The affair came to the Elector's ears, and jealousy sprang up between
the brothers. The Elector's manner changed; {290} he refused the
promised appanage, he treated Rupert with marked coldness, and finally
retired to Alzei, where there was little accommodation for his court.
Rupert followed him thither, and was denied a sufficiency of rooms for
himself and his servants; then, as usual, he lost his temper.[18] There
was a quarrel, and the younger brother departed in a rage, taking with
him all his movables--which cannot have been many.[19] He went first
to Heidelberg, but the Elector, either wishful to insult him, or really
fearful of his violence, wrote, ordering that he should be refused
admittance to the city. To his surprise and indignation, Rupert found
the gates closed against him. He demanded to see the order by which
this thing was done. The order was shown him, written in the Elector's
own hand. It was too much! Then and there Rupert raised his hat from
his head, and swore, with tears in his eyes, that he would never more
set foot in the Palatinate.[20] Twenty years later, when it seemed to
the Elector that his race was about to die out, he would have given
much to recall his ill-used brother. But all the entreaties which he
lavished on Rupert, produced but one answer: "Ich habe auf Euer Liebden
Veranlassung ein feierliches Geluebde zu Gott gethan, die Pfalz nie
wieder zu betreten; und will, bei dem wenn auch bedauerlich beschwornen
Vorsatze beharren." "Your Belovedness,"--a curious Palatine substitute
for Your Highness,--"has caused me to take a solemn oath to God that I
will never more set foot in the Palatinate; and my sworn, if
regretable, oath I will keep."[21] Rupert, like his father before him,
was "a Prince religious of his word."
After his quarrel with his brother, Rupert wandered back to Vienna, and
is said to have served in the wars in Pomerania and Hungary. In 1657
it was stated in England {291} that "Prince Rupert hath command of
8,000 men, under the King of Hungary, who will owe his empirate to his
sword."[22] And a German authority describes him as leading in the
capture of the Swedish entrenchments at Warnemuende, 1660.[23] But the
truth of these reports is very doubtful, and he seems to have resided
between 1657 and 1660 chiefly with his friend the Elector of Mainz. At
Mainz he lived in tranquillity, but in great poverty. "He looks
exceedingly poverty-stricken," wrote Sophie of another Cavalier, "and I
fear that Rupert will soon do the same, judging by his menage."[24]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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