supervenience of a more able sovereign.  I should amuse you, perhaps,’ added the licentiate, with a smile, ‘I think I should amuse you if I were to explain my notion of a prince.  We who have studied in the closet, no longer, in this age, propose ourselves for active service.  The paths, we have perceived, are incompatible.  I would not have a student on the throne, though I would have one near by for an adviser.  I would set forward as prince a man of a good, medium understanding, lively rather than deep; a man of courtly manner, possessed of the double art to ingratiate and to command; receptive, accommodating, seductive.  I have been observing you since your first entrance.  Well, sir, were I a subject of Grünewald I should pray heaven to set upon the seat of government just such another as yourself.’

‘The devil you would!’ exclaimed the Prince.

The licentiate Roederer laughed most heartily.  ‘I thought I should astonish you,’ he said.  ‘These are not the ideas of the masses.’