[zoolissentesy]

But the point is that, if you have a monarch with a great deal of power, he has to be special if the country is not to decay – to be constricted in one way or another.

...which hints at the gipsy woman's prophecy and the delight Herr von Knobelsdorff experiences upon Klaus Heinrich's birth. I realized the symbolism of the constriction, while knowing little of the complete picture as Sybarite has explained. Even allowing for a lack of background knowledge, the symbolism has an almost, er, heavy handed approach and is rather obvious. I'm thinking that the novel is referred to as a fairy tale of sorts?

I thought the next chapter, The Country, lovely and timeless:

The people loved their woods...And yet the forest had been sinned against, outraged for ages and ages. The Grand Ducal Department of Woods and Forests deserved all the reproaches that were laid against it. That Department had not political insight enough to see that the wood must be maintained and kept as inalienable common property, if it was to be useful not only to the present generation, but also to those to come; and that it would surely avenge itself if it were exploited recklessly and short-sightedly, without regard to the future, for the benefit of the present.