they _can_ make merry and rejoice, and that they have only saved up the
joy in their hearts to bestow it upon the return home of my son and heir."

"Pardon, your highness, but I believe that we accuse the poor people
wrongfully if we imagine that they are now acting thus of their own free
motion, when they were so quiet on the arrival of their beloved Sovereign.
No, the poor, unhappy people would have been equally silent at this time
if they had not been stirred up to make noisy demonstrations of joy, if
they had not been paid for it. It is otherwise wholly incredible and not
to be thought of that the populace should have prepared such a triumph for
the young home-returning lord. It is plainly to be seen that all has been
settled and arranged beforehand. For it is not merely the offscourings of
the streets, but burghers, magistrates, and officials, who have extended a
welcome to the Electoral Prince. At Spandow, for example, all the
citizens, with the magistracy at their head, issued from the town to pay
their respects to him--yes, even Commandant von Rochow has found it
necessary to join in the universal rejoicings, and has ridden out with his
officers in their dress uniforms to do honor to the Prince's arrival. Here
at Berlin, too, your own residence, all is uproar and excitement. They are
putting on their holiday suits, and making ready to meet the Electoral
Prince. That proves quite clearly that his speedy approach to the city has
been already announced to the citizens, and communicated to the
magistrates even before any tidings of the sort had reached your highness
or myself, the Stadtholder in the Mark. For as soon as I obtained this
intimation from Colonel von Rochow, I hastened hither to bring to your
highness the glad news of your son's return home, and on the way I was
stopped by whole crowds of festive men and women hastening to the suburb
Spandow, to plant themselves near the Pomegranate Bridge and along the
meadow dike.[21] Indeed, it strikes me that I even saw some gentlemen of
municipal authority going the same way in full official dress."