passport. They knouted him.

THE GRAND DUCHESS. Oh! Strammfest, send these men away. I must
speak to you alone.

STRAMMFEST [rising in horror]. No: this is the last straw: I
cannot consent. It is impossible, utterly, eternally impossible,
that a daughter of the Imperial House should speak to any one
alone, were it even her own husband.

THE GRAND DUCHESS. You forget that there is an exception. She may
speak to a child alone. [She rises.] Strammfest, you have been
dandled on my grandmother's knee. By that gracious action the
dowager Panjandrina made you a child forever. So did Nature, by
the way. I order you to speak to me alone. Do you hear? I order
you. For seven hundred years no member of your family has ever
disobeyed an order from a member of mine. Will you disobey me?

STRAMMFEST. There is an alternative to obedience. The dead cannot
disobey. [He takes out his pistol and places the muzzle against
his temple.]

SCHNEIDEKIND [snatching the pistol from him]. For God's sake,
General--

STRAMMFEST [attacking him furiously to recover the weapon]. Dog
of a subaltern, restore that pistol and my honor.

SCHNEIDEKIND [reaching out with the pistol to the Grand Duchess].
Take it: quick: he is as strong as a bull.