State, it will again become the kingdom of Frederick the Great, that rests upon its own strength." "We are all unanimous thereupon," cried Werner von Schlohitten, and a general jubilant applause proved this unanimity. "Her von Blanden, he is our man," rang Hermann's deep bass. "But you will permit us one question?" cried Milbe. "Questions are permitted not only in _ombre_, and candidates for election may be examined." "That is my great desire," replied Blanden. "You are in favour of a National Assembly," continued Milbe; "that is good! A National Assembly is _spadille_, but there is still a _basta_, a second trump which we wish to play out in East Prussia. Thunder and lightning! we here are in favour of healthy human understanding, and there in Berlin they want to pull the night-cap over our ears again. We believe in our good Lord, but we are told to believe in all possible miracles. Thus we should come to a nice state of _codille_ with our politics. False piety has become the fashion; our foals are already ordered to graze in these melancholy meadows. _Sapperment_--we need men who do not love to grope about in such darkness; men like old Dinter, who went about in schools shedding the light of enlightenment. If all the world sits like a dummy, the game of _ombre_ would cease. But we in Prussia still have the best games in our hand, and will not, for a longtime yet, write the world's history in a kettle; we will not be nor remain dark men." "That we will not, that we will not!" cried all, unanimously. "Truly not," added Blanden, with sharp emphasis. "Well, then, Herr von Blanden," said Milbe, with great intrepidity, and the same demeanour with which he announced a dangerous game at _ombre_, "that is just the point. That is the evil of it!" Baron von Fuchs pulled Milbe's coat-tail, the Landrath raised his fore-finger warningly, Wegen signed to him to stop, as he was accustomed to sign to the sentinels to cease when the latter saluted him in his lieutenant's uniform. But Milbe would not allow himself to be over-ruled. "They say of you, Herr von Blanden, that you belong to the pious people, and, indeed, to that pious people who conducted themselves strangely in Königsberg. Thunder and lightning! it was out of the frying-pan into the fire. For anything I care, each may worship what he likes, and there have been plenty of strange saints in the world. If one man in his private chapel worships a stark-naked goddess of simply foaming meerschaum, I have nothing against it! but I should fight against it tooth and nail if such like were to become universal. I will not give my vote to the man who defends it, because he is not to my taste in religion, and similarity of taste, after all, is the principal thing, even in sacred matters." Death-like stillness reigned around the table. Milbe's probe had touched the most vulnerable spot.