by comparison.
'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