brides at Potsdam, and made their entrance the sovereigns to the provinces, after their into Berlin on a winter's day in December. accession, left strong impressions on the minds Statesmen as well as poets, old rough war- of their subjects; acts of the kindest considerriors and gentle women, were alike enchant- ation, on the part of the queen, endeared her ed by the young princess who had married to young and old. Her impressions of delight, the crown prince. In describing her, the when she visited the Silesian mountains, were most prosaic became poetical; and Goethe remembered long after by those who witcelebrated her as a heavenly vision. There nessed them. Old men, who had ferried her never was a marriage more auspicious. It through the subterranean lakes in the mines, was grounded on pure affection, a love who had seen her grasp her husband's hand, which lasted through life. The differences and heard her, as she received vivid impresof character were happily met- his gravity sions of awe and delight, whisper, "Slowly, by her loveliness, his reserved silence by her good steersman; oh! slowly," treasured up the cheerful candor; her brighter hopes cheered recollection for their later life; recalled that his anxieties, and her sanguine temperament thoughtful and beautiful face, "grand like a checked his disposition to melancholy. It is queen, yet as simple as a child;" and said, true that the courtiers were greatly disquieted with tears trickling down their cheeks, "that when they saw etiquette grievously set at in all their lives they had never seen a woman naught by the young couple. The princess with such a face as hers; why did the good horrified her stiff, grim old attendant, when God let her die so carly?" Whatever were she snatched one of the fifty girls who wel- the defects in the king's character as a politicomed her with flowers, and kissed the wan- cian, our esteem for the man remains; the dering child; and, shocking to say, when deep piety which both he and the queen manBerlin wished to illuminate in honor of the ifested is recorded to us by attentive witmarriage, the crown prince begged the citi- nesses, and the sketch which Bishop Egbert zens to give the money meant for the illumina- gives of their domestic habits is a picture to tion to the poor. They persisted in calling dwell upon. each other thou;" walked hand in hand in their garden, without their suite; and the prince would drive his wife in an open car raige without a retinue. When the king, who, in spite of his vices, had a warm heart, presented his daughter-in-law, on her birthday, with Oranienberg, the princess, desirous that the poor should share in her pleasure, exclaimed," Now I only want a handful of gold for the poor of Berlin." "And how big would the birthday child like the handful to be?" said the king. "As big as the heart of the kindest of kings," was her prompt reply. Oranienberg was found too large for their small income and simple tastes; and on the farm of Paretz, near Potsdam, in a moderatesized house, without state, their life, before they ascended the throne, was passed. It was there that their eldest son, afterwards king of Prussia, was born, and that they had Frederick William succeeded to an emto mourn the untimely death of the crown barrassed exchequer. The reputation of the prince's brother, and the death of the queen Prussian armies had suffered during the dowager in a ripe old age. In the autumn French revolutionary wars. The ambition of 1797, Frederick William succeeded his of Napoleon, when he was embarking in his father on the throne; but though their resi-wars of aggression, found in Prussia disordered dence and position were changed, the new finances and divided councils. The three minSovereigns retained their simple habits, walked the streets like their subjects, made purchases in the fair, and allowed the citizens to witness the pure taste and affection which characterized their rulers. The example was not lost on the citizens; and, though the courtiers, tainted by the infidelity and vice of two reigns, declined this new standard of purity, the homely virtues of the middle classes were strengthened by the example. The visit of We turn back, before entering on rougher scenes, to the incident of the poor woman, who had wandered into the queen's seat at church, and at the sign of the kind lady sat down unconscious. Afterwards reproached by the grand-marshal, she retired in disquiet; but the queen could not be satisfied till Bishop Egbert went and comforted her. We think of that sabbath evening, when in the society of a few friends, while dwelling on the sermon they had heard from the story of Ruth, they had sunk into solemn reflection, till the king rose and whispered to his wife, "I and my house, we will serve the Lord," and withdrew to meditation and prayer. But this life of peace was cast on the most troubled period of European history, and was tried by some of the sorest disasters that ever befell Prussia. isters who were placed at the head of the Prussian cabinet were men of worthless character, two of them foreigners. Over such a ministry, influenced by their sympathies, some, at least, gained by bribes, Napoleon exercised an easy command. The cousin of the king, Prince Louis Ferdinand, was a man of great ability, prompt in action, and of firm decision. He had much respect for the king's abilities, and, mourned that his want of con fidence in himself should prevent their exer- were circulated in public journals; and when cise. He used to appeal to the queen to the anguish caused by this and her husband's rouse her husband. Unhappily the influence danger overthrew her health, public calamiof the ministers arrested the king's decision; ties thickened upon her. For a fortnight she and the treaty which one of them made with had been in danger from a low fever, when Napoleon, after the battle of Austerlitz, de- news came of fresh defeats. On a damp stroyed the character of Prussia. The events winter's day she had to fly from Königsberg which followed, and the undisguised resolu- and to take refuge in Memel, the only town tion of Napoleon to make Prussia the next which remained to them. Still, through all victim, overthrew the policy of the ministry, her illness and sorrow, no word of impatience and hurried the king into war. He had hesi- escaped her, and her smiles and kind words tated when his decision might have secured cheered her attendants. The assistance of him the alliance of Russia and Austria. He the Emperor Alexander changed the face of allowed himself to be plunged into war when affairs, and the queen was enabled to return Napoleon was strengthened by success; and to Königsberg, and to give her time to the when the other European states were es- instruction of her children. The literary tranged from Prussia by her own misconduct. men, who found a refuge there and were adThe conduct of the war was characterized mitted to her society, speak with enchantment by the same want of judgment. The choice of her character-the childlike ingenuousof the Duke of Brunswick as general was a ness, the winning attention, and the thoughtfatal blunder. The councils of Prussia were ful kindness. To her son, then a boy of betrayed to Napoleon, and the incapacity twelve, she expressed her secret feelings, bewhich the Duke of Brunswick had formerly cause she wished to strengthen his character; shown was now increased by age. The gal- but with others she never talked on politics. lant Prince Louis fell at the commencement History, education, manners, were her favorof the war, and the total defeat at Jena an-ite topics; but above all religion. Bishop nihilated the hopes of Prussia. The queen Borowski's society was a great comfort to her. was a partaker of the full weight of this dis- He found her at times in an agony of tears, aster, as she had accompanied her husband when she poured forth the words, "My God, to the army, both to cheer him by her pres- my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" But ence, and to encourage the troops. She was, he heard her also bear witness to the consolaindeed, of a mind equal to the difficulties; tions of religion. "I have been reading," while the king was depressed, she was col- she said to him, "that precious 126th Psalm, lected; and Gentz, who met her in the camp, on which we spoke together when you were was struck with the precision with which she last here. Amidst all the sorrow it expresses, reasoned, and the just judgment which she the conquering hope rises like the morning formed both of men and events. Whatever dawn; and through the storm of misfortune could be done under the unfavorable circum-one hears the glad song of the victor. There stances of the campaign was suggested by is in it a spirit of sadness yet of triumph, of her; and the cheerful smile and sweet voice resignation yet of glad confidence; it is a with which she said to the soldiers, "Chil- hallelujah in tears." These sentiments endren, fight like Prussians," inspired courage which indeed was vain, as there were no generals to direct it. After the fatal battle of Jena, she retired from Berlin to Küstrin, and from thence, as Leipsic and Berlin were in the hands of the enemy, and Magdeburg fell, she fled with the king to Königsberg. The king's fainting spirits were sustained by her resolution; but the trial, though it could not overcome her, bent her to the ground. Her subjects mourned when they saw her grief-bowed head as she walked at Küstrin, with the king, on the walls; and those who were admitted to her presence at Königsberg marked with sorrow the traces of deep suffering in her face. She had, indeed, personal as well as public wrongs to endure. As Napoleon found that the queen was the object of the loyal affections of the Prussians, he felt that the best mode of detaching them from their allegiance was to defame her character. The foulest calumnies against her couraged her under every reverse. Writing to her father from Königsberg in May, 1807, when there was a gleam of light, she says that, "Dantzig held out; Blücher was in the field; all will yet be well, and we shall yet be happy." The following month she writes from Memel, after Dantzig and Königsberg had fallen, that she will soon have to leave the kingdom with her children; "but I direct my eyes to Heaven, from whence comes all, both of good and of evil; and my firm belief is, that He will not send more than we can bear." And, again, in a later letter, she writes, "On the path of right to live, to die, or, if so it must be, to live upon bread and salt, never shall I be wholly unhappy." Hope was now gone, yet she says: "Yet all comes from thee, Father of Goodness; my faith cannot waver, though I can hope no more." One who had seen her in May, 1807, writes thus of her habits: "The queen leads a most retired life; the exercise of benevolence and cacy, that it was impossible to take offence. In her interviews with Napoleon, she pleaded with warm eloquence the cause of her country; she conjured liim to prove himself a hero, by showing magnanimity to a vanquished foe, to grant her the happiness of being able to assure him that he had won her esteem, and at least to give back Magdeburg. Napoleon was moved for a moment; his resolution was shaken, but the blight of Talleyrand's influence interposed. Shall posterity say that Napoleon sacrificed his greatest conquest to a pretty woman?" Before her departure, the unhappy queen made a last effort; and then finding it useless, threw herself sobbing into her carriage, overwhelmed with the conviction of the useless degradation to which she had submitted. humanity fills up her days. She seeks, so She arrived on the 5th of July, at Tilsit, and far as her sex permits, to alleviate the mis- was received by Napoleon with outward coureries occasioned by war; she provides, with tesy. At dinner she was seated between the incessant efforts and with considerable con- two emperors, and Napoleon paid her the tributions, for the wounded and the needy. utmost attention. He admitted afterwards She visits no theatres, gives no concerts nor not only her singular beauty, but her bewitchballs; but every one who, like myself, has ing power; that in spite of all his efforts she the pleasure of approaching her, must ac- constantly led the conversation, returned at knowledge that she, or else no woman upon pleasure to her subject, and directed it as she earth, realizes the high idea of fairest woman-chose; but still with so much tact and delihood. Not striking but softly magical is the impression which she makes on all. The calm, the resignation, with which she bears her misfortunes, deeply touches the heart." From these scenes of suffering, but of tranquil patience, she was led to a sharper trial. The defeat of the Russian forces disposed the emperor of Russia to make peace; and the temptations which Napoleon held out to him on the side of ambition, drew both emperors into a close friendship. Prussia had now to learn how much her confederacy with Russia cost her. The assistance of Russia had been fruitless, her desertion was fatal. Happily, however, the designs of Napoleon were too openly made known. He himself had stated that his intention was to name Jerome Buonaparte king of Prussia, and to expel the royal family. Even to Alexander he divulged his The Elbe became the boundary of Prussia, project of crushing the Prussian throne and and an enormous sum was laid upon the imleaving the sovereign scarcely a margrave of poverished country. The king and queen Brandenburg. But such projects alarmed returned to Memel, where in a country town Alexander; to have on his frontier such a and in a private house, they passed a life of neighbor as Napoleon was seriously to be the strictest economy. Many a citizen was deprecated. What fidelity to treaties would better lodged, and kept a better table; the not make him do was suggested by his own golden plate of the great Frederick was interest. He exerted himself to preserve melted down; and loans and gifts from their Prussia; and, as he hoped much from the sympathizing subjects were received in order talent and fascination of the queen, he invited to meet the French contribution. The king her to Tilsit. It was a bitter trial to meet and queen were much affected by letters the usurper who had conquered her country, from their subjects in Lower Westphalia, and the slanderer who had defamed her whom they were obliged to abandon. "Our character. "What struggles it has cost me," hearts were nigh to break," so the latter ran, she writes in her diary," God only knows!" when we read thy farewell to us; we could It will cost me much to be courteous to him; not persuade ourselves that we should cease but the hardship is required of me, and I am to be thy true subjects, we who loved thee used to make sacrifices." Her presence was always so much." indeed necessary; for the king of Prussia, Under this cloud the faith of the queen did naturally dejected, and now depressed by not fail, nor her strength of mind. misfortune, was present,- a sad and helpless king," she writes, "is greater than his oppospectator of arrangements which he could not nent; he has refused a confederacy with evil, influence. When he spoke to Napoleon of and this will bring Prussia a blessing some the pain of losing hereditary provinces, Na- day." The king derived comfort from his poleon answered with contempt, " Such losses wife's strength of mind, and from the consolaare common in the chances of war." When tions of his friend Bishop Borowski. he answered, "That one could not forget opened to him the counsels of God from His them any more than one can forget his word, and led him to see through this sore cradle;" "The camp should be the cradle," discipline a vista of future blessings. In every answered Napoleon; a man has no time to thing the vigor of the queen's mind was felt. think of such things." With these disposi- Hardenburg and Stein were the ablest ministions, and this insolence of conquest, it was ters of Prussia. Stein had been unjustly disnot likely that a woman's influence could missed early in 1807, through the cabal of a prevail. Yet the queen did all in her power. I rival minister. Hardenburg had been sacri "The He "The ficed to the peremptory orders of Napoleon. therefore without all moderation; and he who Before his retirement he had entreated the does not keep within measure, loses his balking to send for the able and faithful Stein; ance and falls." Her belief in God and in but it was natural that Stein should remem- his moral government gave her an assured ber the wrongs he had received. Then it was hope that the reign of violence would be temthat the queen wrote to him a letter of en-porary, and that better times would come. treaty, and she prevailed. "Stein is coming," Of herself she speaks in terms alike touching she writes, "and with him a little light dawns in their resignation and foreboding. upon me.' "Thank God," she writes again, good which is to come we shall not behold," "Stein is here; that is a proof that God has she says, "but shall die upon the road. As not forsaken us." It was indeed a fearful God wills; all as he wills it; but I find state of things which the new minister of the strength, courage, and cheerfulness in this interior had to face. A weak country was hope, which lies deep in my soul. The world trampled under foot by a grasping conqueror. is in a course of transit; we, too, must pass The Prussian ambassador at Paris was refused through it. Let us take heed that every day an interview with the emperor, and was renders us more prepared and better." treated by his minister for foreign affairs with Yet she had her consolations. The king's insolent contempt. Prussia must take care affection was constant; "his friendship, his how she behaved, her future fate depended confidence, and affectionate behavior make on her submission. A portion of Silesia had my happiness." As the French troops had been left to her. Now it was torn away; the partially evacuated Prussia, the royal family concession, it was said, had been a mistake, was able, by January, 1808, to remove to a slip of the pen. Say, if that be not enough," Königsberg. There Louisa, whose health had writes the queen, "to justify despair?" Mar- suffered severely, gave birth to a daughter. shal Soult domineered over Prussia, "he A touching ceremonial took place at its bapdoes," the queen writes, "what he chooses, tism, when representatives from the various and may hold us prisoners in Memel for classes of old Prussia stood sponsors to the years." An enormous contribution must be child, and, as they laid their hands upon it, paid, and to secure it the French demanded prayed in mutual sorrow that the king and five fortresses, to be garrisoned with 40,000 his people might remain united. As the spring Frenchmen, who were to be clothed and fed came on, the king hired a small country house at the expense of Prussia. "This is our near Königsberg, to which he removed his frightful position; every one here is in despair. family; a house so small as not to contain all My future is of the gloomiest. If we only the royal children, but they were surrounded keep Berlin; but sometimes the thought weighs on my boding heart, that that, too, will be taken from us and made the capital of another kingdom. Then I should have only one wish,-to emigrate far away, to live as private people, and, if possible, forget." The queen's feelings are more fully developed in her letters to her father, written early in the spring of 1808: over. "All is over with us for the present, if not for For my life, I hope nothing more. I have resigned myself, and in this resignation, in this dispensation of heaven, I am now tranquil and enjoy repose, which, if it be not earthly happiness, is something more, even spiritual peace." She then remarks, in very striking terms, on the dealings of Providence, which employed Napoleon as its instrument to correct the vices of German institutions, and to break up that old system which should pass away. And then she speaks of him with a true prophecy, as not firm and secure upon his glittering throre. "For," she says, "truth and justice only are calm and secure; while he, in his boundless, ambition, consults only himself and his personal interest; dazzled by success, and thinking nothing impossible to him, he is with the affection of their people, who watched hope. One does not require much to be con- In the interest of her children, and in the study of history, the queen sought to forget her misfortunes. As the future was dark, she strove to live in the light of the past; and realizing with her fervid imagination the great characters of the past, she painted to the historian the scenes and men whom he had described, with a vivid power which surprised him. She in her modesty was the only one who was unconscious of her power; the compliment of the historian she thought was paid to her rank, and her great minister, Stein, was aroused at last to say, "O gracious queen, how unjust is your distrust of your own judgment!" are enough. My husband and I are, with were received with the utmost attention, and our children, sufficient for ourselves; besides overwhelmed with gifts; but Louisa turned I have good books, a good piano, and a good from the splendor and the gifts which the cmconscience, and thus one can live more quietly peror heaped upon her with a weary heart. amidst the storms of life, than those by whom When some one remarked to her afterwards the storms are excited." on the beauty of a set of pearl ornaments which she wore, "Yes," she said, “I kept these back, when I had to part with all my other jewels. Pearls suit me. They are emblematic of tears, and I have shed so many." It was a relief to her to return to Königsberg. " Nothing dazzles me now," she said, "and once more I repeat, my kingdom is not of this world."__ Her friend Borowski thus describes her: "Her seriousness has a quiet cheerfulness about it; and the faith and courage which God gives her, spread over her whole being a sweetness which may be called dignified. Her eyes, indeed, have lost their early liveliness, and one sees in them that she has wept, and still weeps much; but they Another subject, which powerfully inter- have acquired a mild expression of soft melested, her, was the education of the people. ancholy and silent longing, which is better She saw the deep corruption of the upper than mere joyousness. The bloom has vanclasses; her hope was, that by good training ished from her checks, and is replaced by the lower might be improved. She read a soft pallor; yet her face is still fair, and the cagerly every book which treated of this subject, and followed with eager delight the new plans and writings of Pestalozzi. "Were I my own mistress, I would get into my carriage and roll away to Pestalozzi in Switzerland, to thank the noble man with tears in my eyes. He does his best for mankind. In the name of mankind, I thank him for it." white roses there please me almost better than the earlier red ones. Round her mouth, where a sweet happy smile used to play, one now from time to time remarks a trembling of the lips, which speaks of pain, but not of bitter pain." The gallant struggle in the Tyrol gave her a momentary delight. She hailed the flame of freedom kindled, as she One passage in Pestalozzi's work struck says, both in the mountains of the Tyrol and her: "Sorrow and suffering are God's bless- of Spain. "What a man is this Andreas ings." Yes," she said, "and even in my Hofer; a peasant is become a general, and Sorrow I can say, it is God's blessing; how what a general! His arms are prayer, his much nearer am I to God by reason of it." ally God. He fights on bended knee, with The fearful events which were passing filled folded hands, and conquers as with the flamher mind. In July, 1808, she refers to the ing sword of the cherubim." Then she hopes day as the anniversary of her interview with that the days of the maid of Orleans may reNapoleon. "Ah! what a remembrance! how turn, and that thus, perhaps, the evil adverI suffered then! suffered more for the sake sary will be overcome. But the war with of others than myself! I wept, I entreated Austria darkened her prospects. Her birthin the name of pity and humanity, in the day had been kept by the simple citizens of name of our misfortunes, of the laws which Königsberg in March, 1809, by a banquet at govern the world; and I was only a woman, the castle and a fête given by the inhabitants and yet how highly exalted above this ad- of the town. The poor queen was ill, and versary." The monstrous attack of Napoleon was heart-broken with sorrow and foreboding. on Spain added to her gloom. "It is a new Reproaches fell upon her, a huge burden of finger trace of the iron hand," she writes, sorrow; she says she "had to sigh and swal"which is passing over the face of Europe - low her tears." "My birthday," she writes to a warning one for us." The gallantry of the her confidential friend, " was a fearful day for Spaniards inspired her with some hope. But me. My heart seemed breaking. I danced, fresh blows were at hand. The faithful Stein, I smiled, I said pleasant things to the fêtewho had occasioned Napoleon's anger by his manly policy, was compelled to resign. The kindness of the Emperor Alexander brought some alleviation. In proceeding to Erfurth, he had passed through Königsberg, and had urged the king and queen to return his visit When afterwards she heard of the defeat of at St. Petersburg. They did so early in 1809, | Austria at Wagram, she writes, "Alas! O givers. I was friendly to every one, while all the time I knew not which way to turn for misery. To whom will Prussia belong next year? whither shall we all be dispersed? God Almighty, Father, have pity!" |