It is of no avail in his excuse that he alleges his royal Majesty assaulted him first, unless this occurred at a time when his Majesty was angry with him, and he merely defended himself, which is human; but still could not be permitted to any subject against his king. But that he goes in to the king at a time when he had no duties to perform, and only in order to say harsh things to the king; that he goes in to terrify the king; that he abuses him; that he defies the king,--all this leaves him no other mode of escape but his statement, that the king assaulted him first. But, in my opinion, every man who suffers such treatment in his own house has the right to regale a man with a cudgel who comes into his room for the purpose of prostituting him, and how much more so a king. If his Majesty had killed him, Count Brandt, on the spot, it would have been his well-merited reward, and could have been answered before God and man. As concerns Count Brandt's general behaviour toward his royal Majesty; for instance, his going in to the king in his _peignoir_, remaining with his Majesty with his hat on, or entering the king's room while playing the flute, this is really such conduct as no master would put up with from his servant, much less a king from his subject. Count Brandt, it is true, apologises for all this by saying that his Majesty would have it so, and that the same thing was done in the time of earlier servants in an even more indifferent way. But the former is only a proof of his Majesty's gentleness and kindness, which do not like to express what a man ought to say to himself, and the latter gives him no right; for must I be a churl because my predecessor was one? In this matter I could mention several instances of bad conduct on the part of Count Brandt in treating his royal Majesty contemptuously. But as the great crime swallows up all the rest, it is unnecessary to mention them here, and so make the trial longer. _Crimine ab uno discimus omnia._ I will, therefore, now proceed to Count Brandt's second capital offence. II.