The affair came to the Elector's ears, and jealousy sprang up between the brothers. The Elector's manner changed; { 290} he refused the promised appanage, he treated Rupert with marked coldness, and finally retired to Alzei, where there was little accommodation for his court. Rupert followed him thither, and was denied a sufficiency of rooms for himself and his servants; then, as usual, he lost his temper.[18] There was a quarrel, and the younger brother departed in a rage, taking with him all his movables--which cannot have been many.[19] He went first to Heidelberg, but the Elector, either wishful to insult him, or really fearful of his violence, wrote, ordering that he should be refused admittance to the city. To his surprise and indignation, Rupert found the gates closed against him. He demanded to see the order by which this thing was done. The order was shown him, written in the Elector's own hand. It was too much! Then and there Rupert raised his hat from his head, and swore, with tears in his eyes, that he would never more set foot in the Palatinate.[20] Twenty years later, when it seemed to the Elector that his race was about to die out, he would have given much to recall his ill-used brother. But all the entreaties which he lavished on Rupert, produced but one answer: "Ich habe auf Euer Liebden Veranlassung ein feierliches Gelübde zu Gott gethan, die Pfalz nie wieder zu betreten; und will, bei dem wenn auch bedauerlich beschwornen Vorsatze beharren." "Your Belovedness,"--a curious Palatine substitute for Your Highness,--"has caused me to take a solemn oath to God that I will never more set foot in the Palatinate; and my sworn, if regretable, oath I will keep."[21] Rupert, like his father before him, was "a Prince religious of his word."
After his quarrel with his brother, Rupert wandered back to Vienna, and is said to have served in the wars in Pomerania and Hungary. In 1657 it was stated in England { 291} that "Prince Rupert hath command of 8,000 men, under the King of Hungary, who will owe his empirate to his sword."[22] And a German authority describes him as leading in the capture of the Swedish entrenchments at Warnemünde, 1660.[23] But the truth of these reports is very doubtful, and he seems to have resided between 1657 and 1660 chiefly with his friend the Elector of Mainz. At Mainz he lived in tranquillity, but in great poverty. "He looks exceedingly poverty-stricken," wrote Sophie of another Cavalier, "and I fear that Rupert will soon do the same, judging by his ménage."[24]