diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 34220-8.txt | 10012 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 34220-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 152608 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 34220-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 714197 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 34220-h/34220-h.htm | 10221 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 34220-h/images/illus1.jpg | bin | 0 -> 110776 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 34220-h/images/illus2.jpg | bin | 0 -> 149818 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 34220-h/images/illus3.jpg | bin | 0 -> 146421 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 34220-h/images/illus4.jpg | bin | 0 -> 149990 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 34220.txt | 10012 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 34220.zip | bin | 0 -> 152561 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
13 files changed, 30261 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/34220-8.txt b/34220-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4415796 --- /dev/null +++ b/34220-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10012 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Two Royal Foes, by Eva Madden + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Two Royal Foes + +Author: Eva Madden + +Illustrator: The Kinneys + +Release Date: November 6, 2010 [EBook #34220] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TWO ROYAL FOES *** + + + + +Produced by Darleen Dove, D Alexander, Mary Meehan and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + TWO ROYAL FOES + + By EVA MADDEN + + +ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE KINNEYS + +NEW YORK +THE McCLURE COMPANY +MCMVII + +_Copyright, 1907, by The McClure Company_ + +Published, October, 1907 + + + + +[Illustration: _Bettina_] + + + + +CONTENTS + + +I. THE MIGHTY FOE + +II. THE ANGEL OF PRUSSIA + +III. AT JENA + +IV. AT THE FOREST HOUSE + +V. THE JOURNEY + +VI. THE DOWNFALL + +VII. ON THE ROAD TO MEMEL + +VIII. AMONG FRIENDS + +IX. THE STORK'S NEST + +X. FRESH TROUBLES + +XI. THE MOTHER OF HER PEOPLE + +XII. OTTO + +XIII. THE JOURNAL + +XIV. PRINCESS LOUISA + +XV. THE MARRIAGE + +XVI. WHAT HAPPENED TO HANS + +XVII. AT TILSIT + +XVIII. THE ESCAPE + +XIX. THE FOES MEET + +XX. THE ANSWER + +XXI. THE HERR LIEUTENANT + +XXII. DAYS OF DARKNESS + +XXIII. THE ENTRANCE INTO BERLIN + +XXIV. "MY QUEEN, MY POOR QUEEN!" + +XXV. AFTERWARDS + +XXVI. THE CHECK + +XXVII. THE PEOPLE'S WAR + +XXVIII. THE FOE CONQUERED + +XXIX. THURINGIA + +XXX. THE FOES AT REST + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + +BETTINA + +"MY DOLLIE IS NAMED ANNA" + +"SIRE, WITH MAGDEBURG?" + +"I HAVE SOME NEWS TO TELL YOU" + + + + +TWO ROYAL FOES + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE MIGHTY FOE + + +One afternoon, a hundred and one years ago, old Hans took little Bettina +to visit her godmother, Frau Schmidt, who lived in a red-roofed house +not far from the old church of St. Michael's in Jena. + +Bettina loved to go to Frau Schmidt's. First, there was Wilhelm, her +godmother's son, who was so good to her, and cut her toys out of wood, +and told her all kinds of fine stories. And then there were the +soldiers. They were everywhere, standing in groups about the Market, +marching in companies, or clattering on horses through the never quiet +streets. + +The way from Bettina's home to Jena led through a deep, still, green +forest, and as she and her grandfather strolled along that October +afternoon the little girl begged him for a story. + +"Ja, ja, my Bettina," and the old man gave her a smile, "there is old +Frederick Barbarossa." + +Then, with a "Once upon a time," he told her how, in a cave in their own +Thuringian Wood in the Kyffhäuser Mountain, an old emperor of Germany +had slept for hundreds and hundreds of years, his head on his elbows, +which rested on a great stone table in the middle of the cavern. + +"And his beard, child, has grown down to the floor, and it is red as a +flame, and his hair--it is red, too, quite blazing, child, they +say--wraps about him like a veil. And before the cave and around it--you +can see them yourself, little one, if you go there--are ravens, cawing +and cawing and flying ever in circles." + +"And when will the old Emperor wake up, dear grandfather?" Bettina had a +sweet, high little voice which quivered with eagerness. The old man +shook his head. + +"No man knows, child," he answered, "but I have heard always that one +day the ravens will flap their wings, caw aloud, and fly forever away +from the mountain. And then," his blue eyes flashed, "the old Kaiser +shall awake; he shall grasp his great sword in his hand and holding it +fast shall come forth from his gloomy old cave to the sunlight." + +"And then, dear grandfather, what then?" + +"There shall great things be done, dear child." Again his eyes flashed. +"Germany shall stretch herself like the old Redbeard. She, too, is +asleep, and she shall take her sword in her hand and come forth, and we +shall be one people, one great, great Fatherland." The old face grew +dreamy, the voice, very slow. + +"And will there always be fighting, dear grandfather?" + +Hans shook his head. + +"Nein, nein, the old Redbeard is to bring war which shall make peace." + +Hans was silent for a moment and then, with a laugh, he lifted a very +full, deep voice and sang an old German song of the same Kaiser +Barbarossa, and when Bettina caught the tune, she sang, too, and the old +forest rang with the music all the way to Jena. + +When they entered the town the old man took Bettina almost to the +church. + +"Now, little one," he said, "run away to Tante Gretchen and tell her to +keep you until I come after supper." + +"Auf wiedersehen, dear grandfather," and off trotted the little girl and +into her godmother's house with a "Good-day, dear Tante Gretchen!" + +Wilhelm was at home, and he carved Bettina a little doll, and she +enjoyed herself very much indeed, hearing all about the soldiers and all +that they were doing in Jena, but she was only nine years old and tired +with her walk, and so, when long after supper her grandfather opened the +door, she was fast asleep in her chair, her tired little feet dangling. + +Frau Schmidt greeted him crossly. + +"Don't excuse yourself, Hans," she said. "You forgot the child, I know +it. Perhaps you have been home and had to come back for her? Nein? Well, +what was it then that kept you? You know, Hans, how anxious her mother +will be, with the child out in the night time." + +The old man hung his head. Certainly he had forgotten the child. He was +always forgetting everything and everybody, and some day, as the women +of his family were always telling him, he was certain to have a good +lesson, a lesson, perhaps, which might teach him to remember. + +"You are right, Gretchen," he said, "but, you see, my dear woman, when +an old soldier of Frederick the Great meets again the Prussians, there +is much news to hear, isn't there?" And he looked with smiling blue eyes +into Frau Schmidt's kind, plump countenance. + +"Well, well," she said, her frown vanishing, "but come now, it's a +dreadful night and you must have a glass of beer before you start out +into the darkness. Willy, uncork the bottle there." + +Then she went to Bettina. + +"Wake up, Liebchen," and she gave her a tiny shake. + +"Is it Frederick Barbarossa?" And Bettina came forth from dreamland. + +"Nein, nein, child, it's grandfather," and she wrapped the little girl +in her shawl. "But wake up now. It is late, and time to go home to +mother." + +Then she turned to Hans, Bettina's little hand held fast in hers. + +"Quick, friend, hurry," she said, "and be off now. The night is terrible +and Annchen will be anxious, will she not?" And she nodded to Wilhelm to +hold the light. + +Draining his glass, Hans set it down on the table with a sigh of +pleasure. + +"Ja, ja," he said, as he drew closer his cloak. + +"A moment," and Frau Schmidt stepped to the tall, green porcelain stove +which served, before firetime, as her storehouse. + +"Here," she said, and from one of its little recesses she brought forth +a bundle done up with paper and string. + +"Some sausages, please, for Anna," and she gave Hans the package, "and +best greetings." + +Then, in her quick, kind way, she hurried them to the door, bundling +Bettina more closely as they went. + +"Auf wiedersehen, good-night, good-night," and she held open the door. +"The weather truly is dreadful. Here, Willy, here, my son, hold the +candle higher. Ja, ja, that is better. Can you see, Hans? Good-night, +Bettina. Best greetings to your dear mother, and good-night, +good-night." + +"Good-night, dear Tante, good-night, Willy," and Bettina stumbled +sleepily off with her grandfather, Willy calling after her not to let +the Erl King get her. + +It was, indeed, a dreadful night. The candle which Wilhelm held high, +standing long in the doorway, made but little impression on a fog which, +wrapping the world in mystery, stung Bettina in the face, choked up her +throat and gave her a queer feeling of having lost even the world +itself. + +She drew close to her grandfather and nestled against his side, her hand +seeking his in the darkness. + +"Ja, ja, little one," he said, "do not fear, child, grandfather knows +every step of the way." + +He might know the way, but he certainly did not know the puddles. + +Splash! + +Bettina's little wooden shoe went deep into the water. + +Bump! + +One foot was in a hole, a bush held fast her shawl. + +It would be all right when they reached the forest and the path went +straight between the fir trees, but here it was awful. + +"Ach Himmel," groaned Hans, splashing and stumbling, "but your mother +will scold, little one! But what could your poor grandfather do? I find +it good that a man hear the war news and, talking with the soldiers, I +forgot the hour." + +"Never mind, dear grandfather," came the little voice out of the fog. +"Mother will be in bed and we will slip in, oh, so lightly, just like a +kitty, and she won't hear a sound." + +Bettina took care of her grandfather like an old woman, her father +always said, and so she tried to speak very bravely. + +She might talk bravely; talking is easy enough even for little Bettinas; +but to feel bravely is quite a different thing and, deep down in her +heart, Bettina was frightened to coldness. + +Willy had told her the story of the Erl King who gets children who are +out on wild nights. He promises them toys and all sorts of playthings, +and then when they listen he clasps them in his arms until they are +frozen and dead. And this King has two daughters and they call out +through the storm. + +Would he get her, this Erl King? + +Little Bettina shivered all over. + +From over towards Jena she surely heard a tramp, and sometimes she +seemed to see the waving of the Erl King's mantle in the fog. + +But her grandfather kept on with his talking. + +"Ja, ja," he said, "we'll beat them, we'll beat them. We'll give the +French a lesson this time, our soldiers all promise it. And that +Corsican--we'll teach him, too. Why not? We Prussians are three to the +French one, and soldiers of Frederick the Great to boot. Ja wohl, little +one, we'll have a famous victory!" + +But Bettina was not listening. + +While her grandfather had gone on with his talk, her little hand had +grown cold in his clasp, her tongue had become dry, and her back felt as +if water were running down it. + +It was the Erl King that was coming, Ach Himmel! she knew it. + +There were his two eyes, blazing like great stars through the fog. + +Nearer they came, and nearer, and she heard the tramp of his steed, and, +oh, if he called her, not even her grandfather could hold her, Willy had +said so. + +Brighter grew the eyes, and brighter. + +"Grandfather," she tried to call, but her throat would not move. Nearer +the Erl King came, and between the eyes she saw something great, and +tall, and white, and dreadful. Nearer it came. Nearer! Nearer! + +"Ach Himmel!" Her grandfather's voice broke the spell. "But who are +coming?" + +Then the two great eyes suddenly turned into torches, and one was held +by the Postmaster of Jena, and the other by a French officer, and +between them the lights showed a white horse, and on its back sat a man +whose eyes seemed to pierce right through the fog and the darkness. + +Bettina shrank against her grandfather. The one on the horse frightened +her even as much as if he were the Erl King. Never had she seen such +piercing eyes nor felt so terrified. He was small and stout, and he wore +an overcoat of green with white facings. His hat was folded up front and +back, and his mouth was as beautiful as the rest of his face was hard +and terrifying. But even his beautiful lips seemed to say, "Keep out of +my way, or I shall ride over you." + +One firm, strong hand held the bridle of his horse, with the other he +pointed, his whip held fast, through the fog towards the dim outline of +the great old mountain of Dornburg. + +When he spoke it was in French. Bettina could not understand him, but +Hans, who, like most Germans of that day, spoke both languages, heard +him say: + +"Those Prussians have left the heights. They were afraid," then, with a +laugh of scorn, he interrupted himself, "afraid of the night," he +continued, "and have descended to sleep in the valley. They believe that +we shall not take advantage of their slumber." Again he laughed, and so +disagreeably that Bettina shivered; "but they are dreadfully mistaken, +those old wigs!" + +Laughter joined with his, and two horses appeared in his rear and the +torches revealed their riders to be French Marshals in uniform. + +But the Postmaster was silent, his face darkening. + +As for Hans, he muttered under his breath to Bettina: + +"Ach Himmel, but hear him. He calls the generals of Frederick the Great, +'old wigs.'" + +"Grandfather," Bettina pulled at him to bend down and listen, "is it the +Erl King? Will he get me?" + +"The Erl King?" The old man was completely puzzled. "The one on the +white horse, child, you mean? That, my Bettina, is the Emperor!" + +The Emperor! Oh, Heavens! Then, indeed, did Bettina wish that she was +home with her mother. Better the Erl King, better the old witch who got +Hans and Gretel, better any number of cruel step-mothers: better all the +witches, giants and ogres than the dreadful monster everyone called "The +Emperor!" + +Only that afternoon had her godmother told Willy that he lived but for +blood, and that Death followed every step of that white horse. + +"It would be well for the world if God took him," she had added, and now +this dreadful monster was pointing his whip at her, little Bettina +Weyland, and asking the Postmaster who were these people in his path. + +When he had an answer he motioned them to pass quickly. Then, +dismounting, he and his generals proceeded up the hill of Jena. + +As Hans and Bettina went on their way his voice followed after, and it +was not pleasant things it said, for it stormed at Marshal Lannes +because his artillery had stuck fast in a gorge. And then Hans heard +something about the Prussians and good-morning. + +As for Hans he was hot with fury. + +"'Old wigs,'" he kept muttering, "'Old wigs,' indeed! Did you hear him, +the villain, Bettina, call our generals 'old wigs'?" + +But Bettina had herself, and not the generals of Prussia, to think of. + +"Grandfather," she cried, "grandfather, will the Emperor get us?" + +Her grandfather laughed almost merrily, + +"Nein, nein, little one," he said. "In a day or two the soldiers of +Frederick the Great will set that white horse scampering back to Paris. +Nein, nein, my little Bettina, there is nothing to fear. But come, here +is our path in the forest. We are safe now, and out of the puddles." + +Their home lay on the edge of the deep, green wood, a little red-roofed +forest house with a paved courtyard, with a barn for the cows, and a +garden in front. It was a lovely spot, but a very lonely one, but they +must live there because Bettina's father, Kaspar Weyland, was an under +forester. But just then he was in the army and Frau Weyland was alone +with the children. + +Her voice reached them almost as soon as they came out of the deep +forest. + +"Father, is that you?" she called. "Father!" + +"Ja, ja, dear daughter. Open the door and hear the news." + +"God be thanked you have come." And she appeared in the doorway, holding +in one hand a light, and drawing a shawl about her bed-gown with the +other. + +"Oh, father, father, how could you?" + +She was young and looked like a grown-up Bettina with golden hair +showing under the edges of her nightcap. She shut the door hastily as +they entered. + +"Annchen, Annchen," the old man made no excuses, "we have just seen the +Emperor in the fields near Jena." + +"The Emperor!" Frau Weyland set down her light. Her father nodding, she +cried out, wringing her hands: + +"Ach Gott! Ach Gott! Then, father, we shall have a battle." + +The old man shrugged his broad shoulders. + +"It may be, daughter," he bent down and kissed her, "but who can tell? +The Prussians, to-day, said not." + +Then, sitting in a wooden chair by the table, she, standing and +listening, Bettina's hand in hers, he told all he had heard at Jena and +described their adventures, weary little Bettina sleepily listening. And +he told how the Prussian soldiers had gone early to bed because of the +damp and the fog, and of how they had no cloaks, and how, the bread +giving out, they had been on half rations for some days. + +"But their spirits are brave, daughter," he added, "and you never heard +such boasting. They are certain of victory; certain, Anna. Prince +Hohenlohe was with them this afternoon, and he laughed like a boy when a +soldier declared that he would catch one Frenchman, another two, a +third, four, and so on. You never heard such boasting." + +Frau Weyland shook her head, her nightcap bobbing. + +"Boasting, father, never won a prize yet. It is doing that counts, and +the Emperor was out in such weather, studying the field, and the +Prussians sleeping. Ach, I do not find that promising." + +Then suddenly she ran to her father, she clung to him like a child, her +blue eyes gazing up into his like Bettina's. + +"Ah, father," her lips quivered, "if there should be a battle and my +Kaspar----" + +The old man wrapped her in his strong arms. She was his only child and +the best of daughters. + +"There will be a battle, dear Anna," he said quite solemnly; "it is war, +now, and there must be. But why should harm come to Kaspar? Look at +me----" + +His eyes began to kindle, and his daughter, who knew what was coming, +loosened his arms and rose. + +"Why, in the battle of----" + +"Ja, ja, father," Frau Weyland interrupted with a half smile. When her +father began on his battles time might go its way unheeded. "I know, you +have told me. But come now, we have forgotten our little Bettina. She +must at once go to bed. It is late enough, goodness knows." + +Then she unpinned Bettina's shawl and shook out the damp. + +"Good-night, dear father," she kissed the old man tenderly, "sleep well, +and I'll call you in time in the morning. Oh, the sausage is from +Gretchen? Many thanks and good-night. Come, come, Bettina," and she +started towards her own room. + +Her father proceeded in the opposite direction. On the threshold of a +second door he paused. + +"Annchen," he called, for his daughter had departed. + +"Ja, father," she came back to her door holding Bettina by the hand. + +"He called our generals 'old wigs,' 'old wigs,' did you understand, +daughter? The generals of the Great Frederick's army, and he, an upstart +villain of a Corsican. Old wigs, indeed! Let him wait, the monster, +we'll show him, we'll show him." + +With a last good-night the old soldier of Frederick the Great departed +to snore away under his feather bed quite the same as if nothing had +happened. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE ANGEL OF PRUSSIA + + +Next morning Frau Weyland called Bettina early. + +"Good-morning, dear child," she said, kissing her round little cheek. +"Grandfather must go far into the forest. Would you like to go with him? +You may have a little basket like a wood gatherer and bring mother back +some faggots." + +Bettina was glad, indeed, to get up. She had had a dreadful time. All +night long it had seemed to her that the awful Emperor was always trying +to catch her, and then she would wake with a start. Sometimes he had a +long, red beard, sometimes he was draped in grey mist and wore a golden +crown; and always he was riding the white horse. + +Her mother looked at her kindly. + +"If you are tired, dear," she began, but Bettina was eager to go. + +"Nein, nein, dear mother," she cried, "I love to go with grandfather." + +So she hurried on her clothes and drank her milk and ate her bread and +said "Auf wiedersehen" to her mother. Then she started off with her +grandfather. Frau Weyland stood in the door and watched them, waving her +hand and smiling. + +She was very pretty. When she was sixteen, and only just betrothed to +Kaspar Weyland, people said she was like the "Lorelei," the maiden who +sits on a rock in the Rhine and sings songs to enchant the boatmen, all +the time combing her golden hair and gazing in a jewelled mirror. + +And she was so good to old Hans, and never cross with Bettina, and +always the meals were hot and ready, and the house clean and quiet. +About the doorway grew a vine and October had brought the frost and +turned it crimson. It fell all about her like a frame as she stood +there, so gentle and smiling. It was foggy still, but there was a light +in the sky before which the mist must soon vanish. When they reached the +gate Hans turned for a last "Auf wiedersehen" to his Annchen. + +"Till we meet again" it means, and little did old + +Hans think as he waved his hand to his daughter that never in all the +world was he ever to hear his golden-haired Anna again. How could he? +What could happen? She was never so well in all her life, and he and +Bettina would return to dinner. So gaily he and the little girl entered +the forest and presently, through the fog, they saw a great red ball of +a sun which grew brighter and brighter. + +As for Frau Weyland, she returned to her work. There was much to do with +two children to wash and dress, a house to clean, chickens to feed, +cream cheese to make, and dinner to prepare for the family. + +The daylight showed Hans to be tall and strong with broad shoulders and +the walk of a soldier. His grey hair was drawn back and tied in a queue, +and on one ruddy cheek was a scar from a sabre cut. Hans was very proud +of this, because he had won it in one of the battles of the Great +Frederick. His eyes were like his daughter's and like Bettina's, very +blue, and very big, and gleaming with gentleness. But in Hans' eyes +there was something different. At once were they merry and full of +dreams as if he could joke and yet be, also, very melancholy. + +As for Bettina, she was a little fairy of a girl who tripped along and +seemed barely to touch the ground. Her hair was golden and hung in two +tight little braids to her waist. Her dress was of red and made very +high under her arms and clinging about her little ankles. Her head was +quite bare, and a deep little wicker basket was strapped on her back in +which to bring home some pine cones or scrub oak leaves for the goat. + +"I'm a wood gatherer, grandfather," she pretended, and tripped along +behind him. + +She loved her grandfather. He told such nice stories and never was cross +like her grandfather Weyland, who always said children should be seen, +not heard, and in an entirely different tone from the pleasant one he +used with grown people. + +"I love the forest, grandfather." Bettina's eyes sparkled. + +"Ja, ja, little one," said Hans, "it is German to love all Nature, and, +truly, our forest is beautiful." + +Bettina nodded and gazed about at the tall giant-like pines and her +little nose drew in the deep fragrance of the firs. She was glad that +she did not live in Jena, but deep in this lovely Thuringian wood, where +the trunks of the trees looked like armies of soldiers. There were +lovely things in the forest. + +In its thick, pine-needle carpet grew lovely toadstools, red and yellow +and brown, and sometimes all queerly shaped and striped and just like +umbrellas and parasols. And the moss was thick and grew like a velvet +carpet and raised up the dearest little red cups, and the ferns waved +like feathers, and, in spring, there were the lilies of the valley which +rang tiny white bells for the fairies to come and dance round the gay +little toadstools. And, later, there were the Canterbury bells, so +lovely and purple. And, in and out the trees, ran great, bushy-tailed +red squirrels who peeped at her with eyes bright and sparkling, and +sometimes she saw little companies of deer and tiny fawns with their +mothers, and their eyes were like "Little Brother" in the fairy tale, +for it was in these very forests that some of the witches once lived, +and the fairies in "Grimm," and many of the people of the German +stories. + +Bettina knew that the fairies slept on the moss and danced under the +toadstools, only it was strange that she never had seen them, nor had +her mother, nor her father, nor her grandfather, nor Willy. + +But they were there. All the stories said so. + +"Do you think, grandfather," she asked, "that 'Little Brother' really +was turned into a fawn?" + +"Who can tell, Kindlein?" answered old Hans, but his mind was on other +things than Bettina and her fairy tales. + +"Hard times! hard times!" he muttered. "Always war somewhere, and what +then for poor people? Work! Work! Work!" + +Bettina was too small to understand, but, certainly, affairs were +gloomy. + +The King of Prussia had declared war upon the Emperor of the French; the +Duke of Weimar, ruler of the forest they were walking through and friend +of the great poet, Goethe, had joined the king as his ally. And now +soldiers were round about and everywhere. + +Soldiers were nothing new to Bettina. She had seen them all her life. +But the Emperor of the French! That was another thing, and an awful one. +She shuddered as her grandfather muttered his name. + +He was a dreadful man. Her mother always said so. At the mention of his +name every child in Germany behaved itself. And to think that she, +Bettina Weyland, had seen this monster on the white horse everybody +talked so about. + +Remembering the night before, Bettina trembled. Then, too, it seemed to +her that she kept hearing a queer sound of roaring--not loud, but far +away towards Jena, a rumble which frightened her. + +But old Hans seemed to hear nothing. His mind, as old minds will, had +travelled into the past and he had forgotten the Thuringian Wood, the +bright-eyed red squirrels, the deer, and even little Bettina chatting so +innocently as she trotted along behind him. + +In his day the world had changed greatly, old things were passing away +and no one knew what was coming. + +In America, the Colonies under Washington had won their independence and +founded a Republic. In France, there had been a dreadful Revolution, and +Louis the Sixteenth and Marie Antoinette had been guillotined. A +Corsican soldier first had become France's first consul, and now he was +the Emperor Bettina so dreaded. The Holy Roman Empire, whose Emperor had +lived in Vienna and ruled Germany, was no more, and France's Emperor, +Napoleon, had brought war all over the world. Europe had been fighting +during Hans' whole lifetime, and all the small countries had belonged +so to first one big one and then another, that it was hard sometimes to +exactly know who was one's ruler. + +"And now," said Hans aloud, "the French have come into Thuringia, and +our troubles begin." + +How dreadful these troubles were to be the old man had not even an idea. +Little did he think as he walked along with Bettina that before +twenty-four hours should have passed, a nation should fall, his own home +be no more, and Thuringia blood-stained and overrun with soldiers. + +What he did know was that the King of Prussia and the Duke of Brunswick +were at Auerstädt, Prince Hohenlohe at Jena, and Napoleon, with the +French, in the same neighbourhood. + +"But there will be no battle; nonsense," the Prussians had all told him +in Jena. "And if there should be, who, tell us, would be victors but the +soldiers of Frederick the Great? Was not his army invincible?" + +"What matter?" they had answered when someone had ventured to refer to +Napoleon and his victories. "He must yield to us Prussians. Why not? The +moment that he heard that we were at Jena did he not leave Weimar in +haste and retreat to Gera?" + +In security they had gone to rest, and while they slept, Napoleon had +been planning a surprise for them. + +While old Hans was thinking, he suddenly found out what the Emperor had +meant by his good-morning. + +"Grandfather, oh, grandfather!" in sudden fright called out little +Bettina, "Oh, grandfather, what is it?" + +Hans' neck had stretched itself forward, his ears were listening, his +whole body on a strain, for a roar, deep and full and awful, seemed +suddenly to roll through the quiet of the silent, green forest. + +"Grandfather!" + +The old man turned his face as excited as a boy's. + +"Himmel, child, Himmel!" he cried. "The Emperor is saying good-morning. +It is cannon you hear. The battle has begun at Jena!" + +"Come, come," he continued, "I will not go any farther. Let the trees +take care of themselves for this morning. Come, come! What has an old +soldier of Frederick the Great to do with fir trees when the cannon are +sounding for battle?" And he started quickly in an opposite direction. +Bettina had to run so to keep up with him that her breath came in little +pants and her heart beat violently. But the roar was so awful she was +glad to be running to get away from it. + +If that was the voice of Napoleon saying good-morning, no wonder people +were afraid of him. + +"Grandfather," she panted, "dear grandfather, will the Emperor get my +father?" + +Hans' glowing face became suddenly sober. He had forgotten his +son-in-law, as he forgot everything. He paused in the narrow forest path +and raised his old blue eyes to Heaven. + +"Let us pray to the good God, my Bettina. He alone can save him in the +battle." + +For a moment he stood silent, his face gazing upward to the sky which +showed now between the fir trees. When he had ended his prayer he went +on more slowly and as they walked he told Bettina why the French and the +Prussians were fighting. For eight years, he said, the King of Prussia +had kept out of all the fighting in Europe, although both Russia and +Austria had entreated him to help them. But he declared that his country +was too poor, he loved peace, and his people needed quiet. + +"And wasn't that right, grandfather?" asked Bettina, who had been told +that fighting was wicked. + +"Perhaps, dear child, perhaps," the old soldier answered, "but it's a +good thing to help our neighbours when they need us. But the King of +Prussia is good and saving, too, not at all like the old King who spent +so much, and whose ministers brought Prussia to all this trouble." + +Then he explained how Napoleon would not let the King of Prussia alone, +how he had irritated him with taunts, how he had provoked him with +outrages, breaking a solemn promise about the Kingdom of Hanover, +quartering ten thousand soldiers on German soil, forming all the South +German States into a Confederation of the Rhine to depend upon him, and +not upon the Emperor of Austria, or the King of Prussia, and last, and +worst of all, defying the laws of nations, he had marched French +soldiers across neutral Prussia. + +"The King of Prussia is a good man, my Bettina, a very good man," old +Hans nodded. "He has saved much money for Prussia, but no man can stand +everything, and so now we have war." + +Bettina tried to listen, but all she could think of was the dreadful +Emperor on his white horse. She could see him again in his green +overcoat with its white facings, and feel the gleam of his eyes from +beneath his queer hat, and now he was firing cannon on her father. She +could not keep back her tears at the thought, and they rolled down her +cheeks and splashed to her red dress. + +"Will he get us, grandfather, will he get us?" she cried. + +"Nein, nein, little one," Hans answered. "That white horse will kick up +its heels and start back to Paris, perhaps this evening." + +"God be praised!" said little Bettina in the way all the Germans say +it. Then, suddenly, she pointed before her. + +In an opening in the forest where grew beeches, not evergreens, stood a +group of wood gatherers by a rippling stream which babbled through the +rocks, ferns dipping down their fronds from its banks to its water. They +were all women in short coloured skirts and loose jackets, deep wicker +baskets full of faggots strapped on their shoulders, their heads bare +and bowed a little because of the sticks, and their faces all frightened +and wild looking. + +"Herr Lange! Herr Lange!" they called when they saw Hans and little +Bettina, "what is it? What is all that roaring?" + +"Cannon," said Hans shortly. "The battle, women, has begun at Jena." + +Then came a noise of talk and tears and outcrying such as never is heard +out of Germany. Louisa had a husband with the Duke; Emma, a son; Grete, +a lover; Magdalena, a father. + +"Ach Gott! Ach Gott! Ach Gott!" sobbed a woman with sad dark eyes and +great shaggy white eyebrows. "The Poles killed my man," she wailed, "the +French, my sons; and now----" + +"Her grandsons are with the Duke," explained a pink-cheeked woman the +rest called Minna. + +"Come, come, women," Hans glanced kindly from one weeping face to the +other, "who says that your husbands and sons will be killed? They may +come home victorious; why not? The Prussians are three to the French +one. They are the soldiers of Frederick the Great, and is not your own +brave Duke helping them? Come, come, dry your tears. The thing, now, is +to get out of this forest. Who knows when the French will begin running +and the roads be full of soldiers?" + +He started forward with Bettina, and the wood-gatherers in single file +left the golden beechwood and, a line of bright colour, moved after him +through the deep, green forest, swallowing their tears and struggling +against their sobbing. On they went, the cannon roaring and thundering, +and, presently, they came out on a highway winding like a white ribbon +through the forest's greenness. + +They were but out of the path when a quick, noisy sound of hoofs on the +road made them start and stop suddenly. + +"Soldiers!" cried Hans, and the whole party scattered to the edge of the +forest. + +They were Prussians, and cavalry, and they acted as escort to a light, +closed travelling carriage. + +A dash, a rise of wet dust,--it had rained the day before,--hitting +them in their faces, and the cavalcade passed, the roar of the cannon +following like a pursuer. + +"We'll keep to the woods," and Hans changed their direction. + +Plunging again into the greenwood, they walked with the firs and pines +for company until the path brought them out on the highway opposite an +inn before which were the same Prussian soldiers, standing about +dismounted from their horses. + +The carriage was empty. + +Plainly some accident had happened, for a smith was busy at work on its +wheel. Herr Leo, the Head Forester, was asking questions, and Hans, +leading Bettina, pressed forward for the news, the wood gatherers +listening timidly on the edge of the crowd. + +The battle had begun before daybreak. The French guns had said an early +good-morning to the Prussians. The King was at Auerstädt. + +"And where is the Emperor?" The forester leaned on his gun, one hand on +his hip. + +"At Jena, naturally," said a great, red-faced Prussian, who was standing +with his arm round the neck of his horse. + +"The devil take him!" Herr Leo's nostrils swelled with anger. + +"Ja wohl," cried the whole party, which is the German way of agreeing. + +"I saw the Emperor last night, Herr Forester." + +Every eye turned on Hans. + +Then he told his story, and the brows of the soldiers grew gloomy. + +"He, the Devil, was awake," said one who leaned idly against the +doorpost, "and we were all sleeping." He shrugged his shoulders and +began biting his nails as if in irritation. + +"The Prussian generals are old," said the forester. He was a +pompous-looking man, and announced everything with an air of being a +herald. + +"He called them 'old wigs.'" Hans' face flushed. "The generals of +Frederick the Great's army 'old wigs'!" + +At that the soldiers uttered words which made the women shudder. + +The forester asked news of the fight at Saalfield. He had heard that +there had been a skirmish, he said. + +"Ach Gott," cried the soldiers, "have you not heard?" + +Then the listening ears were shocked with the news of the defeat and +death of Prince Louis Ferdinand, he who was the darling of the army, the +Alcibiades of Prussia, one of the bravest princes who ever took up arms +against an enemy. + +One thousand Saxons under this Prince had been surrounded in a narrow +valley by thirty thousand of the enemy. The Saxons had fought bravely, +but in vain. The horse of Prince Louis Ferdinand, leaping a ditch, +became entangled in a high hedge and was spied by a French hussar. + +"Surrender, or you are a dead man!" he cried, and, for answer, Prince +Louis Ferdinand cut at him with a sabre. + +The Frenchman retorted with a sword thrust and made an end of the most +gallant Prince in Germany. + +Bettina, listening, and not always entirely understanding, grew cold +with horror. She could see the flashing of the swords, and, oh, her +father, her dear father was at Jena, and while the talk went on the +cannon roared louder and louder. + +"The enemy captured thirty guns," said a red-faced soldier gloomily. + +"There were bad omens before the war," announced the forester pompously. +His wife, he told them, had been in Berlin and had seen the statue of +Bellona, goddess of war, fall from the roof of the Arsenal on the very +day when the King reviewed his army. + +"And when they had picked her up," continued the forester, "her right +arm was entirely shattered!" + +He had another thing to tell. + +Old Field Marshal von Müllendorf, being lifted on the left side of his +charger, had straightway fallen down on the right. + +At this the red-faced soldier looked impatient. + +It was certainly stupid in that big-nosed forester to be telling such +things to the soldiers. + +"The Queen has been in camp with us," he announced to change the +subject. + +Then Bettina pricked up her ears. + +Oh, if only they would tell more of the Queen of Prussia! Who in Europe +did not know of her beauty, her goodness, her love for her people? To +Bettina she was like a fairy princess, for her grandfather had told her, +over and over again, of how he had seen her ride into Berlin in a +splendid gold coach to marry the Crown Prince. + +But the soldiers had their thoughts just then on war and they were soon +talking again of the Emperor. + +"The Devil," announced the forester, "is the only being who can conquer +the Emperor." + +"Or the English," said Hans quietly; "remember Nelson and his victory of +Trafalgar." + +At this there was an outcry, the whole group protesting and talking. + +"Hold your tongue, old fool!" cried a fat, rude Prussian. + +"Ja, ja!" all the others approved him. + +"Are not the soldiers of Frederick the Great as brave as the sailors of +Nelson? Did not the Great Frederick himself say that the world was not +so well poised on the shoulders of Atlas as the Prussian monarchy on the +bayonets of the Prussian army?" + +"Ja wohl," cried the company. + +Then, suddenly, little Bettina's childish voice made the whole party +pause and listen. She spoke as fearlessly as if alone with Hans. + +"Grandfather," she said, "grandfather, do the soldiers know of Frederick +Barbarossa? Tell them, dear grandfather," her little face glowed with +excitement, "tell them the ravens will wake him and he will come with +the sword and kill the wicked Emperor," and she gazed from one face to +the other, her eyes bright and eager. + +A great laugh answered her, but one soldier, a kind-looking young man +with blue eyes, patted her head and said: + +"Brava, little one, brava! If the ravens won't caw enough, we'll wake +the old Redbeard with our cannon. Never fear, we'll wake him." + +He smiled at Bettina as if he knew how little girls feel, for perhaps he +had a little sister at home who also loved stories. + +Then, before the talk could begin again, out came an officer, and the +soldiers at his command mounted their horses. While the talk had gone +on, the smith had mended the wheel and now stood in his leather apron as +if waiting for something to happen. + +The Herr Ober-Forester stepped to one side and, with a wave of his +important hand, motioned the wood gatherers to move farther from the +carriage. + +The door of the inn was then thrown open by the Herr Landlord, bowing +almost to the ground as he did it. Four grand ladies and a gentleman +then approached the carriage. Nobody troubled much to look at two of the +ladies, though they were young and very noble in appearance. + +The third was so dignified that everybody stood up a little straighter. +Yet her face was as kind-looking as it was handsome. She was not young. +Years had turned her hair quite snow-white, and yet her eyes were as +bright and sparkling as a girl's, and she greeted them pleasantly. + +But it was at the fourth lady everyone gazed and gazed almost as if +enchanted. Never in all her life was little Bettina to see anyone half +so lovely. She was exactly like the Princesses in the Fairy Tales, tall +and slender, and the most graceful person in the whole world. Her hair +was quite golden and waved in the loveliest way from a parting in the +middle. Her complexion was pink and white and made you think of +snowdrops. Her features were quite perfect and her smile altogether +enchanting. + +And her eyes! + +"Never," the people of Berlin had said years before, "never have we seen +such eyes, never." + +They were blue, and deep in colour, and they seemed to speak right to +the heart and say things no one can write of. They were wonderful eyes, +the most wonderful then in Europe, and that is all there is about it. + +Though she looked worried and anxious, the moment she saw other faces +than those of the soldiers, she smiled first at one, then at the other. + +About her lovely throat was a light tissue scarf, and a breeze, seizing +it, blew its end sharply into the very face of the dignified, +bright-eyed old lady. + +"Pardon me, oh, pardon me, dear Voss," called out a voice so sweet that +Bettina and the wood gatherers thought they had never heard anything +like it. It thrilled them like gentle music. Then she swept away the +scarf and patted the old lady's shoulder. + +Her foot was on the carriage step, when, for the first time, she saw +little Bettina. Her lovely face suddenly lighted with a smile like a +mother's. + +"Voss, Voss," she said, "see that dear child. Do look at her." + +Then she stepped from the carriage and turned to Bettina. + +"God bless you, little one," she began, but a roar of cannon, loud and +thundering, came like a voice warning her to hasten. With a wave of her +hand she entered the carriage. From its window, when all were ready, she +thrust forth her lovely head. + +"God bless you all, good people!" called her voice of sweetness. Her +face now looked sad and very anxious. "Pray for me, dear people, pray +for my King and your good Duke who is helping him, pray the dear God +that He will give us the victory." + +Then she drew in her head; bang went the door; the officer gave an +order; the postilions sounded; and away dashed the carriage, the +splashing mud and the roar of cannon behind it. + +The women crowded around Hans. + +His face was radiant. + +"Who was it?" he cried. Then he spoke with great triumph. "Who better +than Hans Lange can tell you? I saw her ride into Berlin in a golden +coach to marry her husband. Women," his voice quivered, "the lady with +the golden hair and the blue eyes is the 'Angel of Prussia.' Yesterday, +in Jena, I heard how the Emperor of the French hates her and has vowed, +if he can, to capture her. It is from him, doubtless, that she is +flying." + +The old lady, he told the excited wood gatherers, was the Countess Marie +Sophie von Voss, Mistress of Ceremonies in the Prussian Court, and like +a mother to Her Majesty. + +"Oh, grandfather, oh, grandfather!" Bettina, in spite of the Emperor, in +spite of her father and the cannon, for the moment was again quite +happy. She had seen the Queen of Prussia, the most beautiful lady in all +Europe, and she had said, "God bless you." + +But her grandfather, listening to the cannon, turned to the wood +gatherers who were standing and discussing the Queen. + +"Go home, women," he said in a tone of command, "go home at once and see +that your children are in safety. We may win." He threw out his hands. +"We may not." He shrugged his shoulders. "Either way, you are better off +the highroad." + +Then he turned to the pink-cheeked young woman. + +"Minna," he said, "take Bettina, here, home to Frau Weyland. Ja, ja, go, +child; mother will be anxious. Go, now, and you can tell her how the +Queen spoke to you. And, Minna, tell Frau Weyland to go at once to her +father-in-law's with the children. She can lock the house, tell her, and +leave the dogs unchained. Herr Weyland can go up, or send Fritz, for the +night. I am going, myself, now, to Jena. Tell her, Bettina, to go at +once. No one knows when the soldiers will be everywhere." + +"Ja wohl," and Minna took the hand of Bettina. + +Her grandfather turned towards the roar of the cannon. + +"Auf wiedersehen," he said, and off he marched like a soldier. + +As for Bettina, she trotted along with the wood gatherers, her fright +all gone. + +Now that she had seen the lovely Queen and knew that the Emperor had +vowed to capture her, she could almost see the old Kaiser Barbarossa +rising from his sleep. His sword was flashing, his eyes were like fire, +and she knew that he would kill the monster, Napoleon, and save the +lovely Louisa. + +"Do you think," asked Minna, suddenly, "that the Queen will escape?" + +The women looked gloomy and shrugged their shoulders. + +"The Emperor does what he wills," said black-eyed Emma. + +"Ja wohl," agreed Magdalena. Then she shook her head wisely. "I say +this, women, poor as we are to-day, it is better to be wood gatherers of +Thuringia than the Queen of Prussia." + +"Ja wohl," they all said, "much better." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +AT JENA + + +When old Hans left Bettina and the women he followed the highway until +he came to a path leading to a red-roofed farm house belonging to his +cousin. + +Seeing Herr Schmelze standing in the doorway, the old man went in. + +"Good-day," called the cousin. "Himmel, Hans, but the firing is awful!" + +Certainly the roar, always steady and loud, seemed to increase to a +noise like thunder. Towards Jena they saw a cloud of blue smoke rising +always thicker and higher. The air, usually so fresh with the breath of +the pines, choked their throats with its taste of powder. The din was +awful, shrieks, shots, and the cannon roar uniting. Before Hans could +even answer, the flying feet of the first fugitives were heard on the +road, men and frightened women, furniture on their backs, children in +their arms, hands holding what they could; on they came as if fiends +were at their heels, a great horror pursuing them. + +The cousin's wife, seeing Hans, came out to greet him. Her fingers were +held fast to her ears and she kept crying on God to help them. + +"Be quiet, Lotte," commanded her husband, "and bring Hans some +breakfast." + +She ran back into the house, and Herr Schmelze led the way to a rustic +table beneath an elm. + +"It is cold," said he, shivering at the dampness, "but out here it is +better, is it not? We can see all that is happening." + +Frau Schmelze returned with black bread, sausage, hard-boiled eggs, and +beer. + +Arranging them on the table, she bowed her head most piously. + +"Bless the mealtime," she said, jumping an "Amen" as the cannon +thundered a sudden volley. + +"Mealtime," answered the men, German fashion, and fell to eating. + +"Eat while you can, friends," and Frau Schmelze smoothed her clean black +apron over her short skirt of blue. "The soldiers will soon get +everything." + +Germans seem always able to eat, so, though the cannon roared and the +fugitives passed by dozens in the road, Hans and the cousin partook of +the meal in large mouthfuls, exchanging news as they drank their beer. + +"I came from Weimar to-day," said Herr Schmelze, in his slow, deliberate +way. "The Queen of Prussia has been with our Duchess, but this morning +she left." + +"I saw her on the road," said Hans, and told of the adventure at the +inn. "And I saw Napoleon," he added, and while he related again the +story, the roaring grew fiercer and fiercer. Suddenly Frau Schmelze ran +from the house. + +"Ach Gott! Ach Gott! Ach Gott!" she screamed. "Conrad, Hans, look! +look!" + +And she pointed to the highroad. + +Flying, galloping, running as if demons were at their heels, they saw +soldiers on foot, soldiers on horseback, hussars, dragoons, heard +pistols exploding, saw swords flashing, heard voices screaming madly. It +was horrible. + +A quick shot sounded. A soldier fell like a stone at the gate. + +Hans and Conrad reached him as if by magic. + +"Dead," said the cousin, as they drew the body to the grass. "And a +Prussian." + +There was a stream of blood in the road, men were falling, riding over +each other, dropping to death everywhere. On they came, faster and more +furious. + +"Save us! Save us from Napoleon!" + +Hans flung open the gate, and in rushed two wild-eyed women caught in +their flight by the hussars, who seeing them out of their way, rushed on +after higher game. + +"Vive l'Empereur! Vive l'Empereur!" The cry rose even above the cannon +roar. Hans and Conrad looked each other in the eyes. + +"The Prussians, cousin," began Hans. + +"Were first," said Herr Schmelze. + +The shoulders of the brave old soldier of Frederick the Great drooped +with shame, the fat old farmer coloured. + +It was the first time Hans had seen a Prussian soldier turn his back on +an enemy, and a tear stole down his cheek. + +"Come," said Herr Schmelze, "let us go to the height and look down on +the battle. Ulrich," he called to his son, as he passed the house, "stay +here and take care of your mother." + +Then he led the way to a spot from where they could see the battle. The +sight was one never to be forgotten, and as the hours passed the hearts +of the two Germans grew sick within them. They saw the Duke of Brunswick +borne from the field of dead and wounded, and then began a panic worse +than all else we can read of in history. Over the field flew the +Prussians, whole companies taking flight as if children. Horses, freed +from their riders, dashed where they would, galloping over the dead, +crushing with their hoofs the dying; swords flashed against sabres; men +fled as if mad; gunners deserted cannon; and still, through all the +havoc and confusion, steadily, unswervingly, the cannon of Napoleon +roared on. Towards late afternoon the Prussians were turning their backs +in all directions, crossing each other's paths, blockading, hampering, +as they struggled to escape to Erfurt, to Kolleda, to Sommerda. + +The sun dropped in the west, and, as the afterglow rose like a mist of +gold, the light fell on a field of such horror as blood-stained old +Europe rarely has seen. The cries of the wounded, the dying, the +pursued, and the victorious rent the air, and the Prussians who remained +were in a confusion most awful. Only the soldiers of the Duke of Weimar +fought with steadiness, and, presently, they began to retreat in order +towards Erfurt. + +The glorious army of Frederick the Great had disappeared like a bubble. +Napoleon had but touched it with his finger of might and its +many-coloured glory had vanished into nothing. + +For hours, old Hans and his cousin watched the fight, and lower and +lower sank the head of the old man. That he, a soldier of Frederick the +Great, should see the downfall of the army! + +"Ach Gott! Ach Gott! Ach Gott!" he said to the cousin. + +But Herr Schmelze caught his arm, his face suddenly glowing with +excitement. + +"Look, cousin, look!" he cried and with a fat hand he pointed towards +the field. "Look, I say, look, Hans! What courage! That Prussian is +only a boy, and there are four, no, five, six, seven Frenchmen in +pursuit. See him run! Bravo! Ach Himmel! Hans, at last, some courage!" + +What Hans saw was a Prussian, slender, alert, quite boy-like in figure, +fly before pursuing Frenchmen. To save himself he darted sideways, then +rushed between two wagons close together and deserted by the Prussians. + +Sheltered, he fired. + +A Frenchman dropped. + +He dodged the answer and fired again. + +"Vive l'Empereur!" called the hussars, responding, but the boy, turning +suddenly, leaped the wagon to the left; then, as the Frenchmen started +to follow, he turned on his heel, dived behind the rear of his barricade +and, turning, fled, gaining time as he ran. + +"Bravo! Bravo!" called the cousin, and Hans brightened at even this +slight show of Prussian courage. With shots pursuing, unharmed, the boy +fled on, the French behind, until dusk wrapped in its dimness both +pursued and pursuers. + +Hans and Herr Schmelze strained their eyes to see the end of the unequal +combat, but the battlefield and flying soldiers faded alike in the +gloom. + +"I must go home," said Herr Schmelze, suddenly remembering his Lotte, +"and you, Hans?" + +"I'm off to Jena." + +The cousin eyed him curiously. + +"Hans," he said, "is it wise to leave Annchen alone with the children? +The house is lonely and will be in the path of the soldiers, if they +should break through the forest." + +The old man's mind was full only of the battle. + +"Nein, nein, Conrad," he said. "I sent Anna a message by Minna +Schneiderwint. She was to take the children and go at once to her +husband's father. She is there now, that is certain." + +The cousin looked less anxious. He was easy going and usually minded his +own affairs. + +"So, so," he said, "then she will certainly be safe. You are sure she +obeyed? Otherwise----" + +Hans nodded with conviction. + +"Of course she obeyed; why not? I told Minna to command her." + +"Very well, then," and Herr Schmelze started home. "Auf wiedersehen, +Hans, and you might bring us the news as you come back from Jena." + +"Ja wohl," and the old soldier of Frederick the Great strode away in the +gloaming. + +Jena was a scene of horror. Its streets were noisy with the yells of +drunken soldiers; screaming women were rushing in or out of houses; in +the streets lay the dead and dying, and, above the noise, steady, never +stopping, roared on the cannon of Napoleon. + +About ten at night a sound of drums silenced the screams. With +triumphant flags and victorious music, in rode Napoleon, erect on his +white horse as ever. + +"The scoundrel, the upstart!" said a voice near Hans. + +The speaker wore the dress of a professor of the University of Jena, and +he stiffened his head as the conqueror approached. "I will not bow to +him," he muttered, "I will not." + +But Napoleon suddenly gazing at him, the professor hesitated, then, a +strange look on his face, bowed as if in spite of himself. + +"It is Professor Hegel, the philosopher," said a man near Hans. "He has +been writing here in Jena and did not even hear the cannon. A moment ago +the postmaster told him the news and he is like one broken-hearted." + +But Hans had not time for gossip. Jena men whom he knew were on the road +to the field to bring in the wounded and they hailed him. + +"Well met, Hans," they cried. "Come! We need men. Come, and help us." + +"Ja wohl," and Hans turned and joined them. "I am too old to fight, +alas, comrades," he grieved, "but God be thanked, I can do this for the +army." And he marched off with the group. + +Why not? + +Annchen and the children were quite safe with Kasper's father. Anna knew +his ways and would not worry. It had been different when he had had +Bettina. Her concern had been for the child and not for an old soldier +such as he was. Why not, then? + +And so he followed to the field where the horses still were racing, the +Prussian soldiers fleeing, the thieves prowling to rob the dead and the +dying, and where, above the havoc, still roared without ceasing the +cannon of Napoleon. + +Towards Weimar the sky was crimson, tongues of flame darting up and +suddenly lighting the heavens. + +There was but one cry: "Vive l'Empereur! Vive Napoleon!" and, as Hans, +with the gentleness of a woman, lifted man after man from the ground, he +knew that the soldiers of Frederick had had their good-morning, and the +country of that famous old soldier lay conquered in the dust. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +AT THE FOREST HOUSE + + +Hans worked hard all night and into the next morning, and then, feeling +the need of food and finding none in overcrowded Jena, with an "Auf +wiedersehen" to his comrades, he departed for the farmhouse. + +Frau Schmelze stood in the doorway. + +"Morning, Hans!" she called. "Come in, come in, here is coffee!" + +Bustling about, she prepared him a meal in the living room. + +On the sofa lay a man in Prussian uniform. + +"He staggered in last night," she explained. "His hand was cut and +bleeding. I bound it up for him and he fell asleep there, though, +goodness knows, it was dangerous enough with the French tearing by every +moment!" She poured out coffee. "Ach Himmel, Hans!" she cried, "but war +is dreadful! All night the cannon and the screaming." + +Then suddenly she turned on him, glancing at his tumbled hair and face +stained and dirty. + +"Hans," she said, "have you been all night in Jena?" + +The old man nodded. + +Frau Schmelze frowned in disapproval. + +"Cousin," she said, "are you sure about Annchen? All night there were +soldiers that way. It would be dreadful if she were alone with the +little ones, nicht wahr? We thought you were there." + +"Alone?" Hans put down his coffee cup in surprise. "I sent her word to +go to her father-in-law's." + +The truth was, he had forgotten everything but the battle. + +"Why should she, cousin, have stayed on in the Forest House?" + +Frau Schmelze was silent; it was not her business to remind Hans Lange +that he had a daughter exactly like him. + +"So," she answered after a moment, "so. Perhaps you know best, but----" + +Then she went to the soldier whom the talking had awakened. In her hand +was a cup of the good, steaming hot coffee. + +"Ah," said the man, "a thousand thanks!" and he drained the cup, +smacking his thin lips as he finished. + +"It makes a man over." And rising stiffly he tottered to the table and +sank in a chair beside Hans. "You have news of the battle, my friend?" + +Hans nodded. + +"Napoleon is in Jena," he answered shortly. + +"And the army?" + +Hans snapped his fingers. + +"Gone like a bubble," he said. Then he told of the night and the flying +of the soldiers, of the crossing and recrossing of lines, of the racing +of the riderless horses, and the entrance of Napoleon into Jena. + +The soldier's head sank low; he left his second cup of coffee untasted. + +"No one can stand against the French Emperor," he said. + +"Ach, nein," agreed Frau Schmelze. + +"Perhaps the English," volunteered Hans, cutting huge mouthfuls of bread +and grey sausage. + +The Prussian flushed and his lip curled. + +"The good God helping me," he said, "here is one Prussian who will never +give up his fighting until they sign peace, or death steps in." + +"Bravo!" cried Herr Schmelze, coming in at the door. "If there were more +who felt that way, Jena this morning would not be Napoleon's. The +Fatherland is full of indifference, nicht wahr?" + +"The Germans are asleep," said the soldier, "the whole nation is +dreaming." + +Herr Schmelze smiled drily. + +"There was something loud enough to wake them, yesterday, nicht wahr?" +And he looked at the other two and laughed sarcastically. + +As for Hans, he moved uneasily. + +"That a man must grow too old to fight," he said. Then he offered to +show the soldier the way towards Erfurt, where the remainder of the army +was gathering. + +Frau Schmelze put down her work and whispered in the ear of her husband. +He nodded. + +"Hans," he said, "you had better go to the Forest House. Annchen----" + +"Ja wohl, Otto." The old man rose resolutely. "We go that way, you know, +and when I show our friend here the way, I'll go down and take the news +to old Weyland." + +Then off he started with the soldier, plunging into talk of the King of +Prussia and Napoleon. + +Frau Schmelze shook her head. + +"I hope, Otto," she said, "that nothing has happened." + +The farmer looked serious. + +"I thought, of course, Hans had gone home, or I should have sent +Ulrich." + +"Hans?" A look expressed Frau Schmelze's opinion of Frederick the +Great's old soldier, and she returned to her labours. + +"A good man is our King, there is no better," the soldier meanwhile was +saying. "He and our good Angel, the Queen, have the love of all their +people. He is upright, and saving, and truly religious, but, ach Himmel, +if he were only not so uncertain! Nobody, not even Stein, steady himself +as a rock, can make him know what he wants to do and at once to do it. +'To-morrow,' he says, 'let us wait.' It is always so, nicht? Now, take +this war. He delayed and delayed, letting Napoleon insult him over and +over. The army grew feeble from want of exercise, and our generals too +old for service. Blücher is the only one worth counting. Then, too," he +continued, "Frederick William the Second is unlucky. Look at his +wretched boyhood. He was born unlucky. And now he has made a mistake +about this war, nicht wahr? For eight years when our neighbours needed +us he wouldn't fight, and now when we are at it ourselves there is no +one to help us." + +"The Russians," put in Hans, "the Czar Alexander is our ally. Did you +not hear how he and our King--I am a Prussian, you know--swore an oath +of friendship at midnight at the tomb of Frederick the Great, the Queen +being witness?" + +The soldier nodded. + +"Ja, ja," he said, "if Russia will help," he spread out his hand, "that +will be entirely another affair. But who knows? That little Emperor of +the French may twist any number of Czars round his finger, but hark!" He +listened eagerly. "What was that? A child?" + +There was a sound as of a baby wailing wretchedly. Hans looked uneasy. +Could it be that his Anna--but, no--he had sent her word, and certainly +she had obeyed him. It was only some peasant with her baby. Presently +they left the wood and before them stood the little grey Forest House +with its red roof and garden. + +Hans started and called out an exclamation. Pine needles were scattered +everywhere as if feet, running, had disturbed the forest carpet. The +garden gate stood open. A rosebush, broken, had fallen across the path. +On the path, too, were dark drops which made both men shudder. The +chickens, not yet freed from their night quarters, clucked impatiently, +unmilked cows bellowed in pain, and Schneider and Schnip, the dogs, +howled long and mournfully. And yet, in spite of the noise, the place +seemed wrapped in a quiet most horrible. + +"Mein Gott!" The soldier looked at Hans, who, gazing steadily before +him, pushed open the unlatched door of the hall. + +A cold little nose touched his hand as he entered. It was "Little +Brother," Bettina's pet fawn, whose eyes seemed to speak most +mournfully. + +The hall was that of a Forest House, its walls ornamented with antlers +of deer, guns and sticks on the racks, and, in the corner against one +wall, a highly carved oak press, and, opposite, Frau Weyland's spinning +wheel. But Hans and the soldier took no note of furniture, for a stream, +a dark stream, was flowing from one door to the other, its source being +the living room. + +"Gott im Himmel!" cried the soldier. "It is blood!" Then he pushed open +the door, Hans and the little fawn following. + +There was the room as Hans knew it, with its sofa, its square table, its +geraniums in the windows, its tall white porcelain stove, and its one +picture of the Herr Jesus blessing the children. + +A candle, smoking dismally about the socket, filled the room with a +horrid odour. On the table stood the remains of supper, half eaten. But +the two men looked at none of these things, nor took note of the little +quivering fawn, whose eyes seemed to long to explain the whole story. + +It was at the floor both gazed in horror. + +"May the good God have pity," said the soldier softly. + +Before them lay three bodies, the first in the uniform of a French +soldier, the second, the young Prussian officer Hans had seen flying, +and the third---- + +Hans fell on his knees and took his daughter's golden head in his arms. + +"Annchen!" he cried, "Annchen! Speak to me, my Annchen!" + +But Frau Weyland was never again to laugh at his forgetfulness, never +again to smile her "Ja, ja, dear father!" never to tease him about his +battles. + +The story was easy to read; the position of the bodies told it. The +Prussian had fled to the Forest House for refuge, the Frenchman had +fired from the doorway, Frau Weyland, hastily rising, had received one +bullet. + +As for the Frenchman, a sword thrust had finished him. Doubtless he had +received it in the battle and he had bled while running. At all events, +it was a loss of blood which had killed him. + +Old Hans was almost crazy. With his daughter's head on his knees, he +kept begging God to forgive him. + +"She was all I had," he told the soldier, "and I thought she was with +her husband's father. Herr Jesus, forgive me, forgive me." + +Then, presently, as is the habit of certain people, he found comfort in +blaming someone else. He flew into a wild fury against Napoleon; he +cursed him; he cried out vengeance against him, and he swore that as +long as he had a drop of blood in his veins he would struggle to +overthrow him. The soldier paid no heed. With his unhurt hand he had +been feeling the heart of the young Prussian. + +"Get water, old man," he interrupted. "Quick! Quick! The Herr Lieutenant +still lives!" + +Hans, laying down the head of his daughter, drew from his pocket a +flask. + +"It is brandy," he said. "They gave it to me for the wounded in Jena." + +The soldier poured some drops down the officer's throat. He ordered Hans +to fling open doors and windows and they made the poor fellow more +comfortable. + +Then they covered the dead with sheets from the sleeping room beds. + +"Ach Himmel!" cried Hans suddenly. "The children!" + +He ran into the garden. Above the noise of the animals sounded the +distant wail of a babe. Following the sound, Hans came upon Bettina, +little Hans, and baby August. + +They had hidden in the forest, Bettina holding the baby wrapped in her +mother's shawl. + +"Grandfather, oh, grandfather," and she burst into sobs, "he cries so, I +can't stop him." + +"Mother, I want mother!" screamed little Hans, while the baby's wails +were incessant. + +Bearing August in his arms, Hans and Bettina at his side, the old man +appeared again in the kitchen of the farmhouse. + +"Gott im Himmel!" cried Frau Schmelze, wringing her hands and weeping. +"I knew it! I knew it! You need not tell me. Conrad, husband! Ulrich! +Come! Quick! It is Anna! Our dear, dear Anna!" + +As for Hans, he went on like a madman, railing at Napoleon and blaming +the French. Only Bettina could quiet him. + +No, he would not stay there with the children. He would return to the +Forest House where he had left the soldier. + +So the farmer went with him, and Ulrich fetched Kaspar's father. + +Hans insisted that he would nurse the wounded Prussian. + +"Let him alone," said the soldier, who announced that he must march on +towards Erfurt. "It will take his mind off his trouble." + +"The children will stay here for the present," insisted Frau Schmelze +when Hans reappeared that evening. + +He nodded. + +"Ja wohl, Lotte," he said, and then he railed so at Napoleon that she +was sure his grief had crazed him. + +She kept her thoughts to herself until that night, when she and her +husband lay under their featherbeds. Then she expressed the opinion she +had been suppressing all day. + +"It's all very well laying everything on Napoleon," she said. "He is a +monster, an upstart, a villain, but Hans should have gone home to poor +Anna. She should have obeyed and gone to Weyland's, you say? That is +just like you, Otto, taking up for Hans Lange because he is a man, but +Anna, poor woman, was not much given to obeying her father; you know +that, husband, as well as I do, nicht? She was Hans, all over, doing +what she pleased and obeying no one." Then the good woman, who truly had +loved her cousin, wet her pillow with tears. + +The farmer grieved, also. Why not? He, too, had liked Anna, and there +were those little children, but he was a man and his thoughts were on +the battle. He had learned at Jena that Napoleon was that evening to +enter Weimar. Who knew what would happen? + +The Duke was the ally of the King of Prussia, and Napoleon was not +likely to forget it. + +"Our poor country," and he sighed, remembering his meadows and how the +soldiers had tramped over them. + +He was sinking to sleep when Ulrich returned from Jena, where he had +gone after supper. + +"Father! Mother!" he called. "Wake up! Wake up! There is news of a +battle at Auerstädt!" + +The farmer pulled back the bed curtains and sprang from his bed. + +"A battle at Auerstädt! Impossible!" + +But Ulrich nodded, having hurried until he was quite breathless. + +"Ja, ja, father," he panted, "the whole Prussian army is annihilated! +They fought at Auerstädt at exactly the same time the battle took place +at Jena." + +"Ach Himmel, Ulrich, I cannot believe it!" cried the farmer, his face +red with excitement. + +"Ja wohl, father," Ulrich insisted. "Davoust led the French, the King of +Prussia the Germans. They fought all day and neither the King nor the +Emperor heard the cannons of the other." + +"There has never been such a thing in the history of the world, Ulrich. +Two battles at once, here in Thuringia. Impossible!" + +But Ulrich knew what he was talking about. + +"Ja wohl, father," he said, "I heard it in Jena. All the generals are +dead or wounded. The King is no one knows where. Horses were twice shot +from under him, and they say he fought like a hero. Napoleon's soldiers +are ordered to capture the Queen, and Davoust is pursuing towards +Erfurt. Down in Jena they say Napoleon will march at once on Berlin." + +Frau Schmelze's voice came from between the bed curtains. + +"War is terrible," she said. "Ach Gott, but it is awful!" + +"Ja wohl, mother," agreed Ulrich. "All is lost, everything, and Napoleon +is our master!" Then he told how the sky was red toward Weimar and how +he had heard the Duchess had refused to fly and had taken scores of +people into the castle. + +Then he lowered his voice, which trembled. + +"Mother," he said, "I have bad news for Hans Lange. Kaspar was among +those who died, to-day, in the hospital in Jena. They brought him in +after Hans had left them." + +And so, behind the white horse of the Emperor, Death marched into +Thuringia. + +Poor Bettina! + +Napoleon had robbed her of her father and mother, and the old Barbarossa +still slept on in his cave, the ravens cawing and circling. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE JOURNEY + + +The wounded soldier lay unconscious for many days in the Forest House. +Hans nursed him carefully. He took care of Bettina, too, whom he refused +to leave with Frau Schmelze, and Minna Schneiderwint came to milk the +cows and do the cooking. Later they must find a new home, but the Herr +Forester Leo had been glad, for the present, for Hans to keep on with +Kaspar's duties. + +Bettina spent much time by the sick officer. At first, she had been +afraid of him lying there in a stupor, but presently she grew used to +the quiet and liked to sit near his bed while her grandfather was in the +forest, singing away to her doll and never minding the sick man. One day +she was putting her dolly to sleep with a pretty song her godmother had +taught her: + + "Joseph, lieber Joseph mein, + Hilf mir weig'n mein Kindlein. + Eia!" + + "Joseph, dear Joseph mine, + Help me rock my little child, + Eia!" + +she sang. The Germans say that it is the song the Virgin Mary sang when +she rocked the little Jesus in Bethlehem, and so Bettina loved it. + +"My sister sings that," said a voice from the bed, a weak voice like a +child's. + +Bettina gave a great start and then smiled when she saw it was the +soldier. + +"My dolly is named Anna," she said, and she ran to the bed to show him. + +[Illustration: "_My dolly is named Anna_"] + +"God be praised," said Hans, when he came in and found them talking. + +The soldier would hear the news. Hans told him everything, but not all +at once, for it was not wise for him to have too much excitement. + +Jena was lost. So was Auerstädt. Both great battles had been fought in +one day, neither party hearing the cannon of the other. Retreating, the +armies had crossed each other, and never had Europe seen such turmoil +and confusion. As for the Prussian army, it had vanished. The young +soldier could not believe it. A few weeks before he had marched with +that brilliant army, singing songs, and certain of victory. + +"And the Emperor?" his face flushed with hatred. + +Then Hans told him how, on the day after Jena, Napoleon had marched into +Weimar. + +"Our good Duchess had remained," he said, "all the day of Jena, and the +next morning she opened her doors to Weimar families and any English +strangers. There was nothing to eat, and all Her Highness had was a cake +of chocolate she found hid beneath a cushion. Towards evening of the day +of the battles--I have been told, sir, it was awful!--the French rushed +in, pursuing the Prussians. It was terrible. The soldiers slew each +other in the streets, the pavements ran blood, the French fell on the +wine and beer, and, not knowing what they did, they set fire to the +houses near the castle, and the French officers quartered themselves on +the Duchess. She alone, sir, remained calm. We have heard how she waited +that second evening at the head of the stairs for Napoleon. When he +arrived she advanced to meet him, greeting him with politeness. 'Who are +you?' he cried, like a peasant." + +"The upstart!" muttered the young lieutenant. + +"'I am the Duchess of Weimar,' our lady told him," continued Hans, his +voice thrilling with pride at Her Highness's bravery. "'I pity you,' +said Napoleon, 'for I must crush your husband. Where is he?' 'At his +post of duty,' our Duchess, sir, told him. She is a brave lady, sir, and +it's a pity, a dreadful pity, that many of our soldiers are not like +her. Pardon me, sir, but the doings of our army have been dreadful." + +Then he told all the rest he had been told: how Count Philip de Segur +had come in the dawn to report to Napoleon all the events of the night, +and when he had told him that they had failed in their attempt to +capture the Queen of Prussia, Napoleon had said: "Ah, that would have +been well done, for she has caused the war." + +"That is false," cried the lieutenant, his face flushing. "Our Queen was +in Pyrmont for her illness caused by the death of little Prince +Ferdinand, and it was decided upon before her return. How dare +Napoleon----" + +"The Emperor of the French dares anything," and Hans shrugged his old +shoulders. He had heard, too, but he had no idea how true it was, that +Napoleon had written the Empress Josephine, who was then in Paris, that +it would have pleased him much had he captured Queen Louisa. + +"And why?" asked the soldier, "why should the Emperor hate so gentle a +lady?" + +Hans shook his head. + +"One is good, the other is bad. From the beginning of things, sir, the +pastors tell us in church, there's been war between good and evil, nicht +wahr?" + +The soldier nodded. + +"I suppose so," he said. + +Then he heard the rest about the Duchess of Weimar. + +The Emperor of the French could not praise her enough. + +Next morning he had breakfasted with her. "Madame," he asked, "how could +your husband be so mad as to make war upon me?" "My husband," said the +Duchess, "has been in the service of the King of Prussia for more than +thirty years, and, certainly, it was not at the moment when the King had +so formidable an enemy as your Majesty that the Duke could abandon him." + + +The Emperor was so pleased with her brave answer that his manner changed +at once. His tone became respectful and he made her a bow. "Madame," he +said, "you are the most sensible woman whom I ever have known. You have +saved your husband. I pardon him, but entirely on your account. As for +him, he is a good-for-nothing." + +Then he talked much more with the Duchess, and at her request ordered +all the disorder to be stopped in the town, and everywhere that he went +he praised her conduct. + +"And we have one comfort," Hans told the soldier. "The Duke, our Duke, +Herr Lieutenant, alone remained firm, the Prince of Orange standing with +him. They, sir, made an orderly retreat to Erfurt, but," he shrugged his +broad shoulders, "their bravery counted as nothing." + +Hans was a different man since the death of his daughter. He had but one +thought, and that was hatred of the French and of Napoleon. When he +walked now, his head hung low. He had no longer cheery words for the +people he met with, but a gruff good-day and then no more speaking. + +Only to the soldier was he talkative. There was something about the +pleasant-faced lieutenant which brought back the old Hans; each day the +young fellow grew dearer. Still, even he felt that Hans had his +secrets. He came and went in strange ways, and often after nightfall. + +One morning, when the frost was white on the grass and the leaves of the +low shrubs were touched with silver, the old man started out as usual. +There were still French at Jena, though Napoleon with the army had +marched away towards Berlin. Bettina was with the soldier, who was up +now, and hoped soon to try and join the army. + +He and the little girl were great friends. He had told her how that he +had three sisters, the oldest, very pretty and named Marianne, and the +other two, Ilse and Elsa, were twins, round, jolly and so alike there +was no telling them apart unless they spoke, when you knew Ilse because +of the shape of one tooth. He had three brothers, Wolfgang, Otto, and +little Carl. + +"And our home, dear little Bettina, is called the Stork's Nest," he told +her, "because my father is Professor von Stork, and the real stork has +brought my mother so many babies." + +Bettina was delighted at this and asked many questions about Marianne, +who was so pretty, and read so many books, and Ilse and Elsa, who were +always in mischief, fooling everybody about which was which and trying +to do everything that their brothers did. + +But the one of this family in whom Bettina took the most interest was +little Carl, who had such red cheeks, almost white hair, and blue eyes +like saucers. + +The reason of this was a story the soldier told her. + +One day, he said, his mother was taking her nap after dinner. Before she +shut her door she told little Carl, who then was six, to go and stay +with his big sister, Marianne. But Marianne was reading a famous book by +the great poet, Goethe, called "The Sorrows of Werther," and she told +Carl to run away and let her alone. + +He did run away, and so far that not a soul could find him. + +All the home was in the wildest confusion, Madame von Stork wringing her +hands, scolding Marianne, and telling her that it was all her fault, +because she would read books, write letters and poems; Mademoiselle +Pauline, a young French girl who lived with them, searching everywhere +and assuring his mother that Marianne was perfectly useless since she +had been to Frankfort-on-Main, formed a friendship with Bettina Brentano +and taken to adoring Goethe; the boys racing everywhere; and the good, +calm father trying to quiet everybody. + +At last Ilse and Elsa had screamed that Carl was coming, and in he +walked with the prettiest story you can think of. + +He had run away to the Thiergarten, a great, fine park in Berlin, and +there had found some boys who had asked him to play horse. + +One had reins and quickly harnessed Carl for his steed. + +Then off he had pranced, up and down the avenues, until, with a snap, +pop had gone the reins. + +"A run-away! A run-away!" called the boys, as off had run Carl. + +Faster came the drivers and faster ran the horse until, bump, he landed +with his head right into a lady. + +"You naughty child--you----" began one voice, an old one, when a +second--it belonged to the lady who had been bumped--interrupted: + +"Please, dear friend, be quiet. Let him alone. Boys will be wild," and +she smiled at her companion, a bright-eyed old lady with white hair. + +Then she asked Carl his name, told him she had heard of his father, and +then she patted one round cheek, kissed him on the other, and said, "Run +away, little son, and carry a beautiful greeting to your parents." + +"And who was she?" cried Bettina, when the lieutenant first told her. + +"Guess," said the soldier, smiling mischievously. + +Bettina shook her little head. + +"The Queen," said the Herr Lieutenant, and then roared when he saw how +surprised Bettina was. + +She and her friend, the Countess von Voss, had been walking in the park +like any other ladies, and Carl had run into her. + +Bettina wanted to know everything. + +Was Carl scolded for running off? Was he proud? And how had his mother +liked it? + +His mother certainly had been much pleased at such an honour to Carl, +and, as for the little rascal, he could talk of nothing else, but most +certainly he was scolded. + +"But nothing did him the least good until his sister Marianne had told +him that Pauline would write a little letter in French to Bonaparte, and +if he ran away again the Emperor would come and get him." + +Bettina shuddered. She could quite believe that Carl never had run away +again. + +"He is a great boy now," said the Herr Lieutenant. "This happened two +years ago." + +"I have seen the Queen, too," confided Bettina, and she told him all +about the day at the inn, and about Napoleon, and her mother, whom she +missed so. Night after night she wept herself to sleep under her feather +bed, poor little Bettina. + +"Oh, dear Herr Lieutenant," she said, "why did not the ravens wake the +Kaiser Barbarossa?" + +"Perhaps they will some day," he answered, smiling. + +"Do you think, gracious Herr Lieutenant," she asked on the day when Hans +had departed so secretly, "that the wicked Emperor will get the dear, +lovely Queen?" + +The soldier shook his head. + +"No, no, little Bettina, the good God must save her, for she is so good +and kind to everybody." + +Then Bettina came quite close to him, her doll in her arms. Her little +dress was no longer bright red. Frau Schmelze and her grandmother had +made her one of black. + +"Herr Lieutenant," she began. + +"Ja, little Bettina." + +"I saw a raven to-day." + +The young officer laughed. + +"So," he said, "so?" + +"I think, gracious Herr Lieutenant," and Bettina smiled, "I will run out +to the garden, and if I see a raven now, I will give him a message to +Barbarossa. He did not wake for my mother," her lips quivered, "but +then, Herr Lieutenant, there was no time to send him a message. If I see +a raven now, I will call out loud and off he will fly to the cave of +Barbarossa." + +"Put some salt on his tail, Bettina," said the Herr Lieutenant, "then he +will sit quite still and listen until he knows the message." + +Bettina trotted off and begged salt of Minna Schneiderwint. Then she ran +into the frosty garden to watch for the raven. + +At the gate she saw French soldiers. Without a word in they marched and +came forth again with the Herr Lieutenant in the midst of them. + +"Adieu, dear Bettina, adieu," he cried. "I am a prisoner. Tell your +grandfather and thank him for his goodness." + +"Auf wiedersehen," Bettina flew to him, her face all alarm. + +But the soldier shook his head. + +"Adieu, dear Bettina, adieu, I am not likely again to see you or your +grandfather." Then he put his well arm about her and kissed her. + +"Come, come," cried the soldiers, and off they marched into the forest +along the path away from Jena. + +Bettina ran into the house, her little body shaken with sobs. + +Everybody she loved the wicked Emperor took away, her mother, her +father, and now the Herr Lieutenant. Oh, if she only had a wand as in +the fairy tales, she would change him into a great black stone, or some +cruel animal. + +In came Minna Schneiderwint, wringing her hands and sobbing, "The dear, +gracious Herr Lieutenant! What will Herr Lange say when he hears of it? +Ach Gott! Ach Gott! What a monster is Napoleon!" + +Hans, returning, found Bettina still weeping. + +"Liebchen," he said, after he had heard the story, "we, too, are going +on a journey." Then he told her to say nothing to Minna Schneiderwint, +but to help make up a bundle to travel with. + +Not a soul, he said, must know a word of their going. + +Bettina did as he told her, though the tears came to her eyes when she +heard that she was not to say good-bye to Hans, or the baby, or her +godmother, Frau Schmelze, or Wilhelm. + +Her grandfather Weyland she did not mind not seeing, but she would like +to kiss her grandmother. + +"Nein, nein," said old Hans, "it is all a great secret." + +"And when shall we come back, dear grandfather?" Bettina felt, indeed, +as if Napoleon was her enemy, for now she was to lose everybody but her +grandfather. + +"When the Emperor is conquered," said old Hans, and his brow darkened, +"we shall come back to Thuringia." + +Then he took off Bettina's dress, and between the lining and the +material of the waist he placed a letter. + +"Tell no one," he said, "or I shall punish you." + +Then, when Minna Schneiderwint had gone home in the afternoon, he fed +all the animals, locked the door, and wrapped the key in paper. + +"Come, Bettina," he said, and off they started, the old man with his +gloomy face, the bundle on his back, a stick in his hand, Bettina in her +black clothes and carrying some sausage and bread for supper. + +On the road they came upon four boys at play. + +"Walter!" Hans called, "come here." + +One left the game and listened. + +"Take this package for me to Herr Leo," said Hans, "and can you remember +a message?" he looked at the boy sharply. + +"Ja, Herr Lange, naturally," and Walter looked indignant. He was twelve +or thirteen. + +"Tell him, and all who ask you, that I have gone on a journey. Bettina, +here, goes with me. We will come back when the Emperor is conquered. +And, see here, Walter----" + +"Ja, ja, Herr Lange." + +The old man gave him some money. + +"Here is your pay. See that you earn it." + +The boy nodded. + +"And, Walter----" + +"Ja wohl, Herr Lange." + +"I shall not mind if you finish your game before you go to the Herr +Forester." + +The boy laughed. + +"Do you mean it?" + +Hans nodded. + +"Thank you, Herr Lange," and Walter, pocketing the coin, went back to +his game. + +"Auf wiedersehen, Herr Lange, auf wiedersehen, Bettina, and pleasant +travel." + +"Auf wiedersehen," said Hans. + +"Auf wiedersehen," said Bettina. + +Then, breaking away, the little girl ran back, her eyes full of tears. + +"Walter, dear Walter," she cried, "please, will you not take my love to +my little brothers? And, Walter, please, will you not ask my dear +godmother Schmelze in Jena to take a wreath to my dear mother's grave at +Christmas? Please, Walter, please?" + +"Ja wohl, dear Bettina, ja wohl," and the young boy patted her on the +shoulder. + +"And greet Willy Schmidt, and Tante Lottchen Schmelze, and, auf +wiedersehen, dear Walter, and thank you." + +Then she ran after old Hans, waiting impatiently. They started towards +Erfurt, but, as soon as they could, Hans changed their direction. + +"Where are we going, dear grandfather?" asked Bettina, surprised. + +The old man hesitated. + +"Would you like, Liebchen, to see the Queen again?" + +Bettina's eyes glowed. + +"Then say nothing to anybody, and try and keep from being tired, and +perhaps we may help save the Queen from Napoleon." + +"And the Herr Lieutenant, dear grandfather?" + +But Hans shook his head, his face saddening. + +"Nein, nein, dear child," he said, "we will not see our soldier," and he +muttered something against Napoleon. + +Poor little Bettina! + +It would be nice to see the lovely Queen, but she knew the Herr +Lieutenant, and he told her stories. Her lips began to quiver. + +The old man, noticing it, held her hand closer in his. + +"Nein, nein, do not cry, Liebchen," he said, "we may see the Herr +Lieutenant. Who can tell? Soldiers are everywhere." + +Then he taught her a story to tell if any questioned them. She had lost +her parents and her grandfather was taking her to an aunt in Prussia. +Their home had been burned after Jena and they had nothing to live upon. +Of her little brothers, or her grandparents Weyland, she was to say +nothing. + +It was well the old man had been in haste to tell her these things, for +even that evening they were stopped by French soldiers, who searched +Hans's pockets and even his clothes, and questioned both him and +Bettina. + +"Nonsense," said one man when they discovered nothing, "this is not the +man we want. This one speaks true. Look at his eyes. And who burdens +himself with a child when out on such business?" + +The others looked uncertain, one with keen black eyes and firm mouth +biting his nails while he considered. + +"The man answers the description." The first man looked dubious. + +"Use your sense," said a third man. "The child----" + +All eyes turned on Bettina. + +"You have lost your father and mother?" She felt the keen black eyes +reading her through and through. + +At the sound of these names and at the thought that she would never +again see them, her lips quivered and her eyes filled. + +The man stopped quickly. + +"Let them pass," he said with a shrug. "Only a fool would choose such a +messenger," and he glanced with contempt at Hans, who certainly had +answered stupidly, quite like a peasant, saying he knew no French, and +begging them to speak in German. + +"God be praised, child," he cried, when they were safe through the +lines, "you have saved me. The first danger is passed." And he bent down +and kissed her. + +"Shall we save the Queen, grandfather?" + +"Who knows?" answered Hans. Then he charged her that she must never +mention that it was to her they were going. He did not tell Bettina that +had the letter in her dress been found they would have shot him without +discussion, and so she gazed at him in wonder when, "God be praised! God +be praised!" he said over and over. + +A wagon was waiting at an inn where presently they stopped. It was all +very queer and puzzled Bettina, for the driver said, "The Angel," and +her grandfather said, "God bless her," and without more words he lifted +her in and told her to lie down on the straw and go to sleep. + +They drove the whole night and it was morning when her grandfather waked +her and gave her some black bread and sausage. Then they alighted and +trudged all day through the forest paths, keeping off the main roads, +and as they walked Bettina saw the deer in great herds coming to the +open places to feed on the hay which the foresters had tied about the +pine trees for their dinners, and once she saw great, gleaming, yellow +eyes in some bushes. + +It was only a huge black cat, but Bettina was sure that it was +Waterlinde, the mother of all the witches in Germany, and who, on +Walpurgis night, leads the dance on the Brocken Mountain. + +"Wait, grandfather, wait!" she cried. Then she ran back to the cat. + +"Waterlinde! Waterlinde!" she called, "please ride on your broomstick +and get Napoleon!" + +The cat raised its tail, which grew monstrous from its anger. + +"Hiss!" it said, "Hiss!" Then fled into the bushes. + +But Bettina was joyful. + +"It will get the Emperor," she said. "It promised. Oh, grandfather, how +happy I am! Waterlinde will get Napoleon!" + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE DOWNFALL + + + +Bettina was tired, indeed, when one day before noon they drew near a +great city on the banks of the Elbe, its splendid cathedral rising +against the sky, the snow falling and melting on its strong walls and +fortifications. + +When Hans saw the colour of the flags flying over this city, he cried +out in horror. + +"Gott im Himmel!" he exclaimed, "but the French have taken Magdeburg!" + +In all Prussia there was no stronger fortress. On it had rested the +whole hope of the country. + +For a few moments Hans felt quite stunned. Then, taking Bettina's hand, +he turned into a path leading to a red-roofed farmhouse standing in the +fields some distance from the walls of Magdeburg. + +All along the way they had heard of defeats and misfortunes. Like the +houses of cards children build, all the strongholds and forts of Prussia +had fallen at the mere breath of Napoleon. + +But Magdeburg! + +"Ach Gott," Hans cried, "but I cannot, nien, I cannot believe it." + +As for Bettina, she was so tired that her feet moved without her any +longer feeling them. + +"Poor child!" cried the farmer's wife, when Hans begged for admission. +"Come in! come in!" And she refused to answer a question of Hans until +she had fed Bettina on warm milk and tucked her to rest under a huge +feather bed. Then, giving Hans a chair, she went for her husband. + +He was busy in his barn, hiding all the corn from the French in a hole +he had dug beneath its floor, and covered with fire wood. His wife's +steps startled him, and his keen, money-loving face appeared at the +door. + +"It is I, Herman; Magda," she called, and then told him of Hans and +Bettina. + +"He seems half crazy to me, Herman, the old man. I've put the child to +bed. She's half dead from walking. He says they've come from Jena, where +the mother and father were killed after the battle. It's an awful story. +He's taking the child to an aunt in East Prussia." + +The farmer made no movement to go into the kitchen. + +"He can pay for everything, Herman." + +His face brightened. + +"Ach ja," he said, "but that is different. A moment, dear Magda, and I +shall be with you." + +Following her to the kitchen, he seated himself opposite Hans, pulling a +table between them. + +"Beer, Magda!" he commanded, and she set bottle and glasses on the +table. + +"Ja wohl, friend," he said, "Magdeburg is Napoleon's." + +Then he filled the glasses, and, clinking with Hans, proposed the +downfall of the Emperor. + +"Three times, a thousand times over," said Hans, and he begged for the +news. + +"The King's hope was in Magdeburg. Ja wohl," said the farmer. His voice +was loud and he roared instead of talking. "And why not? What fortress +in Europe is stronger? There were twenty-four thousand soldiers here; +Kleist was in command, and both the King and Queen stopped here in their +flight to implore the garrison to be true to Prussia. And then," his +face darkened, and he paused for a sip of his beer, "the French Marshal +Ney appeared and shot a few projectiles and the Magdeburgers took to +tears and appeared before Kleist, begging him to surrender and spare +them the horrors of a siege." + +"The cowards!" Hans struck the table with his fist. + +The farmer sipped his beer, quite unexcited. + +"Why fight when one must, in the end, be conquered?" He set down his +glass. "They gave up the keys without a breach in the wall, or a single +cannon being taken; twelve thousand troops under arms, six hundred +pieces of cannon, a pontoon complete, immense magazines of all sorts, +and only an equal force without the walls," roared on the farmer. + +"Cowards!" And Hans thumped again. + +"We are conquered, man," said the farmer, "and the good God knows this +war is expensive." + +Then he told Hans that he had heard that the King of Prussia had written +a letter to Napoleon from Sondershausen, where he had fled after the +defeat at Auerstädt. + +"And the answer?" Hans' hand, holding his beer glass, trembled with +eagerness. + +The farmer, shrugging his shoulders, thrust out his under lip in a queer +way he had. + +"There has been none that I know of," he roared. Then he refilled their +glasses, his eyes gleaming as the beer foamed. + +Hans thought that he cared much more for this same beer than for his +country's troubles, since he drank it with such pleasure while roaring +how Napoleon, with a splendid procession, had entered Berlin. He had +heard that the Berliners sat at their windows weeping. Napoleon had +ransacked all the palaces and was stealing and sending to Paris all the +art treasures of the Berliners. Only at Potsdam had he shown reverence. +The Prussians had fled so hastily that they had left the cordon of the +Black Eagle, the scarf and sword of Frederick the Great on the tomb in +the garrison church. + +When Napoleon saw them his eyes fired. + +"Gentlemen," and he turned to the officers who accompanied him, "this +is one of the greatest commanders of whom history has made mention." +Then he traced an "N" on the tomb in the dust. + +"If he were alive now I would not stand here," he said. + +And because of his respect for the great Frederick he saved Potsdam from +all annoyance from the war. + +What else had happened the farmer did not know, only that the brave +Blücher, with tears streaming down his cheeks, had been forced to +surrender Lübeck. + +As for the King, the farmer had heard that he had gone to Custrin; but +he also had heard that Custrin was among the forts which had +surrendered. At all events, the beer being now at an end, he had no more +time to talk, but arose to return to his barn. + +Hans asked him to let Bettina remain until in the afternoon, when he +would return for her. Then off he departed also. + +The farmer's wife touched her head. + +"Grief has crazed him," she said to herself. "It is cruel to drag that +child about this country." + +Bettina ate a nice warm dinner with the farmer and his wife, and then +was put back to bed again. + +"A queer little thing," said the wife to her husband. "Poor little +lamb!" The tears filled her eyes. "She thinks old Frederick Barbarossa +will come from his cave to save us!" + +The farmer laughed and told his wife what to charge Hans, for he might +not see him again. + +It was in the late afternoon when the old man returned. + +"We must be off at once," he announced. + +The farmer's wife protested. + +"The little one," and she set her lips hard, "is too tired." + +But Hans was positive. + +"We must go, my good woman, and at once," he announced again, and most +positively. + +Poor little Bettina did not want to go. The farmer's wife had been as +kind to her as her mother; but her grandfather took no notice. + +"Come, Liebling," he said, "say good-bye and thank the good Frau, and +quickly, for we must be starting." + +"Auf wiedersehen," said Bettina shyly. She hoped that some time she +might see this good Frau Magda again. + +Then Hans paid the bill, and off they went and trudged on their way +until, late that evening, they came to an inn, where Hans announced they +would remain until morning. + +Bettina went to bed, but Hans returned to the big room where the men +sat, and presently, just as Bettina was dreaming a fine dream about +Willy Schmidt and her brothers in Thuringia, he returned with great news +and awoke her. + +The Emperor, he announced, had offered terms of peace to Prussia. All +the troops, not wounded or prisoners, must be drawn up in northeast +Prussia; the great cities of the kingdom, including Dantzic and Breslau, +must be surrendered; all the Russians marching to the aid of Prussia +must be sent back, and the King of Prussia must join with Napoleon in +war on his friend, Alexander of Russia, should Napoleon command it. + +"I am beaten," answered the poor, good King; "my kingdom is taken from +me, but never will I save myself by fighting against a friend. Let the +war go on." + +Hans' face glowed as he told Bettina this answer. + +The little girl was happy to see her grandfather smiling again, but she +was too sleepy to understand what he was talking about, and so, when his +voice ceased, she went back to her dreams and the old man poured over +maps until midnight. + +Next day they marched on, keeping out of the way of the army, eating at +the farmhouses and hiding often in the forests. Soldiers sometimes +stopped them. More than once they searched Hans, but when they +questioned Bettina and saw the tears which always came when she heard of +Jena they let them pass on. + +Once Hans persuaded the driver of a carriage to take them a part of +their journey. The carriage belonged to a great person and the man had a +passport, and Hans and Bettina could pass as servants. + +"For the sake of the child, ja," said the driver. But it may have been +for the sake of Hans' gold, which he readily gave him. It was queer that +a wild-looking old man, wandering about the country, had gold, but in +war times people do not ask too many questions. + +It was when in this carriage that Bettina was sure she saw again the +Herr Lieutenant. + +It was at a place where the driver showed his papers. + +At the window of a house surrounded by soldiers a man was gazing +gloomily from the window. + +Behind him were other faces, and one, Bettina declared, was that of her +dear Herr Lieutenant. + +"And he knew me, dear grandfather; I know that he did, only he could not +dream that his Bettina was here in Prussia, could he?" + +"Indeed, no," said her grandfather, and then went to sleep. It was not +often that he had such a soft bed as the carriage cushions, and he +meant to make the most of it. And so they came to Custrin. + +"Now," said Hans, his face full of joy, "we shall see the King!" + +But, alas! + +Certainly, the King had been there; the Queen, also. + +An old peasant woman outside the walls, whom Hans questioned, knew all +about it. + +The King had come first and gone straight to a house in the Market. + +"It is a sad event that brings me here," he had said. And then, later, +had come the Queen. "They were here some time," said the old woman. "Her +Majesty, wrapped in a travelling cloak, used to walk on the walls and +try to put some courage into the soldiers. Foolish work," she added; +"you might as well try to fill broken bottles; all she put in their +hearts went out at their heels, and Custrin surrendered without +fighting." + +The King and Queen, she said, were at Graudenz, on the Vistula. + +"We will follow," announced Hans. + +Poor little Bettina! Would the journey never end? + +Her grandfather set out at once. Travel now had become very dangerous. +The French were everywhere, and often they must answer questions. They +heard how Napoleon had stolen and sent to Paris the splendid statue of +"Victory," the pride of Berlin; how he had read all the Queen's letters +to the King, which he had found in the palace, and of awful things he +had written of Her Majesty. + +"He seems to hate her, poor lady," said Hans; "but why, no one can say." + +At Graudenz there were the French also. The King and the Queen and the +court had been there, certainly, but one day in had rushed citizens, +crying "The French! the French!" And pell-mell over the bridge had come +Prussians, pursued by French cavalry. + +Bang! Up went the bridge, blown to atoms by the citizens. But the French +were not to be stopped; and on had fled the King, Queen, and the Court +of Prussia. + +So Bettina and her grandfather trudged on to Marienwerder. + +Never had they seen a place so muddy and dirty. The King and Queen had +stayed there ten days. The landlord showed them the room they had lived +in, and Bettina, listening, heard how they had eaten, dressed, and slept +in one room, and that not a fine one. + +"And our poor King," a woman told Hans, "had to take long walks if the +Queen wished to dress, or the servants lay the table." + +The Maids of Honour had been forced to sleep in a tiny, dirty closet, +and the five gentlemen of the flying court in one room, with beds for +two and straw on the floor for the others. + +"And they changed about," said the landlady. "There was an Englishman, +Mr. Jackson, with them, who was pleasant about everything. But our +Queen! She is an angel!" + +"On every hand someone had good to tell of her; how sweet she was, how +patient, how she cheered the whole party and only laughed when she went +up to her knees in mud, and declared that she was not thirsty when they +could get no wine and the water was not fit to be drunk by anybody." + +On one of the windows of the inn the landlady showed Hans some words the +Queen had cut there with a diamond. + +The old man repeated them to Bettina. The great poet, Goethe, had +composed them: + + "Who never ate his bread in sorrow, + Who never spent the darksome hours + Weeping and watching for the morrow,-- + He knows ye not, ye heavenly powers."[1] + +[Footnote 1: By many authorities said to have been only written in the +Queen's Journal.] + +Bettina looked puzzled. + +"And what does it mean, dear grandfather?" + +The old man took her on his knee. + +He held one little hand in his, and with his other he smoothed her soft +hair. + +"It means, dear child," said he very solemnly, "that we never can know +the dear God well until, when all the world is fast asleep, we weep +because of our own troubles. Then it is that it seems that we know best +the dear God who, in the night, seems to comfort us. Do you understand, +my Bettina?" + +The little girl nodded. + +"I prayed to the good God, dear grandfather, when mother was there," she +shuddered, "and I was with Hans and Baby in the forest. Do you think, +dear grandfather," her lips quivered, "that the poor Queen has such a +trouble? Did that wicked Napoleon kill her dear mother, too?" + +Hans' face twitched, and he drew his arm closer about little Bettina. + +"The Queen's mother, my child, died when her little girl was six, and +she lived all her child life with her grandmother." + +He smoothed Bettina's hair with his hand, but his thoughts were with his +Annchen. + +"Grandfather," Bettina patted his cheek with her hand, "grandfather, +tell me, please, what is the trouble of the Queen? Why is she so +unhappy?" + +Then the old man explained how a Queen is the mother of all the people +in her country, and of how, when a foe comes and with sword and war +slays these people, it is her trouble and she must weep for her +children. + +"Then Queen Louisa, my Bettina, weeps for her poor husband, the King, +who has lost his kingdom, and for her poor children, who are driven from +their home and the palace. And now," he added, "in cold and ice and snow +she has had to fly, as the landlady told you, with not enough to eat and +no fit place to rest in." + +Bettina sighed. + +"Ach ja, dear grandfather." + +Her own feet were very tired and she was certain that she understood +that part of the Queen's trouble. + +"Grandfather," she asked, "please, what is a foe?" + +"Napoleon, child, Napoleon. He comes to do us harm, to work evil. He is +the foe of the good King and Queen, but especially does he hate our +Queen and seek to do her harm." + +Bettina opened her blue eyes. + +"Grandfather," she said, "how can he?" + +The old man shrugged his shoulders and sat absently stroking her hair. + +As for the little girl herself, she was thinking. How anyone could be a +foe of that lovely Queen it was hard to understand. But then, it was so +with all the fairy princesses. There was always an ogre, Bettina +remembered, but it was true, too, that the foes were always conquered by +a knight, or a prince, a dragon, or something. + +She remembered the cave of Kyffhäuser. + +"Grandfather," she said, pulling at one of the buttons of his coat, "why +don't the ravens wake Barbarossa? I told one at our Forest House. I +think, dear grandfather, it is time for him to wake up, don't you?" and +she gazed quite anxiously into his face. As for Hans, he laughed for the +first time in days. + +"It would surprise the Emperor a little, my Bettina," he said, and then +told her that their journey was ended. "The King, dear child, is at +Königsberg, and there we will rest for a long time." + +"God be praised," said little Bettina, in the way the Germans do. "I +shall truly be glad, dear grandfather, to sit down and do a little quiet +knitting." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +ON THE ROAD TO MEMEL + + + +On a certain day in the January following Jena the snow was falling +fast. + +It clung to the tree limbs and turned the feathery firs to fairy trees. +On the low bushes and oaks the ice glittered and gleamed, and a piercing +blast, sweeping through the branches, crackled the crusted limbs and +filled the air with a mysterious sound of coldness. Now and then a +high-runnered sleigh dashed along the highway, its driver muffled to the +eyes in fur, the breath frozen on his beard or moustaches. From the +Baltic Sea the breath of the frozen North swept over the East Prussian +land and, obedient to its command, life seemed to still its slightest +sound and the whole world freeze into silence. + +Suddenly the voice of a child broke the quiet. + +"Grandfather,"--oh, how tired it sounded,--"truly, dear grandfather, I +can go no farther." + +It was little Bettina, wrapped in a woollen shawl and trudging by the +side of old Hans, whose face was almost hidden in a huge cape of fur. + +They were still on their journey, though Königsberg had been passed two +days before. + +"Ja, ja, Liebchen," the old man paused in the road; "it is cold, indeed. +But have courage, little one; we shall soon reach a village, and then +sausages and bread." + +"God be thanked," said little Bettina, and on she trudged, her poor +feet so cold she could not feel them moving. + +On they went for a time in silence. Then the old man, with a short +laugh, said: + +"God be praised we have left the French behind us." + +Before Bettina could answer, or Hans himself say more, the Baltic sent a +breath sharp with icy edge. It cut the falling snow, it dashed the +flakes in their faces, it beat against their bodies; and, gathering +strength, it drove them apart, tossing and twisting Bettina. + +There was no speaking. + +The wind howled in icy salutation; the snow struck their eyes, drove +itself into their mouths, lodged in the necks of their garments, +whitened their hair and froze on their gloves and chilled them to almost +fainting. + +Then suddenly the wind gave a shriek like a terrified spirit. The snow +began to whirl, and upward went leaves, sticks, and even lumps of the +earth itself. + +Hans caught Bettina in his arms. He drew her to the edge of the road. + +"Down! down!" he cried, and pulled her into a gully. Harmless, the +whirlwind passed above their heads, the ridge of earth protecting their +bodies. + +"Lie close, lie close, my Bettina," cried Hans, and he drew her within +the folds of his great cape with fur lining. + +Winds from the north, east, west, and south fought for mastery, the four +beating and screaming and whirling the innocent snow in their fury, +until, rising, the white confusion became like a veil concealing +everything. + +But wheels were approaching. They reached the road above the travellers, +and then, their horses losing power any longer to struggle, suddenly +stopped short in the road. Even their stamping sounded faint and +exhausted, so great was the fury of the awful war of winds which nature +had excited on that narrow neck of land in East Prussia. + +Then suddenly came a lull. The winds retreated from their battle ground. + +Both Hans and Bettina raised their heads in wonder. In the sudden quiet +they heard a voice, a voice whose sweetness sounded a note quite +familiar and a voice whose owner seemed ill and suffering. + +"I am in a great strait," it said; "let us fall now into the hand of the +Lord, for His mercies are great; and let me not fall into the hand of +man." + +Even while the voice was speaking the whirling snow fell like a curtain +of white wool to the ground, and Hans and Bettina, rising, saw in the +snow of the road a travelling carriage, on whose cushions, covered with +a feather bed, lay a lady, white and pale, whose golden head, for want +of a pillow, rested on the arm of an attendant. With her were ladies and +a physician. + +Hans' face flushed. + +"Curtsey," he whispered to Bettina. "Curtsey, child, it is the Queen!" + +Bettina forgot her own cold. She was no longer tired, no longer hungry, +in her pity for the poor, ill lady, who, when she saw a child, smiled +her a greeting, quite feebly, but as sweet as the one at Jena. + +It was Queen Louisa of Prussia, flying still before her foe, Napoleon. + +He had entered her palace; he had ransacked her private desks; he had +read all her letters to her husband; he had published dreadful things +against her in the French paper in Berlin; he had proclaimed her the +cause of the war; declared her to be vain, foolish, and unworthy of the +love of her people; and loudly had he declared that never would he rest +until he had brought the King and Queen of Prussia so low that they must +beg for their bread. + +He had driven them from place to place, and now was advancing on +Königsberg. + +When Hans and Bettina had arrived in that old city the King had gone, +the court was flying, and so, never heeding the snow, on they had gone, +too, fleeing like the rest, before that dreadful Emperor. + +And here was the poor Queen, who had been ill to death in Königsberg, +journeying in the cold and snow to Memel, with not even a pillow to rest +her head upon! + +When the carriage started again Hans and Bettina walked behind it. + +"It will shelter us," said the old man, for the wind blew little Bettina +almost off her feet. + +Ach, as the Germans say, but it was cold! + +The blasts, sweeping from the Baltic to the Kurischehaff and from the +Kurischehaff to the Baltic, still fought for mastery, and the curtain of +the northern night began to fall about them early in the afternoon, and +on they struggled in the gathering darkness. + +At last, through the snowy gloom, they saw the lights of a village, and, +nearly frozen, they sought lodgings. + +Hans asked a woman whom he saw at a door to shelter them. + +She stoutly refused him. + +She was tall, dark, with sallow complexion and gleaming dark eyes, whose +lids she had a trick of narrowing. Hans pointed to Bettina shivering and +wet to her skin. + +"You cannot refuse us a room," he said. + +The woman shrugged her shoulders and hesitated. + +Truly, Bettina would have moved any heart. + +"Because of the child, poor darling," at last said the woman, "though my +man, if he comes, may not like it." She shrugged expressively. + +She rubbed Bettina's hands and feet with snow and made her dip them in +water, and, undressing her, she wrapped her in a warm bed-gown of her +own and covered her with a feather bed. + +"Drink this," and she held warm milk to her blue little lips, and when +the child was sinking into a doze, she started towards her kitchen. At +the door she paused. + +"I must dry the child's clothes," she said, and coming back gathered up +the damp, draggled garments, Bettina never noticing. + +As she was cleaning them in her kitchen she started violently. Bearing +the dress on her arm she went to her room. + +"I thought so!" she said, and her eyelids narrowed. + +As for Hans, when he had dried himself somewhat and partaken of bread, +cheese, and beer, he was off to the shoemaker's house, where they had +taken the Queen. In its kitchen, with its great stove and its pots of +blooming geraniums, he found some court servants, who, now they were +resting, were glad enough of a gossip. + +Especially was the driver of the carriage fond of talk. + +"Ja," he said, "our good Queen has been ill to death of a nervous +fever." + +Then he told of how she had been with the King; her children, with the +Countess Voss; and first little Princess Alexandrina, and then Prince +Carl had been ill, and the Queen could not reach them. + +At Königsberg little Carl had been near to death, and the Queen from +nursing him took the fever. + +"Ach Himmel," said the driver, gazing from face to face in the hot, +steaming kitchen, "it was terrible, for we thought we should lose her! +Herr Doctor Hufeland arrived from Dantzic. His Excellency found her near +death. Ach, friends, but it was a dreadful night, and all hearts were +anxious, for at sea was a ship, and on board Baron Stein, bearing to +Königsberg the state treasure. He had saved the gold and jewels in +Berlin from that thief Napoleon." + +Then he told how in the night, while the wind howled and blew, there had +come a crash which had startled old Königsberg. + +It was a wing of the old castle which had fallen in the storm. + +"And it brought bad luck," continued the driver, "for a courier arrived +soon after with despatches. 'Fly!' they said, 'fly! the French approach +Königsberg!'" + +And then had come the flight, and he told how, the night before, the +Queen had slept in a room whose windows were so broken the snow had +drifted in all night over her bed and nearly frozen her. + +There was much to talk about, and all were eager to listen. The warmth +from the stove was comfortable, and the shoemaker brought out some beer. +The driver, who certainly was fond of talking, told of the sufferings of +the Royal children; how the old Countess had not been able always to get +them bread, nor find clothes to keep them clean and in order. + +"And they have grown most noisy," he said. "The Queen is an angel. Never +does she complain, but is always sweet and amiable, and the old Countess +is very noble. But our King is gloomy and wrapped in thought and no one +reproves the children." + +The shoemaker asked questions about them. + +"Prince William is the best," said the man; "he looks like his father, +but in disposition he is like our Queen. The old Countess calls him 'A +dear good child,' and that he is always." + +Before he could continue a messenger arrived from Memel with bouillon +from the King for the Queen. + +This arrival brought much excitement, and when again they were quiet +they all fell to talking of the French and how the Emperor coveted the +great fine city of Dantzic and of how its people vowed that he never +should enter its gates while they could prevent him. + +"Where is he now?" asked Hans, hatred burning in his eyes and his cheeks +flushing. + +"They say in Königsberg that he is at Helbsberg. Our army is in that +neighbourhood, also. They report that both are approaching Eylau. +Perhaps they may fight there." + +The shoemaker's wife came into the roomful of men, interrupting a second +time. + +At first she coughed loudly, for they were puffing smoke everywhere. +Then, with a beaming face, she told them how the Queen had just said she +was more comfortable than she had been anywhere on her flight. + +"Our Queen is an angel!" Hans raised high his glass. "Hoch!" he cried, +as the Germans say when they drink to anything or anybody. + +"Hoch!" answered the others, but low, that they might not disturb the +Queen. + +"Long may she live," said the voices. + +Then "Three times hoch!" and they clinked their glasses softly and +drained them. + +Then, it being late, Hans returned to Bettina. + +She was fast asleep, one little hand, thin and pale, lying outside the +feather bed. On a chair by the bedside were her clothes, clean and dry, +and everything quite in order. + +Hans, in terror, felt for the letter. + +It was safe between the lining and the waist material, and, tired +himself, he was soon fast asleep. + +Next day they all started forth, Hans and Bettina walking behind the +carriage, and presently they came to the ferry at Memel. + +In those days Memel was a flourishing little city of about six thousand +people, noted for its cleanliness and its English ways of living. It +lies on water, and into its harbour came Dutch ships and English ones, +giving it a look of activity. + +As the Queen entered Memel a strange thing happened. + +As if Nature, whom she loved with all her heart, wished to welcome her, +the clouds suddenly parted like a curtain and there was the sun, which +no one had seen for days, smiling forth gloriously. + +"God be praised!" cried Hans. "It is a good omen." + +As he and Bettina started into the city they came upon a lady and some +children. She was stout and comfortable looking and wrapped in fine +furs. The oldest of her children was a girl about fifteen, and the +prettiest girl Bettina had ever seen. + +When this lady saw Hans she gave a shriek. + +"My goodness!" she cried. "Why, Hans, how came you here?" + +As for Hans, he was all excitement. + +"Mademoiselle Clara!" he cried. "Ach Gott! that I see you again!" + +When the lady, with many exclamations, heard of Hans' journey, she +raised her hands in horror. + +"Heavens!" she cried, "but you must come home at once with me. I am +married now, Hans, and these are my children." + +Then she turned to the pretty girl. + +"Daughter," she said, "this is Hans, Johannes Lange. He was with your +grandfather when he was Colonel. Come, Hans; come, child," she smiled +kindly at Bettina. "My husband is home and will welcome you kindly. +Come, come!" + +And off she led them into Memel. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +AMONG FRIENDS + + +The stout lady, asking Hans question after question, led the way to a +large, roomy house surrounded by a garden, now bare and wintry, the +limbs of fruit trees, birches, and shrubs crackling with ice. + +"This is, naturally, not our own house, Johannes," explained the lady, +who had just finished telling him how she and her family had fled from +Berlin upon the approach of Napoleon. "This is my husband's brother's +home," she continued, leading the way to the door. "In the spring we +shall move to Königsberg, where my husband will become professor in the +University. Come in, Hans, come in. Ja, ja, you are right. It is a +comfortable house, but the cold here in Memel is awful. Carl," she +turned quickly to the small boy who was teasing his sister, "behave +yourself, or I'll send you to Napoleon!" + +It was funny to see him straighten up and become quickly as good as his +sisters. + +"Come in, come in," she closed the door quickly. "Husband! Richard!" she +called very loudly. + +A door at the end of the hall opened in response, and out came a grave, +learned-looking man, who smiled kindly from face to face. + +"Richard! Richard!" the lady's voice screamed with excitement, "who do +you think is here?" + +She drew forward Hans and Bettina. + +"An old soldier of my dear father's regiment," her voice vibrated with +pride, "and one, dear Richard, who was with the great Frederick, and, +oh, such a favourite with father, was it not so, Hans?" + +The old soldier shrugged his shoulders as much as to say, "It is not for +me to agree." + +"Ja, ja, Richard, he was, and a favourite of our dear lost little Erna. +It was such a surprise to see him," and she motioned the group to the +warmth of the sitting room. Then, all crowding around the tall, green +stove, Hans told his story. + +"Heavens, dear Richard!" the stout lady pulled out an embroidered pocket +handkerchief, "but seeing him brings back the past." + +Then she turned to the pretty young girl. + +"Mariechen, take the twins upstairs and see that they are quite dry as +to stockings; go, also, dear child," she smiled at Bettina, who, feeling +shy and strange, followed across the hall and upstairs to the room into +which the young lady entered. + +"The child is tired," she heard the lady saying, "and Hans must see our +King. He has brought messages. They must stay here. Ja, ja, Hans. The +house is big, and our brother Joachim gives me my will." + +Then the door closed and Bettina heard no more. + +In the great room where she found herself sat a dark-haired young lady +embroidering. + +"Pauline, Pauline!" called the children, "Hans has come, and here is +Bettina." + +Then, before the pretty young girl could explain, in came the stout lady +and told the one called Pauline how once this Hans had saved her little +sister's life, and how the family never could forget it, and that +Bettina must be dressed drily in one of the children's bed-gowns and +given warm milk and at once sent to bed and left there. + +"I'll tell you the story presently. The child must not hear it again. It +is dreadful." + +When Bettina was safely in bed, up came Hans and the gentleman. + +"My oldest son, Franz, was at Jena," she heard the latter saying--and +then to her surprise her grandfather called him "Herr Professor." + +Bettina, her eyes sparkling, sat up in bed. + +"Grandfather, dear grandfather!" she called, and when he came close, she +drew down his head and whispered most eagerly. + +"Nein, nein, child," they all heard him reply, and then Bettina insist: + +"But, yes, dear grandfather. Please, please ask him, I know it, dear +grandfather, I know it." + +"What is it, Hans?" and the Herr Professor came close to Bettina, +smiling in his kind, fatherly way. + +"She will have it, sir," answered the old soldier, "that your name must +be 'Von Stork,' and that you are the father of the young Prussian +soldier whom we nursed in the Forest House!" + +"I know it, dear grandfather, I know it," burst out Bettina in high +excitement. "The Herr Lieutenant told me of Carl and Ilse and Elsa and +Mademoiselle Pauline and his big sister, Marianne, and of how our Queen +kissed Carl--and----" + +Bettina could say no more. + +Screaming and crying out, they all crowded round exclaiming that it was +their Franz, their own dear Franz and no other. + +And then they would know everything and all he did and said and just +where he was wounded and how they took him prisoner, and Madame von +Stork fell to weeping, and all the others cried, "Ja, ja," and "Nein, +nein," so loud and so much that poor, tired little Bettina was almost +deafened. + +And then Hans must go all over the whole story for them again, and it +set Bettina to weeping, and the old man to vowing vengeance against +Napoleon. + +Madame von Stork first rejoiced because her boy was alive, and then wept +because he was a prisoner, and she thanked Hans over and over, and told +him that she would care for Bettina so long as they remained in Memel. + +And then they all went from the room and Bettina fell sound asleep, and +did not move until the next morning. + +But, no, she moved once, for her grandfather, coming into the room, +waked her and asked her if she had taken the letter from her dress +lining. + +"Nein, grandfather," she had answered and then had gone off to sleep. + +When next morning she opened her blue eyes, her grandfather was packing +his bundle. + +Her little heart sank and her eyes filled. Was she to go forth in the +ice and the wet and the snow and that awful wind again? + +"Nein, nein, little one," said the old man, patting her cheek very +kindly. "You shall stay here with my good Mademoiselle Clara," for so he +called Madame von Stork, as he had known her when she was as small as +Bettina, and he explained that he was going alone, but would return in a +day or two to Memel. + +Then, sitting on her bed, he asked her question after question. + +Had she told anyone of the letter, had a person touched her dress? + +"Nein, grandfather, nein," she said. + +At first she was quite certain. + +But, presently, she remembered the woman they had lodged with, and how +she must have cleaned her dress and dried it. + +The old man clapped his knee with his hand. + +"Ach Himmel, child!" he cried. "It is she who has stolen it." + +Then he shouldered his bundle, declaring he must fetch it. + +"Auf wiedersehen, my Bettina," he said, and departed from Memel. + +It was only a day's journey to the village, but a week passed and no +Hans. Then another. + +Madame von Stork shook her head. + +"His trouble has crazed him," she said. "We will keep the child, yes?" +and she looked at her husband. + +The Professor nodded. + +"Our Franz loved her," he answered. "She is not noble, it is true, but +she is sweet and good, and our children love her. The Stork's nest, dear +wife," and he smiled at her lovingly, "is always big enough for one +more, it is not, my dear Clara?" + +Madame von Stork nodded. + +Pauline was not their child, but a French refugee whose parents were +nobles who had perished in the Revolution. The Stork's nest had received +her; so why not another? + +"Let her remain," concluded the Professor, "until the old man returns, +or we can make some provision for her." + +So Bettina became one of the "Nest", as the von Storks always called +their home, and with so much love and kindness about her, the little +girl soon forgot much that she had suffered. + +"But I should like to see Willy Schmidt and my little brothers," once +she said to Marianne, who was her favourite. + +The little round-faced, tow-headed twins flew to her sides, each taking +a hand and pressing it against her chubby cheek. + +"When Barbarossa, that you told us of, Bettina, comes out of the cave, +our father will take us all to Thuringia," promised Ilse. + +"What nonsense, you geese," and Carl laughed scornfully. "There isn't a +Barbarossa. Otto says so, and he's fifteen and knows everything. +Anyway," he looked very proud of his knowledge, "nobody can conqueror +the Emperor!" + +But when he heard that Bettina had really seen the awful Napoleon, he +listened with wideopen blue eyes and was not so important. + +Perhaps, after all, Bettina did know something. + +"And you saw him," he asked, "saw Napoleon?" + +"Ja wohl," answered Bettina, glad to have the young hero listen +respectfully. + +"And he didn't run away with you?" Carl looked eager. + +Bettina shook her golden head. + +"Nein, nein, or I should not be here." The twins roared. As for Carl, he +laughed very rudely and snapped his fingers at Marianne. + +"You just hear, Mariechen," he said, "Bettina's seen Napoleon and he +didn't do a thing to her." + +At that was the whole Stork's Nest most sorrowful, for now they knew +that Carl would never behave, since Napoleon was the only thing he was +afraid of. + +While they were talking, Elsa and Ilse cried out to come quickly and see +who was passing, and they all crowded to the windows, breathing on the +frost that they might see out more clearly. + +What they saw was a tall, handsome gentleman with a kind, but very sad +face, a lovely lady leaning on his arm, and two little boys, one tall +and handsome, the other, delicate-faced with soft curly hair, clinging +to the hand of the lady. + +It was the King and Queen of Prussia, with the Crown Prince and little +Prince William. + +"God be praised," said Madame von Stork. "Our dear, dear Queen has +recovered." She stood behind the group and watched, having entered the +room while they were talking. + +As for little Bettina, a great happiness filled her. + +Her lovely Queen lived here in Memel and she walked out like other +people. + +"Perhaps," she said to Ilse, "one day we shall meet her." + +But Ilse did not answer. + +"Look, Bettina," she cried, "our King is talking to father." + +Sure enough there was the Professor standing with their Majesties, first +looking cheerful, then becoming grave and attentive. + +As soon as he entered the house he called to his wife. They talked for a +long time in private, and after that day everybody in the house was +very, very kind to Bettina. Sometimes Madame von Stork's eyes would fill +when they gazed at her, and once, when the little girl told her that she +was making a nice pair of stockings for her grandfather, the lady began +to weep. + +Bettina thought her tears were for the Herr Lieutenant, and sat very +quiet. Only she could not help wondering why no one ever said a word +about her grandfather. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE STORK'S NEST + + +As Madame von Stork had told Hans, her family had taken refuge in Memel +when the news came that Napoleon, having conquered the King at Jena, +would advance upon Berlin. + +Old Major Joachim von Stork had welcomed his brother's family into his +great empty house in Memel, and in the safety of a new nest the Mother +Stork had gathered beneath her wings all her startled, frightened brood, +but two sons who had gone against Napoleon. + +Bettina nearly laughed aloud when she saw the old Major. He was stout, +and red-faced, and wore a stock as high as three inches. On each side of +his head were four curls, frizzled and powdered, as they once wore hair +in the army, and his pig-tail boasted a huge cockade. + +Bettina heard him talking one day with his housekeeper about his stocks: + +"They must be exactly three inches high," he ordered, "exactly, my dear +Frau, and as to my cockade, are you quite certain that it is large +enough?" + +And he looked very anxiously at his housekeeper, who held up her hands. + +"Gracious, Herr Major," she said, "it is immense." + +But the Major, puffing a little, looked offended. + +"Immense, my dear woman, what on earth are you talking of? Why Captain +von Schallenfels of my regiment had always seventy or eighty ells of +ribbons on his queue. Fact, I assure you," added the indignant old +gentleman. "It trailed so on the ground that he was forced to tuck it +into his coat pocket when on parade. True, my dear woman, true, I assure +you." + +The old Major, however, was kindness itself, though he went his way just +the same as if his house was still empty. And this way was to have his +meals to himself and, at four o'clock each day, to depart to the house +of one Monsieur von Schrotter, and, with six other Memel gentlemen, +drink beer, smoke, and discuss the army, Prussia, or Napoleon, until +bedtime. + +His wife, Bettina learned, had died many years before and he had but one +son. + +"Our cousin, Rudolph," Carl told her. "He is with my brother Wolf in the +army." + +In the evening all the family gathered in the sitting-room and there +Bettina saw everybody. + +First, there was the Professor, tall, kind-looking and very fond of his +wife and children. He still wore his hair in a pig-tail and not brushed +forward like the King, and he liked silver buckles on his shoes, and a +stock, but not high like that of his brother. + +"And our father knows, oh, everything," the twins told Bettina, "so much +that our Queen used to send for him in Berlin to talk to her. He has +read, oh, all the books in the world." + +Madame von Stork was as kind-looking as her husband, but she was stout, +and her skin was pink and white like a girl's, and she wore her hair +very high, and on top of its rolls one of the huge turbans then the +fashion. Sometimes she seemed quite like a large hen, clucking about her +children, her feathers ruffling if a thing went wrong with any one of +them. + +Especially was she troubled about her pretty daughter Marianne. + +"And no wonder," Bettina heard her telling the Major's housekeeper, Frau +Winkel. "She is a girl, and yet is the one most like her dear father. +She must always be at her books, and I cannot make her care for her +embroidery, her tent stitch, nor the cooking. And what good is a German +girl who cares for none of these things? Who will marry her, my dear +Frau Winkel? She is fourteen, and most girls are married at fifteen or +sixteen. Pauline, now, is entirely different. When there are clothes to +be mended, her fingers assist me. When the children are noisy, she can +quiet even Carl. It is she who makes the puddings, and if she has a +spare moment she is busy over her embroidery; a true house-wife by +nature, and French, too," added Madame von Stork, as if the two things +were impossible. Perhaps it was Pauline's troubles which had subdued +her. Before the flight from Berlin, Marianne had known nothing but joy +and petting, but Pauline had a history as sad as Bettina. + +One day, many years before the days of Memel, an old Frenchman had +appeared at the "Stork's Nest" in Berlin. + +Though his hair was white, his shoulders bowed with trouble, and his +clothes worn and poor, the Professor recognised him as a once very +elegant-looking servant of a French nobleman whom he had known well in +Paris. He led by the hand a little girl of eight or nine. + +"My master and mistress lost their heads in the Revolution," the man +explained, "but I escaped to Berlin with Mademoiselle Pauline." + +Then he told of his dangers and all they had endured. + +"Monsieur," he said, "I am old, poor, and alone. What shall I do with a +fine young lady?" + +Madame von Stork's quick eye had been studying the child. The sadness of +the pale little face, the neatness of the black dress, the daintiness of +the Marie Antoinette kerchief warmed her heart to the homeless little +girl. + +She looked at her husband, a question in her kind grey eyes. + +He nodded, and so Pauline came to the shelter of the "Nest," which so +kindly welcomed Bettina also. + +And now Pauline was like Madame von Stork's own child, and, since she +was noble and hated the French Republic, and loved her poor King, she, +too, had no good for Napoleon and, like the Prussians, hoped to see him +conquered. + +"And what I should do without Pauline, Heaven only knows," Madame von +Stork was often saying, "my own Marianne being so useless." + +Marianne might be useless, but Bettina thought her almost as pretty as +the Queen, in her short-waisted dress, her puffed sleeves, her long +mitts and her lovely curling hair tied in place with a snood of blue +ribbon. + +When they all came to the sitting-room in the evening Bettina would +arrange her stool quite near the "gracious Fräulein Mariechen," and, +while she knitted away, she used to gaze up shyly at her pretty +neighbour and make up stories about the Prince who would one day come +and marry her. + +"Pauline's worth ten of her," Otto was always saying. He was nearly +sixteen and was always wanting someone to do things for him, and, +"Marianne," he said, "is so stupid. Pauline can mend a fellow's things +in a minute." + +But Elsa and Ilse, the twins, who were so alike only their mother seemed +always to know which was which, and Carl preferred Marianne. + +"She can tell you stories," they told Bettina. + +As for Marianne herself, sometimes she was quite unhappy. She wanted to +be useful, but she did so love to read, and then she forgot. And house +work and cooking were not amusing. + +Madame von Stork had little good for idleness. + +"It is German," she always said, "to work. Even our good Queen is never +idle. I have seen a handkerchief she herself embroidered, Marianne, with +beautiful flower designs and a crown in gold placed in one corner." + +Settling herself with a huge bundle of mending, she with her keen eyes +would inspect the family group each evening. + +"Come, now, Marianne, no reading," she would say. "You do not know what +to do? Nonsense. There is your tent stitch. Pauline? Yes, yes, you of +course are busy. Ilse, Elsa? Bettina? Knitting, that's good. Carl? You +are a boy? What foolishness. Get your pencils and drawing book. You +don't like that? Very well then. Let Otto bring you the silhouettes that +Mademoiselle von Appen began in Berlin, and you can cut others. But, +Otto, first fix the lamp. There, where the light can fall on your +father's book. There, that is good." + +Her eyes travelled from needle to scissors, from pencil to work. + +"There, there," she said, her face beaming, "we are a busy German +family. Begin now, dear husband, we are all quite ready to hear your +book." + +The father of the family often read aloud to them in the evenings. But +the books he read were not such as children would even look at to-day. + +Bettina and Marianne, the twins, Carl and the others all listened, on +those long, cold Memel evenings, to grown-up histories, to romances, or +sometimes to plays or poems, very long and very serious. + +Now and then the Professor would talk, not read, and then Bettina loved +it. He told of the new Republic across the sea, America, which had +fought a great war and was now free and independent, and there were +stories of the great men called Washington and Franklin, and of all the +excitement when they had signed a treaty of peace in Paris. + +"I was young then," said the Professor, "and in Helsingör, and there was +much talk of a new life beginning for the world with the Declaration of +Independence,--you must read it, Otto,--and the ships and the harbour +were gaily decorated and cannon were fired and we all drank to the +health of this new Republic at a fine party given to celebrate the birth +of Liberty. And they raised the American flag and lit bonfires, and +heavens, children, but there was hurrahing!" + +And he told of a great Englishman, named Nelson, who had conquered +Napoleon at Trafalgar, and of the Revolution in France, and all that in +his day had happened. But often he read, and sometimes Bettina's little +head fell to nodding. One night she was almost asleep when the +Professor's voice stopped suddenly. + +"Richard," interrupted his wife, and her tone was furious, "see our +Marianne." + +Bettina dropped her knitting and stared. So did the twins, and Carl +stopped cutting. What had Marianne done? Her cheeks were quite crimson +and one hand held something under the table cover. + +"My Heavens, Richard, think of it! Let me see it, Marianne. Obey me." + +Never had Madame von Stork spoken so severely. The twins nearly fell +from their chairs. Carl opened his mouth, and his eyes stared at +Marianne. Pauline never looked up once from her embroidery. Bettina's +knitting needles shook in her hands. + +"She's been reading under the table cover," announced Otto with the +superior air boys wore in those days with their sisters. "It's the +'Sorrow of Werther.' I see the cover." + +Such a thing had never happened in the "Stork's Nest." + +The father's face grew stern, and anger made even his neck red to the +roots of his queue. + +"Marianne," he began, when the maid opening the door announced: + +"His Excellency, Herr Doctor Hufeland, and the gracious Herr Brandt." + +A great cry of "Ludwig!" "Cousin Ludwig!" welcomed the entrance of a +tall, handsome man of perhaps thirty-five, with a serious face and +English features. He was dressed in one of the long-tailed coats then +the fashion, coming down to the top of his high, spurred boots. His hair +was brushed forward, and within the high collars of his coat appeared a +soft lawn stock. The other gentleman Bettina at once recognised as the +physician who had been with the Queen on the road from Memel. + +"We call him 'Cousin Ludwig,'" whispered Elsa. "He was betrothed to our +Aunt Erna who died." + +"He won't speak French," whispered Isle; "he says Germans should not +imitate the French people as upper-class people do, but should speak +their own language." + +Bettina was glad of this, for often she had to sit for hours without +understanding a word, unless the twins explained things. + +There was much to talk about. + +Madame von Stork bustled from the room to give orders for refreshments, +and while she was gone, Herr Brandt, who had settled himself near +Pauline, explained that he had come over from Königsberg. + +"I was with Baron von Stein," he added. "We escaped from Berlin with the +royal treasure and arrived in Königsberg at Christmas time. Since then I +have been at Dantzic." + +Bettina opened her little ears. Dantzic was a great, free city of +Germany, around which was the army of Napoleon. Its people were holding +out bravely and it was hoped that Napoleon would withdraw. + +"But the city is bound to fall," said Ludwig. "All who can are +escaping." + +That dreadful Emperor! Bettina seemed to see him on his white horse +before the gate of the brave old city. + +When Madame von Stork returned, the maid followed her with cake and +wine. + +"God be thanked, gentlemen," she said, "our brother Joachim has a full +cellar and as yet we have something to offer our visitors." + +Pauline and Marianne served the guests, one, dark and handsome in a red +dress trimmed with bands of fur, her arms and neck like ivory, her dark +hair arranged in curls tied back with ribbon, the other, golden-haired +and pink-cheeked, in a gown of blue, her curls tied back also with +ribbon, the ends of her narrow sash floating about as she moved in her +quick, merry way. As they ate and drank, Dr. Hufeland told his old +friends all the sad things which had happened to the Queen because of +Napoleon. He described her flight from Jena, relating how she rode +through the lovely Harz Mountains to Brunswick and from there went to +Magdeberg. + +"And all the time, dear Madame," the doctor turned to Madame von Stork, +"our poor lady had no idea of how the battle had gone, nor did she hear +a word of the fate of the King. The Countess von Voss tells me that for +courage she has never seen her equal. The Queen held fast her hand and +all through that dreadful flight, with the fear of Napoleon behind her, +she repeated over and over texts which had words to sustain her." + +"What were they, dear Doctor?" + +"From the eighth chapter of Romans, dear Madame," said the Doctor, +consulting a little note book. + +"Marianne," commanded her father, "fetch the Bible. Let us hear what +words gave comfort to our Queen." + +Marianne tripped across the room and returned in a moment with a Bible +which she laid before her father. + +All listening, he found the place and read aloud: + +"The Spirit helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray +for. + +"We know that all things work together for good to them that love God. + +"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or +distress, or persecution, or famine, or peril, or sword? + +"Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate +us from the love of God, which is in Jesus Christ our Lord." + +"Our good Angel," murmured Madame von Stork, wiping her eyes. + +"Ach, ja," said the Doctor, "she had much to endure, poor lady." + +Then he related how, tired to death herself, she had tried to encourage +the soldiers at Magdeburg, and of how in dread and trembling she had +driven across the flat country towards Berlin, and at last had entered +the old city of Brandenburg. + +"It was by the old stone, Roland," continued the Doctor, "that a courier +stopped her with the news. 'Majesty,' he said, 'all is lost! +Everything!' Then the Queen, seizing the papers from his hands, read the +awful news, her figure trembling like a leaf! 'The battle was lost at +Jena. The King has been defeated at Auerstädt. Napoleon is making on +Berlin. Your Majesty must fly with the Royal children.'" + +Bettina's tears fell as the Doctor's voice faltered. The Mother of the +Nest wiped her eyes on her embroidered handkerchief and the gentlemen +and Otto blew their noses. Marianne sobbed. + +"And our Queen," went on the Doctor, "turned like a child to the old +Countess. She has been to her like a mother, you know. 'Voss, dear +Voss,' she said, 'my poor, poor husband.' Then she forced back her +tears. 'Dear Voss,' and she clung to her hand. 'I must go at once to my +children.'" + +Then the Doctor told of how her carriage had dashed into Berlin to find +the city a scene of wild confusion. The people, deceived by early news +of a victory, were now driven into panic by the disaster at Jena. When +the Queen entered they were pouring through the city gates in flight. + +"Napoleon is coming! Napoleon! Napoleon!" was the cry which everywhere +met her ear. + +"It was terrible," put in the Professor. "I had to pay a fortune for the +travelling carriages which brought us to Memel." + +"But the Queen," the Doctor continued, "found only disappointment at the +palace. Springing to the ground, she cried: 'My children!' to the +attendant." + +"But they were gone," interrupted Otto, "they left before we did. Their +tutor took them to Swert-on-Oder." + +The Doctor nodded, while the Professor frowned at Otto for his rudeness. + +"Her Majesty," resumed the Doctor, "sent at once for me. When I saw her +I started in amazement. Her dress was travel-stained and crumpled, her +hair in wild disorder, her face wet with tears. Never had I before seen +her any way than very neat and smiling. She held out her hands. Oh, dear +Madame, it brought tears to my eyes. 'I must fly to my children,' she +cried, 'and you must go with me.' Then, just as fast as we could, we +proceeded to Swert, leaving things just as they were in the palace." + +"A great pity, too," put in Herr Brandt, whose ways were most orderly. +"For Napoleon, as we all know, found the Queen's letters to her husband, +read what he pleased, and published all that might injure her." + +"The monster!" cried Madame von Stork, motioning Marianne to fill the +Doctor's glass and pass the cake to Herr Brandt. + +"Thank you, many thanks," and the visitor smiled at Marianne and went on +with his talk. + +"The meeting, dear friends, between our dear Queen and her children was +most heartrending. The poor little things had been torn from their play +in the palace, hurried into the travelling carriage and borne away with +very little idea of what had happened. When they heard that their +mother, whom they adore, had arrived, they rushed with cries of joy to +meet her. Even the baby Alexandrina, holding the hand of little Prince +William. But when they saw their mother, her face all wet with tears, +her dress so tumbled and with such a wild look in her eyes, the poor +little things started back in fright. The baby set up a wail, and even +the Crown Prince looked frightened." + +"Poor things," murmured Madame von Stork, her handkerchief again to her +eyes. + +"'My poor children! my poor children!' cried the Queen. Truly," and the +Doctor gazed from the faces of Elsa, Ilse, and Bettina to the grown +ones, "it was a pitiful thing to see the frightened little faces. Our +Queen, ashamed that she had frightened them, put her own feelings +entirely aside and thought only of them! 'Come with me, my darlings,' +she said, and taking the baby she led the way to her room. When she had +removed her wraps, she gathered them all around her. 'Fritz, Willy,' she +said to the two older boys, 'stand before me. Charlotte, Carl, sit one +on each side. I will hold the baby. Listen now, and I will tell you why +your mother comes to you thus in tears. My dear, dear children,' I have +written down every one of her words in my diary," explained the Doctor, +reading from his little book, "'We have suffered a great and terrible +defeat. Your poor, unhappy father and all the soldiers of Frederick the +Great, your famous uncle, have been defeated in two terrible battles, +one fought at Jena, the other at the same moment at Auerstädt.'" + +Then the Doctor told how she related the news of that dreadful October, +and told of her journey and the flight to Berlin. And she spoke so +simply that even little Carl had an idea of all the trouble. + +"My darlings," and she gathered Carl and Charlotte in her arms, "you see +me in tears. I weep for the destruction of our army, for the death of +relatives and of many faithful friends." + +The older boys wiped their eyes, and Carl began to sob, for his lively +Cousin Louis Ferdinand, who always brought him toys and had a joke +ready, was dead, too, his mother had told him. + +"Fritz, Willy," the Queen turned to them, speaking only to them, "my +dear, dear sons, you see an edifice which two great men built up in a +century, destroyed in a day; there is now no Prussian army, no Prussian +empire, no national pride: all has vanished like the smoke which hid our +misery on the fields of Jena and Auerstädt. Oh, my sons, my dear little +children, you are already of an age when you can understand these +unhappy things. In a future age when your mother is no more, recall this +unhappy hour. Weep again in your memories my tears, remember how I in +this dreadful moment wept for the downfall of my Fatherland." + +Then she described to them the glorious death of their cousin, Prince +Louis Ferdinand, and again addressed the little princes especially. + +"But do not be content, little sons, with tears. Bring out, develop your +own powers, grow great in them, Fritz, Willy. Perhaps the guardian angel +of Prussia gazes on you now. Free, then, your people from this humiliation +which overpowers it. Seek to shake off France as your grandfather, the +Great Elector, did Sweden. Do not forget, my sons, these times. Be men +and heroes worthy of the names of Princes and grandsons of Frederick the +Great, and for Prussia's sake be willing to confront death as Louis +Ferdinand encountered it." + +The fire which thrilled her voice caught the souls of the two boys and +their eyes glowed with excitement. + +"We promise, dear mother," said the Crown Prince, and both boys kissed +her. "We promise," said little William. + +Then the Queen being so tired sent the children from her, and attendants +appeared from Berlin, couriers arrived with despatches, and Count +Hardenburg, the Prime Minister, waited on Queen Louise with news of the +King. + +His Majesty, he assured her, was safe and sent word that the Queen and +the children must go at once to Stettin. + +On the twentieth they arrived in that strong town, and the Queen said +good-bye to her children. + +"Go, darlings," she told them, "with our Voss to Dantzic. Mother will +join father at Custrin." + +Then she held them a moment one by one in her arms and begged them to be +good and to pray always for their country. + +"Auf wiedersehen, darlings, as soon as possible you will see both your +dear father and your mother." + +Then they had separated, the Countess Voss and the children going +towards the Baltic, the Queen joining her husband in the strong old +fortified town where he was then in hiding. + +But something very annoying happened to the Queen at Stettin. + +There she had been promised fresh horses. She waited and waited and none +were brought forth. At last it was discovered that all the horses had +been turned into the field after her arrival, and that she must go on to +the King with her tired one. + +"It was the work of that villain, Napoleon. All believe that +everywhere," put in Ludwig. + +When Dr. Hufeland had finished his story, Ludwig Brandt told of the +entrance of Napoleon into Berlin; how he came in a splendid procession +with flags flying and trumpets sounding. + +"But the Berliners, watching him from the windows, wept," he added, his +face glowing. + +Then he related how Napoleon had said all manner of things against the +Queen, and of how surprised he was when he first beheld her portrait at +Potsdam. "I had no idea that she looked like that," he said, and began +to ask questions about her and listened attentively to all the praise +which on every side was given her. + +But, however much he was interested, it did not prevent his accusing her +of having caused the war, before an assembly of Berliners he called to +discuss matters. Only one of these Prussians had courage to defend the +Queen. He was an old clergyman named Erman. + +Up he stood and looked Napoleon straight in the eye. + +"Sire," he said, "that is not true." + +Not a soul believed that he would escape with his life, but he did. + +"Perhaps," said the Professor, "Napoleon respected one brave man among +such a group of cowards." + +Before the Doctor could reply, a thundering knock at the door made all +stop and look at each other in consternation. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +FRESH TROUBLES + + +It was the Major, who never could wait a minute. + +His face was red and the powder from his curls had been shaken off in +his hurry. He greeted no one. + +"Richard, Richard," he cried, "there is news of a battle at Eylau!" + +The gentlemen sprang from their chairs, Madame von Stork turned pale. +Her Wolfgang was with the army. + +"Yes, yes," cried the Major, speaking French very rapidly, "there has +been a battle, a dreadful one, something terrible. There is no news yet +that is certain. Some say, victory, others, defeat, but the whole town +is in wild excitement. I have heard that the suffering of the soldiers +was awful." + +"Naturally," said Herr Brandt in German--not a word of French would he +speak, "with all this ice, snow, and freezing." + +"I have but one boy," said the Major, "and he is with the army. Here, +Clarchen, some wine. Ah, many thanks, Mademoiselle Pauline." In spite of +his worry he made a gallant bow, the cockade on his queue bobbing. + +"My Rudolph," he said, "is a soldier, and perhaps at Eylau. But he can +be nothing better than his father was, now can he?" He settled his +double chin over his high stock and gazed from his blue eyes at the +gentlemen. + +The Professor motioned them all to seats. + +"Clarchen," he said to his wife, "it is bedtime for the children." His +voice was trembling. + +The children all bowed and curtsied, and, kissing their mother's hand +and wishing pleasant dreams for everybody, departed; Marianne, Pauline, +and Otto, also. + +The gentlemen, for Madame von Stork in a moment followed to give orders +to her servant, sat with filled glasses and discussed Napoleon and their +country. + +Presently the Professor left the room to order another bottle of wine +and some sandwiches. + +"That older girl, Mademoiselle Pauline, is an excellent maiden," +remarked Dr. Hufeland, in tones of admiration. Herr Brandt nodded, his +face growing serious. + +"Did you notice how calm she kept amid all the excitement?" + +"Yes, yes," said the Major, "she is excellent, always ready to arrange +my stock or tie the ribbon on my queue. Very different from my niece, +Marianne," he added, "very different, I assure you." + +Herr Brandt raised his eyebrows. + +"Richard has spoiled that girl," he remarked; "see here." He picked up +"The Sorrows of Werther," which lay under Marianne's chair. + +Then he read aloud high-flown passages marked by Marianne's pencil. + +"How her parents expect any sensible German man to marry her I cannot +form an idea. A German man desires a wife who can cook, sew, and keep +his house in order." + +The Doctor raised his hand, for the Professor was entering with the +bottle. + +Almost immediately his wife followed. + +Her eyes at once fell on "The Sorrows of Werther," and her face +darkened. + +"See, Richard, see," she cried, "we quite forgot to scold Marianne." + +"Come, come, Clarchen," the Professor's voice was kind and soothing, +"let the girl be. We have far more serious things now to worry over." + +Then he lifted the book from the table. + +"Ah, Goethe," he cried, and, in a moment, the battle of Eylau and all +else was forgotten, while his eager eye conned the familiar pages. +Madame von Stork turned to the others, who burst into laughter as they +watched her husband. + +"Just see him!" cried the poor lady, her turban bobbing as she shook her +head with violence. + +Startled, the Professor looked up from his book, his mild, learned face +full of wonder. + +"What is it?" he asked, "is it supper time?" + +"Nein, nein, Richard," and Herr Brandt slapped his shoulder with +sarcastic affection. "It is nothing, you know, only the cannon of +Napoleon." + +He, himself, had not the least good for Goethe, who had remained quietly +at his dinner in his garden in Weimar when the cannon were thundering at +Jena, and who sang no songs of patriotism, had nothing to cry out +against Napoleon. + +"But, Richard," his wife laid her hands on his arm, "you must pay heed +to Marianne." The gentlemen nodded. "She is more trouble to me than all +my other children. Even the twins and Carl are more useful. Reading, +talking, dreaming, that is Marianne. She is good for nothing else. It is +Bettina Brentano who has ruined her. I have never approved of that +friendship. But, O Heavens, why worry over anything when my Franz is a +prisoner, and my Wolfgang, I know not where!" and she burst into tearful +sobbing. Herr Brandt and Dr. Hufeland arose in haste, and, kissing her +hand and saying good-night to the Professor and Major, they fled. + +There was little sleep for anyone that night, for dreadful pictures of +Wolfgang, or Rudolph, frozen, or dead in the snow, arose before every +eye, and drove away all slumbers. + +On the morning, when the courier brought the truth to Memel, Marianne +was writing a letter to her friend Brentano. + +She had met this famous friend of Goethe when she was a year younger, +and on a visit to her aunt in Frankfort-on-Main. + +Never had Marianne seen anyone who had seemed to her so clever. + +Both of them adored the poet Goethe, it being the fashion in those days +for young girls to worship some poet. + +Bettina Brentano knew Goethe's mother, a fine old lady whom everyone +called "Frau Rat," and often she and Marianne went to see her. + +When Marianne returned to Berlin she was changed entirely. + +From a merry, jolly, little girl she had become a mournful maiden who +convulsed her family with the most melancholy speeches. She spoke of the +gloom of living, of the joy of dying while one was still beautiful, and +if anyone talked of Goethe, or even so much as mentioned his name, +Marianne clasped her hands and rolled her eyes and behaved, her brother +said, "like an idiot." + +The Professor only laughed. + +"She has the Goethe fever, Clarchen," he told his wife. "It has spread +at times all over Germany." + +But on the day when Carl had been lost and the Queen had kissed him, the +fault of the whole affair was to be laid on the shoulders of Marianne. + +Then the Professor had at last listened to his wife and heard how +Marianne would do nothing but read books, keep a foolish, sentimental +journal, and write letters to Bettina Brentano. + +"And, dear husband," his wife had added, "our Marianne talks of love and +hopeless sorrow, our Marianne, who used to be so merry. Her thoughts are +never with the coffee-cake, never with her sewing. And tell me, please, +how is a girl to get a husband with this nonsense? Her wedding chest, +which every German girl, as you know, must have ready, has not a thing +to boast of, and Pauline's is entirely ready. She will not stitch, knit, +or embroider, only read, read, read." + +"It is the Goethe fever, I tell you, dear wife," said the Professor. "It +will vanish." + +"But, Richard," pleaded the Mother Stork, "consider the candles." + +"Candles?" + +Ah, that was a different matter. + +"Yes, yes, dear husband, the candles. Do not think for an instant that I +permit all this nonsense to go on in the daytime. If I see Marianne with +a book, I take it away and provide needlework. And what does she do but +burn candles!" + +"Ah," said the Professor, "that will never do. I will see to the +matter." + +Now, at that moment Marianne was safe, she thought, in her room, her +pretty hair floating over her blue dressing jacket, her paper on her +desk, her pen in her hand. + +"Ah, my chosen friend, my Bettina," she wrote in the high-flown style of +that day, "who but thou understands thy Marianne? On every side I meet +with derisive laughter when I would speak of him whose name I am not +worthy to mention, our Master, thine and mine, our Goethe! Oh, to be +again with thee, to sit with thee beneath the free, open Heaven, gazing +upward at the celestial orbs whose silver beams thrill into thought, +mysterious wonder of that law-ruled world of Nature which none but poets +truly know. Oh, Bettina, how worthless is life when spent amid the +trivialities of nothingness. Oh, to wander with thee, my heart's true +friend, chosen of my spirit, to wander on the wings of thy imagination +into the realms of infinite calm, and there to prepare our souls to be a +sacrifice to him who----" + +A knock at the door had interrupted this flight of sentimental fancy. + +In had come her father. + +With a laugh he had shut the writing-desk. + +"Liebchen," he said, "it is time for bed. Do your writing by daylight." + +Then he kissed her cheeks and patted her hair, and told her he could +have no such wasting of candles. + +"To bed in five minutes," he had commanded, and that ended the burning +of candles. But nothing yet had cured her of her thoughtlessness, and it +was still Pauline who did everything to assist the mother. + +On the day that the news came of Eylau, Madame von Stork and Pauline +were busy making coffee-cake, Bettina, Ilse, and Elsa helping stem +currants and stone raisins. + +In her room Marianne was telling Bettina Brentano all about their life +in Memel. She was not sure that she could send a letter, but it was +amusing at all events to write it. It was stupid to make coffee-cake. + +"It is pleasant, dear Bettina," she wrote, "that our dear Queen and King +are in Memel. Often, now, father is sent for to talk with the Queen, and +one day mother took me to pay our respects to the Countess von Voss, who +is a friend of my dear grandmother. She is a very lively and beautiful +old lady, Mistress of the Court, and like a mother to our Queen. She is +very clever, and the gentlemen greatly admire her. She is so stately, +and will not forgive a lack of ceremony. I was in the greatest terror, +as you may imagine. We were shown into her room where she was engaged at +her toilette, some gentlemen, among them a Mr. Jackson, an Englishman, +laughing and talking as her maid did her hair. + +"I made my curtsey and saluted her hand. + +"'And this is your daughter,' she said very kindly to mother. 'Dear +Clara, the child has a look of poor Erna.' + +"That was my aunt, my Bettina, who died when she was a girl, and who was +engaged to Ludwig Brandt. + +"Then the Countess asked us to be seated, and when at last her hair +received its crown of a turban, she gave us some fine tea from England, +which Mr. Jackson had given here. + +"It was most kind in her, but I prefer our coffee. + +"She told us story after story about our Queen, for it is of her that +she best likes to talk; and, also, she spoke of dear little Prince +William, and of how he had entered the army. + +"It happened on New Year's Day, because the coming of the French made +the King fear that he could not present him with the honour on his +birthday. + +"When the Royal children appeared before our King, he greeted them for +the New Year, and then turned to little Prince William, and, oh, he is +the dearest little fellow, my Bettina! so sensible-looking and so, in +face, like our King. 'To-day,' said our King, 'something very important +is to happen. William,' and he turned directly to him, 'I have nominated +you to a commission in the army. We can no longer stay here in +Königsberg, because of the approach of the enemy, and we must go to +Memel at once. I might not be able to give you the appointment on your +birthday, as I had intended to do, so I give it to you now.' Then, +indeed, as you may imagine, little William was happy. + +"The Countess told us how they arrayed him in a blue coat, with a red +collar and narrow, dark trowsers and high boots to his knees. Exactly +like the Guard, you remember. + +"Then, suddenly, everybody began to cry 'Ah Heaven!' and lift up hands +in horror. It is a rule that the Guard must wear queues, and Prince +William's hair was too short for a pig-tail. 'And there they were,' said +the Countess, 'acting as foolishly as they are doing about this war, +when I simply sent out for a false queue and tied it on the child's +hair, and ended the trouble.' Then they gave him a little cane, and +behold, a fine soldier! + +"He is my favourite, and sometimes I think that the Countess likes him +better than the Crown Prince, who certainly knows that he is clever, but +he is very handsome. Then the Countess told us of how dreadful it was at +Königsberg, where our dear Queen was so ill, and how, when they told her +that the French were at hand, she begged to be allowed to travel. She +had a great horror of that monster, Napoleon, who has vowed to capture +her, and so she told them it was better to fall into the hands of the +good God, than into the hands of man. + +"Mother asked the Countess why Napoleon so hated the Queen. Before she +could answer her parrot suddenly called out in the funniest way: +'Napoleon is a monster! Our Queen is an angel! Down with the French!' +You can guess how startled we were, but...." + +Before Marianne could end her sentence she heard Otto calling: +"Marianne! Marianne!" + +She flew downstairs and into the great kitchen. + +There were Pauline, her mother, the children, and her father all +listening to her uncle. + +"The courier has come!" cried Otto. "Uncle will tell us the news!" + +Both Russians and French claimed the victory, but such sufferings had +never been known in the world's history. + +Amid the ice and snow, all had waited for days, the Russians occupying a +church and graveyard, the camp fires lighting snowy fields and trees +and bushes which crackled. + +"The courier, dear Richard," the old major addressed his brother, "says +thousands are sleeping a sleep from which even the love of their +families never can wake them." + +He blew his nose with great violence. + +"The snow is red with the blood of thousands," he continued, "the +Russians, God be thanked, kept their ground. They are not conquerors, it +is true, but they have checked Napoleon!" + +The Major's face flushed crimson. + +"God be praised!" cried all the company, and the kitchen rang with +rejoicings. + +But they had not heard all the good news. + +"It is said," concluded the Major, "that the Emperor of the French will +now propose peace." + +"And Wolfgang? Rudolph?" + +The Major shook his head, his cockade bobbing. + +"No news yet, dear sister, we can trust only in God, but I have no +reason to believe they were at Eylau." + +Bettina had listened eagerly. + +She was very much afraid of the Major. He was so red-faced and +important looking, and had not much good for people below him, and so +she waited until at last he left the room. Then she crept quietly to +Marianne. + +"Please, dear gracious Fräulein," she whispered, "was my grandfather in +the battle?" + +Marianne was opening her lips to speak, when Otto interrupted: + +"Nein, Bettina, nein. Your grandfather...." + +"Otto!" + +Pauline quickly stopped him, her hand across his mouth. + +"No, little Bettina," she said very kindly, "your grandfather was not +with the army." + +"Will he come, gracious Fräulein, come soon?" Bettina's eyes looked up +eagerly. + +"Perhaps, child, perhaps." Pauline turned away and picked up some cups +from a table. + +"Run away, children," she said, "and play until dinner." + +Bettina went slowly. It was very strange that her grandfather never came +back to fetch her. They were kind to her and she loved them, but she +wanted her grandfather. Would she never see Thuringia again, nor Willy, +nor her godmother, nor her brothers? The tears filled her eyes and the +sobs came. + +Poor little Bettina! + +She lived in sad, cruel times, and she was to be a woman before she ever +again met even one of them, or walked in the forest paths of Thuringia, +or saw the spire of St. Michael's rising high above the red roofs of +Jena. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE MOTHER OF HER PEOPLE + + +One morning, soon after the news of Eylau, the Major told the children +that an English ship had arrived in the harbour. + +"Mother, mother," they cried, "may we go and see it?" + +Poor Madame von Stork, who was almost ill from worry over Franz and +Wolfgang, rejoiced at the thought of a morning free from noise and +questions. + +"Yes, yes," she agreed very quickly. "Put on your wraps and furs, and +Pauline and Marianne shall take you." + +In a few moments the whole party set forth, Pauline and Marianne in dark +red dresses, fur hoods, and great baggy white muffs, the children +wrapped to the tips of their noses, Otto and Carl in huge cloaks and fur +caps. + +Reaching the bridge, whom should they come upon but the Queen and her +party, who, also, were there to see the great ship. The Crown Prince was +there, handsome, clever-looking, clinging to the arm of his mother, to +whom he seemed entirely devoted, little William with such a clear good +look in his face that it was impossible not to love him, and beautiful +little Princess Charlotte keeping shyly at the side of the Countess +Voss, who was guarding with watchful eyes the merry Maids of Honour. + +When the Princes saw Otto and Carl, their faces lighted, and they +whispered to their mother, who at once begged the Countess to have them +sent for. + +"My little boys, the Crown Prince and Prince William, would like to know +you," she said, and then she sent the four to the side of the bridge +that they might talk without grown people listening. + +Princess Charlotte at once flew to her mother's side, the joy in her +face proving that she had not the cold nature that seemed to show in her +face. + +Then the Queen, with one of her bright smiles, asked Pauline and +Marianne if they could not come and assist in making lint for the +soldiers. The ladies of the court, she said, worked busily in her rooms. +Then she turned away, and, with Charlotte, joined the boys, whose +laughter soon rang as if they were enjoying themselves. At once the +Maids of Honour began to amuse themselves with Marianne, and, some of +the gentlemen soon joining them, they turned the talk to Goethe, and +then laughed behind their hands when Marianne rolled her eyes and +clasped her hands and spoke of Frau Rat, and vowed she would never marry +because there was but one man in Germany, and that one, Goethe! + +The Countess von Voss did not like this conduct. + +"I beseech you, dear ladies," she said with great dignity to the Maids, +"let Mademoiselle von Stork alone. Young girls are better unnoticed." +But the Maids of Honour tossed their heads and would not stop their +nonsense. + +"Do you not pity us, Mr. Jackson," they cried to a handsome young +Englishman, "that we have but one man in Germany?" + +But Mr. Jackson, being very devoted to the old Countess, only remarked: + +"Oh, greatly, ladies," and began conversing about the ship with his +favourite, and the Maids of Honour were left to Marianne. + +Meanwhile Bettina and the twins had been amusing themselves. + +Bettina was so happy that her eyes did nothing but gaze at the face of +her dear, beautiful Queen. + +Never was anyone so lovely, so patient. With a kind word for all she put +aside her troubles and showed the boys how the ship was manned, told +them what this meant and that, and now and then patted Charlotte's hand, +that she might not feel neglected. Never for a moment did she seem to +think of herself or her own pleasure. She smiled at the twins, asked +their names, and then tried to tell them apart, and laughed quite like a +girl when she called "Ilse," "Elsa." + +Suddenly she gazed at Bettina as if puzzled. + +"Dear Voss," she touched the arm of the Countess, "do we not know this +child? Where have we seen her?" + +The Countess called Marianne. + +"It's a sad story," said the girl, glancing at Bettina, whose eyes were +fixed on the Queen. + +Then the Countess commanded Bettina to run away with the twins and watch +the sailors, and taking Marianne to the Queen, told her to relate the +child's history. + +More than once, as Marianne told the story, the Queen's eyes filled with +tears. + +"Poor child," she said, "poor little Bettina!" + +When she had heard it all, she had Marianne bring Bettina back again. + +"Dear child," she said, "surely I have seen you before. Is it not true?" + +And she smiled at the little girl most enchantingly. + +Now, nobody had ever told Bettina that a little girl must be afraid of a +Queen, so she smiled back at her with the eager, bright look which made +her so pretty. + +"Ja, ja, dear Queen," she said, for no one had told her to say +"Majesty," and then she told of the inn on the road from Jena. + +A look of pain banished the brightness from Queen Louisa's face. Very +gravely she asked Bettina question after question, and she heard of the +cruel journey, and of how Bettina's grandfather had left her. + +"Yes, yes," she nodded to the Countess, "I remember the old man. It was +of him that we spoke to the Professor, your father," and she glanced at +Marianne with a look of warning. + +"But, dear Queen," said little Bettina, nodding her head in her bright, +fairy way, "my dear grandfather will come back soon, and we will go to +Thuringia when the Kaiser Barbarossa comes from the cave and with his +great sword kills the Emperor!" + +The Queen did not laugh. + +"God grant it, dear child. God grant it," she said. "Let us pray that +the ravens will wake him, the old Red-Beard." + +When Bettina had danced away to the twins, she turned with a saddened +face to the old Countess. + +"Dear Voss," she said, and her voice was low and troubled, "these poor, +poor children whom this cruel war has orphaned! Each day I hear a fresh +story of their suffering. Alas, that I, the Queen, can do nothing for +want of money. But something must be done, and I, the Queen, must do it. +Such a lovely child, so trusting and, alas, so desolate." + +Then, her whole mood changed, she walked back to her house in Memel, her +heart heavy with the troubles of the Fatherland. + +That very day Ludwig Brandt appeared. Why he travelled to and fro over +the country no one knew, unless it was the Professor. It was something +to do with the war, of that all were certain. + +He reported that fifty thousand French and Russians lay dead in the snow +of Eylau, and that Napoleon was to send General Bertrand to Memel to +propose peace to King Frederick William. + +In a day or two this general came--"A most disagreeable-faced +Frenchman," the old Countess called him, "and with dreadful +manners,"--and the story of his visit was soon known about Memel. + +He had submitted an offer of peace from Napoleon, who agreed to restore +his kingdom to the King of Prussia if he would break off his friendship +with the Czar of Russia. + +To the Queen he brought most agreeable and flattering messages from +Napoleon. He sent her word that he had been deceived in her character. +He wished now to be friends. + +The Queen was polite, but that was all. She had no belief in the +promises of the French Emperor. Napoleon had made a cruel war on a poor, +helpless woman, driving her across the country, reading her letters, +publishing wicked things against her, having horrid pictures drawn of +her for his newspapers, and declaring her to have caused the war and all +the misery to Prussia. + +It was impossible to believe that he had truly repented because he had +halfway lost a battle. + +As for the good King, he refused to break his word to his friend to save +his kingdom, merely because Napoleon commanded him. + +"Let the war go on," he said, and suffering Prussia, its houses burned +to the ground, without food, with the cruel French everywhere, cried: + +"Hoch to our King! He is a good man, and true, and we will shed our last +drop of blood in his service!" + +And so General Bertrand left Memel, and the war went on. + +But everywhere there was much suffering. Even the King and the Queen had +little to eat and no money to buy anything, for the French had burned +the farmhouses, the farmers were in the army, and this poor land must +feed not only its own people, but all the enemy. Sometimes seven +villages could be seen burning at once, and behind Napoleon's white +horse stalked two dreadful figures. One, called Death, commanded +executions in every town and slew thousands on the battlefield, and +refused to spare hungry little children. Gaze where the poor Prussians +would, the shadow of his great scythe was over them. The other, Famine, +breathed on the poor down-trodden fields, and nothing flourished; with +her fierce hands she gathered up all the wine in the cellars, the +potatoes saved for winter, the meat, the fruit, all there was to eat +everywhere. + +The poor Prussians between them were desolate. + +In those cruel days there came to the King's house in Memel two simple +people of a sect of which there are some now in America, the Mennonites. +Their name was Nicholls, and they asked to see the King and the Queen. + +When they came before their Majesties, Abraham, the husband, holding in +his hand a bag, addressed the unhappy, worried-looked King: + +"Majesty," he said, "I bring you from my people, who send me as their +deputy, two thousand gold Fredericks. We have collected them among +ourselves, and offer them as a token of love and respect to our +sovereign." + +Then he laid the heavy bag in the hand of the King. + +"We, thy faithful subjects," he continued, "of the sect of the +Mennonites, having heard of the great misfortunes which it has pleased +God to permit, have gladly contributed this little sum which we beg our +beloved King and ruler to accept, and we desire to assure him that the +prayers of his faithful Mennonites shall not fail for him and his." + +The wife then placed a basket in the hands of Queen Louisa. + +"I have heard," said this kind woman, "that our good Queen likes good +fresh butter very much, and that the little Princes and Princesses eat +bread and butter very heartily, so I have made some myself, which is +very fresh and good, and that is very rare just now, so I thought it +might be acceptable. My gracious Queen will not despise this humble +gift. This I see already in thy true and friendly features. Oh, how glad +I am to have seen thee once so near and, face to face, have spoken with +thee!" + +Queen Louisa took the basket, with tears in her lovely eyes. + +"Dear Frau Nicholls," she cried, her face all warm with gratitude, "I +thank you many, many times, and over and over." + +Then she took off the handsome shawl she wore and threw it about the +shoulders of the Mennonite woman. + +"Dear Frau Nicholls," she said, "keep this in remembrance of me." + +For answer the good woman burst out into speeches of pity for the +misfortunes of the poor King. + +But his Majesty, interrupting her with a kind smile, lifted his hand to +check her. + +"No, no, Frau Nicholls," he said, "I am not a poor King. I am a rich +King, blessed with such subjects." + +Then he and the Queen sent many messages to the poor Mennonites, and, +when the two had gone, promised each other that when good times again +would come they would not fail to reward them, and the King did not +forget it. + +To Memel, too, came Prince William, the King's brother, and his wife the +Princess Marianne. They had fled from Dantzic, and their only little +daughter, the tiny Princess Amelia, had died of cold on the way. + +Sometimes the children of the "Stork's Nest" saw this poor lady walking +with the Queen, and they all gazed at her with great interest because +her name was the same as Marianne's. + +Ludwig Brandt remained, too, in Memel, and was much with the Englishmen +and went almost every day to the reception room of the old Countess von +Voss, where the talk was the hottest against Napoleon. + +"The Prussians," he told the Professor, "may be conquered, but never +will they forgive Napoleon's treatment of the Queen. There he went too +far." + +He further told the Professor, but this was a secret, that the students +of Königsberg were forming plans by which they hoped to defeat Napoleon. +He was concerned in this affair and hoped to do more that way than by +joining the army. + +And so the days passed at Memel. Often the children saw the Queen +walking, or taking the air in one of the high-runner sleighs. Carl and +Otto and the Princes were often together, and Marianne and Pauline +assisted with the lint. There was no stiffness as about a court. They +all had become friends in the time of trouble. + +Then, presently, the Professor went to Königsberg to fulfil his duties +as Professor. + +"But remain here with Joachim, dear wife," he said. "Who knows that the +French will not advance upon Königsberg? You know now that Wolf and +Rudolph are safe, so you can rest here and not worry." + +The Queen also went to Königsberg to visit her sister, Frederika, who +had married the Prince of Solms and lived in that city. + +But the Professor was right. + +After a brave siege the fine city of Dantzic fell. Again Napoleon was +conqueror, and back in haste came the Professor and back came the poor +Queen, flying again to Memel, whose cold winds so disagreed with her. +With them came news so dreadful that Marianne felt that never in her +life could she be happy again. Napoleon had won the bloody victory of +Friedland. Not a French cannon had missed its aim. Like ninepins, the +enemy had fallen. Fleeing, the Russians, weighed down by their arms and +heavy uniforms, had rushed into the nearby river and the waves had been +as cruel to them as Napoleon's guns. + +With the dead was Wolfgang, curly-haired, merry Wolf, the one ever ready +with a laugh, ever making jokes, playing tunes on his fiddle, waiting on +his mother, teasing the twins, laughing at Marianne, Wolf who had been +the favourite of all the family. + +"Ach Gott, ach Gott, ach Gott!" wept poor Madame von Stork, and she beat +the wings of her love and refused to be comforted. + +When the Queen heard that the Professor had lost a fine young son and +that his wife was so overcome with her sorrow, she went like a friend to +see her and to comfort her. + +Madame von Stork felt the honour of the visit, but not even a visit from +a Queen could make her cease weeping. + +With gentle words her Majesty tried to comfort her. She told her of the +bravery of Countess Dohna von Finkenstein, whom she had seen in +Königsberg. Four sons had she sent to battle, and when they returned +wounded, she had sent them forth again. + +"We must trust in God, dear Madame von Stork," the Queen's eyes glowed. +"I know that He will not desert us, no, not even after this dreadful +battle of Friedland. Dear Madame, think what it means to me. Napoleon is +in Königsberg now, and I can return no more, and we must perhaps quit +our kingdom and fly for safety to Riga in Russia. But in spite of this, +as I have written my dear father, I beg you in the name of God, to +believe that we are in the hands of God. It is my firm belief that He +will send us nothing beyond what we are able to bear. All power, dear +Madame, comes from on high. My faith shall not waver, though after this +dreadful misfortune I can no longer hope. To live or die in the path of +duty--to live on bread and salt if it must be so--would never bring +supreme unhappiness to me. Let us trust then, dear Madame, in the God +who sends us good and permits the evil that in all things we may be +drawn nearer to Him and His love." + +Though the Queen's sweet voice trembled, though her eyes said, "I sorrow +with you," Madame von Stork would not be comforted. + +"Majesty," she said, thinking only of her own grief, "have you lost a +son?" + +The Queen's eyes filled, her lips trembled like a child's. + +"I have lost one son," she said, "and a dear little daughter." + +Then Madame von Stork remembered, and forgot her grief for the first +time. + +The Queen's face changed. She looked as if the whole sorrow of Prussia +had crushed her. + +"But, dear Madame," she said, her figure drooping, "I am the Queen, and +I have lost your son and every Prussian woman's son, also. Am I not the +Mother of my People? You have lost one son. I, the Queen, have lost +thousands. Each mother's grief is mine and, oh, my God, how am I to bear +it? Was not your Wolfgang mine, also?" + +She touched her heart beating quickly beneath her dress. + +"Dear Madame, pity your Queen and believe her. Here is a wound which +nothing can heal. It has ached day and night since the battle of Jena. I +am Rachel, indeed, weeping for my children." + +When the Professor met his wife an hour later, a new look shone in her +eyes. + +"I was forgetting you, dear Richard," she said, "Wolfgang is gone, Franz +is gone, but I have you and the children." + +Then she laid her hand on his arm. + +"Our Queen has been here, dear husband, and she is an angel." + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +OTTO + + +In the winter Marianne had gone often to court. There was much need of +lint and the ladies were always occupying themselves with making it. + +The old Countess, who had known Marianne's grandmother well in her +youth, made a pet of the pretty girl, and the ladies and gentlemen found +her bright talk very amusing as they worked away in the rooms of the +Mistress of Court Ceremonies, or in those of the Queen. + +But Wolfgang's death changed everything. + +"I shall never be gay again," wept poor Marianne. + +At first she was for staying in her room and writing out her sorrow, but +one day the Queen, whom she adored, had a talk with her. + +What she said no one knew, but from that day Marianne began to think of +others. And certainly there was need of patience in the "Stork's Nest." +So much trouble made them all nervous, and the children, not having +Madame von Stork's eye upon them, grew cross and very restless. + +And the affairs of Prussia were in as bad a way as possible. After the +disaster at Friedland on the 14th of June, Marshal Soult entered +Königsberg, the King and the Czar fled to Tilsit, and the country waited +to see now what would happen. Talk of peace began to be heard in all +quarters. + +"But let us not despair," said Ludwig Brandt to the Professor. "Prussia +is conquered, but all through our land a spirit is rising against +Napoleon. Stein and our best generals, our orators, our poets declare +that the tyrant must be overcome and their burning words are stirring +the people. Blücher, for instance, Richard, has declared that when a +whole people are resolved to emancipate themselves from foreign +domination they will never fail to succeed. I foresee that fortune will +not always favour the Emperor," he said, "the time may come when Europe +in a body, humiliated by his exactions, exhausted by his depredations, +will rise up in arms against him. Then," Ludwig's face changed, "there +is the enthusiasm in our Universities." + +The Professor nodded. + +Before, however, he could answer, in came poor Madame von Stork, her +face full of fresh trouble. + +"Richard," she said, "Ludwig, have either of you seen Otto?" + +Both shook their heads and went on with their talk. + +"Bettina!" called the lady. + +In tripped the little girl, her face eager and interested. + +"Dear child," asked Madame von Stork, "have you seen Otto?" + +Bettina thought that he had gone to Frau Argelander's to see the Crown +Prince, who had a room there. + +"No, no," said Pauline, who came in at the moment, "Carl went alone. The +Royal children wished to roast potatoes and Otto said that was too +childish." + +Dusk came, and no Otto. + +"Carl, Carl," his mother cried when at last he returned with the +servant, "where is your brother Otto?" + +Carl's face flushed. + +"He told me not to tell until bedtime." + +"You must," cried his mother. + +Carl brought a dirty little note from his pocket and handed it to his +father. + +When the Professor read it he grew white to the lips. + +"The foolish, foolish boy," he said, "why could he not have asked me?" + +The frightened family cried out for news of what had happened. + +When Madame von Stork heard it she was distracted. + +Otto had run away. He was sixteen now, and he had gone to fight against +Napoleon. So he wrote his father. + +"I did not tell you or mother," he said, "because you would have +prevented me. But my country needs me. Ask Cousin Ludwig." + +The Professor tried to comfort his wife. He told her that peace must be +made in a month, that Otto could do nothing, but still she wept on. + +By morning she was so ill that the Professor brought a doctor. + +"Nervous fever," he said, "brought on by this climate and worry." + +"I will nurse mother," cried Marianne, her heart all full of a new +desire to be helpful. + +"Nonsense," said her father. "Pauline is much more reliable. No, no, +Mariechen, I couldn't trust you," and he left the room. + +"It is my mother. I love her. It is my right!" burst our Marianne, her +cheeks crimson. + +But Madame von Stork decided it. + +"I should go crazy with you, Marianne," she said. "You would be reading +when I needed my medicine. I am sorry, dear child," she smiled to soften +the lesson, "but I am nervous, very nervous, and I must have a +thoughtful person. Pauline, you know, remembers." + +Marianne rushed to her room. In a flood of bitter tears she flung +herself on her couch. There in rows on their shelves stood her books. +How she hated them! + +Seizing one, she flew to the kitchen, her cheeks blazing. In a rage she +opened the door of the stove. She thrust in "The Sorrows of Werther." +With a blaze it ascended on the air of Memel in smoke, the maid staring +in wonder. Marianne tore back to her room. She flung herself face +downward on her couch. + +"It is _my_ mother, not Pauline's," she sobbed, and she wept for an +hour. + +Worn out at last, she rose to bathe her face in cold water. + +On her chest of drawers stood a little picture that a lady of the court +had given to her. + +Marianne started. A flush dyed her face as she gazed into the blue eyes +of the Queen. She who loved books above all things, put them aside +without a word if the King, if the Royal children, if the ladies wanted +her. She was never well, but was always helping others, always +forgetting what she wanted, what pleased her, that she might do her +duty. + +"Dear Marianne," again the girl heard her voice as it had soothed her +after the death of her brother Wolfgang, "there is no trouble in which +the dear God will not help us." + +All the demons of self and anger and dislike of Pauline ceased to +struggle in Marianne, as she remembered. She would be good, she had +promised Queen Louisa. She hesitated a moment, then she bowed her head +and whispered a little prayer that the dear God would help her and make +her good like the Queen who so loved Him. + +Then she went below, all worn out with her battle, but quiet and humble +and wishing to help her mother. + +And certainly there was need of her. + +Carl and Ilse and Elsa were quarrelling violently, Bettina with +frightened face struggling to quiet them. She had on her little apron +and had brought dishes to try and set the table for supper. Marianne's +face flushed. Pauline was above, nursing her mother, Bettina below, +trying to quiet the children and get supper for the Professor, and she, +the daughter of the "Stork's Nest," had been in her room in a temper. +She took the dishes from Bettina and she separated Carl and the twins. +For an hour she sat with them telling them stories. Then her eye fell on +a volume of Goethe lying on a table where her father had left it. + +A half hour later the Professor opened the door. His face darkened. + +"Marianne," he said, "I expected better things of you." + +With a start the girl laid down her book. Carl and Ilse were squabbling +over the last piece of cake on the table, Elsa was looking at a valuable +book with sticky fingers, the clock had stopped for want of winding, and +Bettina had vanished into the garden. + +Marianne flushed hotly. + +"I am trying, father," she said, "very----" + +Without a word he left the room, his face stern with displeasure. + +Putting the book aside, Marianne wound the clock, she sent the children +to bed, and sought Bettina in the garden. + +"I will do better," she promised herself, and next day she remembered +much better. + +But it was hard to keep the children quiet in the evening. She told all +the stories she could think of, and they only clamoured for more. + +One evening a bright thought struck her. + +She ran to her room and came back with a fat, red book whose brass clasp +she unlocked with a tiny key. + +"Now, Ilse and Elsa," she said, "get your tent-stitch. Bettina, I would +not knit. Work on that strip for a bed-spread. Carlchen, draw some +pictures and I will read you a lovely book about our Queen." + +Then she told them that their Aunt Erna, who had died when she was +sixteen, had written it and it would give them a story of how happy the +Queen was before Napoleon came into Prussia. + +Then she arranged the candles, and all settled to listen. + +The Professor, passing through the room, this time smiled on Marianne. + +"Where are the children, Richard? What are they doing?" cried nervous +Madame von Stork as he opened the door of her room. + +When he told her, the worry faded from her poor ill face. + +"God be praised, dear husband," she said, "that our Marianne is +improving. It was hard to refuse her the nursing, but I hoped the +lesson might rouse her, and I was right." + +Then, smiling at her husband, she sank back on her pillow and soon was +enjoying her first restful sleep. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE JOURNAL + + +Marianne had first heard of her Aunt Erna's journal in Berlin. + +It had been on the night when Ludwig Brandt had come in with the news +that the French had made the French Consul, Napoleon, Emperor. + +When he had told his news the children with glowing faces informed him +that their Carl had been kissed that very day by the Queen. + +Ludwig, who was always serious, called the little fellow to his knee. +Marianne never forgot how solemn it all was. + +"Listen, my little Carl," he said, and waited until the laughter had all +died from the chubby dimpled face, "a great and noble woman has kissed +you. All your life think of it as a kiss of baptism. The call of war +will come to you as to all Germans. Let the kiss of the Queen make of +you a brave, a true, a patriotic soldier!" + +How Ludwig's voice had rung through the room and how Pauline had gazed +in admiration! And then Ludwig had taken little Carl on his knee and +told him a nice little story of Queen Louisa, of when she had gone with +her husband on his Huldigung, the journey German sovereigns take to +receive the oaths of allegiance in their provinces and cities. + +In the village of Stargard, in Pomerania, Ludwig related, the good +people who had arranged the welcome had dressed little girls in white +that they might strew flowers before the new young Queen, and the quick +eye of the Queen noticed that, as there were nineteen, one must walk +alone. + +She turned to the grown people. + +"Where is the twentieth?" she demanded, and her face grew crimson with +anger when she heard their answer. + +"Majesty," they said, "the child was so ugly that we sent her home." + +"Poor child!" cried the Queen, "poor child! Send for her, and at once!" +she commanded. + +And when the poor little thing appeared, her plain, pale face all wet +with tears, Queen Louisa held out her arms as she would to one of her +own Royal children. + +"Come, Liebchen," she said, "come at once to me. Tell me your trouble, +every bit of it." + +And then she petted her and praised her and drove away all the little +thing's shame and tearfulness and told her stories of the Crown Prince, +and the little girl forgot all about her ugliness and the people's +cruelty. But to the grown people Queen Louisa was very stern, as she +could be when it was necessary. + +"Was my coming," and she looked at them until they blushed, "to be made +a cause of sad memories to a dear little girl only because of her +ugliness?" + +"Our Queen is an angel," said Madame von Stork as Ludwig ended. + +Then Marianne told stories, also, of things she had heard of the Queen +at Frau Rat Goethe's. + +"Bettina Brentano," she began, "is a friend of the mother of our +Goethe!" + +"My goodness, Marianne!" cried Franz, who was home in those days, "don't +pronounce that name as if it were sacred!" + +But Marianne paid no heed to him. + +"Frau Rat," she continued, with a toss of her head, "loves our Queen +with all her heart. She has known her since she was as old as Carl. +Once, when she and her sister, the Princess Frederika, were little +girls, they came to Frankfort to the coronation of the Emperor Leopold." + +Then, while Carl crowded to her knee and even her father stopped his +reading to listen, Marianne told how, one day, the two princesses came +to visit Frau Rat with their Swiss governess, Fräulein de Gélieu, and of +how in Frau Rat's garden was a pump which at once attracted the +princesses. + +Little Louisa, who loved the old lady, and was not a bit afraid of her +in spite of the great turban she wore, whispered in her ear how much she +would enjoy pumping like a common child. + +The mother of Goethe nodded. She had no taste for prim etiquette and saw +no real reason why the little princesses should not enjoy themselves. + +"Come, dear Fräulein de Gélieu," said she to the governess. "Come into +my saal. I will show you my beautiful snuffbox with the picture of my +famous son upon it." + +Then, leading the lady, she softly locked the door and Louisa and +Frederika, running to the pump, clung to the handle, and pumped and +pumped until the water ran in streams and splashed their stockings and +elastic strap slippers, and made them for once enjoy themselves quite as +if they had not been princesses. + +When time for good-byes came the two happy little girls threw loving +arms around the neck of this kind Frau Rat and grateful little lips +whispered thanks for her kindness, telling her that never, never, never +would they forget their joy in being permitted to play like other +children. "Never, dear Frau Rat, never!" they cried. + +Nor did Louisa, at any rate. + +"Frau Rat," concluded Marianne, "showed me one day the most beautiful +gold ornaments she had only a few months before received as a present +from our Queen, who really loves her." + +A second time Louisa visited Frankfort-on-Main. It was two years later +when, Leopold being dead, Francis, the last Emperor of the Holy Roman +Empire, came to receive the crown which, in 1806, just before the battle +of Jena, he resigned forever. + +At that time the Princess and her brother Carl came to supper with Frau +Rat Goethe. + +There was omelette, very light and delicious, and famous bacon salad, a +dish much loved in that day throughout Germany. + +"Oh, how fine!" cried Carl and the princess, and when they stopped +eating there was not even so much as a half leaf left on either plate! + +All her life Frau Rat loved to tell about this, and Marianne related how +she joked when she told the story. + +"And, mother," said Marianne, "Frau Rat told me that our Queen, though +she was then a princess, made her own satin shoes for the coronation." + +Madam von Stork beamed approval. + +She opened her lips to impress the importance of sewing upon Marianne, +but the young girl was too quick for her. + +"Frau Rat, father, says that our Queen reads both Goethe and Schiller +always." + +Before Madame von Stork could answer, the maid appeared with wine and +cake, and, when all were settled, Marianne had told more stories about +Goethe's mother and what a fine old lady she was, but so amusing in her +great turban, with its red, white and blue feathers, or great decoration +of sunflowers, with her hair all arranged and plaited with ribbons, her +face rouged, her embroidered kid gloves, her rings, and her famous +speech: + +"I am the mother of Goethe!" + +When Marianne told all this she altered her voice and put on what her +brothers called her "Goethe manner," and, turning to Herr Brandt, she +exclaimed: + +"Oh, Uncle Ludwig, the Frau Rat showed me her son's playthings and the +dresses he wore as a child. Oh, think of my touching, my handling what +his noble hands have rested upon! Oh, how it thrilled, how it +over-powered me!" + +The boys burst into a roar, but her father with a glance quieted them. + +"And what is Frau Rat like, Marianne?" he asked. + +Delighted to talk on her favorite topic, Marianne told how, when the +Frau Rat announced, "I am the mother of Goethe," her voice rang out like +a trumpet. + +Ludwig pushed back his glass. + +"The trumpet we should hear," he said, "is the voice of her son singing +songs of patriotism. Never mind, Mariechen," for Marianne was beginning +to cry out, "your idol is not entirely perfect. Now, when at last we +have a literature in Germany, why will not our poets rouse our people? +The imitation of France is on us like a curse. All must be French. We +must speak French, we must read French, we must despise all things +German. I tell you, Richard, it is now the calm before the storm. Over +Prussia is gathering a cloud and the day will come when the sun shall +shine no more for us." + +He arose and paced up and down the floor. + +"Oh, Ludwig," cried Madame von Stork, "come, come, sit down and enjoy +your doughnuts." + +But Ludwig Brandt was not to be soothed with cake. + +"Good-night, Clara," he said suddenly, and bending, kissed Madame von +Stork's hand. + +With an "Auf wiedersehen," he departed. + +"My goodness," cried Madame von Stork, "but Ludwig is uncomfortable. +Here we were enjoying a quiet, happy evening, and in he comes and upsets +everything. See, Marianne, see, there he has spilt wine on the +tablecloth. It is the English in him which makes him so solemn. Perhaps +if dear Erna had lived she might have made him gayer. And speaking of +Erna, Marianne, you are old enough to read your dear aunt's journal. It +is really a history of our dear Queen the child kept to please Ludwig. +To-morrow, when you visit your grandmother, you must ask her to lend it +to you." + +It was this same journal which Marianne brought forth in the sitting +room. + +Before she could begin reading Elsa and Ilse crowded to her side. + +"Sister," they said, "tell Bettina what happened when you took us to +grandmother's and she gave you the book, won't you?" + +Marianne laughed. + +"We had cherry compote for supper," she said, "and we all had some, and +Otto whispered to Wolf that he could keep more stones in his mouth than +Wolf could, and all the others heard and in whispers they all dared each +other, and they kept on eating and eating until their cheeks were quite +puffy." + +Bettina laughed gaily. + +"And there was company," put in Elsa. + +"And grandmother asked Otto a question," said Ilse. + +"And then----" Carl shouted. + +"Otto couldn't keep his in----" + +"And Wolf laughed----" + +"And, oh, Bettina, it was awful! Stones shot everywhere out of +everybody's mouth and oh, grandmother!" She held up her hands. + +Bettina thought this very funny and they all laughed and would have made +a great noise had not Marianne put the tiny key in the brass lock of the +red book. + +"Come, now, be quiet," she said, "and I will begin the journal of our +Aunt Erna." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +PRINCESS LOUISA + + +"First," said Marianne with an air of great importance, "I will tell you +about the family of our Queen." + +All the children looked up with eagerness. + +"Her name," continued Marianne, "is Louisa Augusta Wilhelmina Amelia. +Her father is the Duke Carl of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Her mother, who +died when she was six years old, was a Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt." + +Here Marianne paused. + +"It is important, children, that you should know these things of our +Queen," she informed them, looking very wise and grown up. "Her name, +the mother's, I mean, was Frederika Caroline Louisa. Now our Queen--I +learned this to tell you--was born in the old castle of Hanover, March +10, 1776. Her father was the governor there for his brother-in-law, who +is king of--where, Ilse?" + +Both twins shook their heads. + +"Carl?" + +"Go on, Mariechen," said he, "don't be a teacher." + +But Marianne had her plans. + +"Bettina?" + +"Oh, England," said the little girl, who had learned this from something +she had heard Mr. Jackson say. + +"Go on, Mariechen," urged Carl. + +Marianne nodded. + +"When our Queen was six," she said, "her father married her aunt, but +she died, too, and our Queen lived with her grandmother, who took her +to Holland, and Strasburg, and everywhere she travelled. One day she +took her to the Rhine and she met the Crown Prince, who now is our King. +Now, listen to what our dear Aunt Erna has written." + +Marianne opened the red book. + +On the first page was her aunt's name. + +"Erna Hedwig Anna Marie von Bergman, her journal." + +On the next was the date, "Dec. 22, 1793." + +"To-day," read Marianne, "we went to see the entrance of our Crown +Princess into Berlin. While we walked to Unter den Linden, where my +Ludwig--I am betrothed now to Ludwig--had obtained for us very fine +seats, he entertained us with stories of this lovely princess, who came +to-day to our prince. He said everybody loved her, and he told me so +much of her beauty that I was all eagerness to see her enter. + +"Ludwig said that even when she was a child she gained love everywhere. +Once, at Darmstadt, the great poet, Schiller, was reading aloud from his +'Don Carlos,' and he felt a pair of eyes on him. He looked up, and saw +the loveliest little girl, who seemed to understand every word of his +poetry. It was the little Princess Louisa, and Schiller smiled on her. +To be smiled upon by a genius seems to me to be better than to be Crown +Princess." + +Marianne's face glowed as she read this. + +"She would have understood me, my Aunt Erma," she thought. + +"Go on, please, go on," said Carl. + +"I said this to Ludwig," read Marianne, "but he told me that to be a +good house-wife was better than either." + +"Exactly like him," she muttered, and then went straight on with the +journal. + +"Our Princess, who came to-day, met our Prince at Frankfort-on-Main. Our +King invited her with her grandmother and sister, Frederika, and the +very instant that our Crown Prince saw Princess Louisa he said: 'She or +never another.' A great love was at once in his heart. + +"Every day they were together. Every evening in the theatre, and now, +to-morrow, they marry. Our Prince Louis marries Princess Louisa's +sister, Frederika. I find that lovely. + +"They were betrothed at Darmstadt. Our King, who is such a jolly, joking +man, gave them their rings. 'God bless you, children,' he said, and all +the people said: 'Amen.' + +"We thought there would be no marriage for a long time, for the King +would not have it because of the war with France. But something changed +his mind, and so to-day Berlin was decorated for the entry of the +Princess. + +"It was so fine I can hardly write about it. The whole of +Berlin was decorated with flags. There were flags of Prussia, of +Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and of the Holy Roman Empire. They were +everywhere, on the Rathaus, across buildings, in windows. There were +evergreens, too, and in all my life I have never seen such a Christmas +Markt. The open place was all full of booths with fir trees in the +centre. We started early enough for me to buy a few things for our +Christmas tree. + +"It was hard to choose. I wanted laces and I wanted Swiss carvings, and +I wanted French bonbons, but at last at one booth I bought honey cakes, +at another, the dearest gingerbread images of the Prince and Princess, +at another, a chocolate group of the four royalties, and some lace and +toys for the tree. + +"The streets were so full we could hardly push our way through the +throng of hunters in green, Berliners and peasants all in their Sunday +costumes and gold ornaments. + +"People were in all the windows, hanging over balconies and pushing and +pressing in the streets. We reached our places just as the 'Berliner +Citizens' Brigade' formed in lines up Leipzigerstrasse to the corner of +Wilhelmstrasse. + +"We were quite near the big arch where the Princesses were to be +welcomed. + +"It was splendid. There were three divisions in the arch, all decorated +with flowers and statues and pictures and words of welcome. + +"One figure was Hymen, who is the god of marriage, and there were two +bridal wreaths, because of the double wedding. + +"'Look, Erma,' said mother, and there, among the little French boys in +green suits sitting on the arch, was François de Ballore, and among the +lovely little German girls in white with pink sashes and wreaths of +roses, I saw Hedwig Rückert, Elise Stege, and Annchen Romeike. + +"'One of them,' explained Ludwig, 'is to recite a poem of welcome.' + +"It was dreadfully tiresome standing in that great crowd, but at last +came the procession. + +"There was a sound of horns, and six splendid horses walking with the +greatest stateliness entered Unter den Linden. On them were the Royal +Post Secretaries. Then came postilions in splendid uniforms, and after +them the carriers in blue. The postilions, there were forty of them, +Ludwig said, were all blowing horns, and I felt sorry, indeed, for the +carriers. I liked the next thing very much. It was the Hunters' Guild, +and they wore green costumes with peach-blossom facings. But the next +after the hunters was splendid. It was dozens of young Berliners dressed +as knights of the Middle Ages. + +"The people cried out: 'Enchanting!' 'Wonderful!' and I said to Ludwig +that I wished men dressed that way now and not in ugly every-day knee +breeches and ruffled coats. + +"But Ludwig only told me that armour would be inconvenient, and made +fun. But I think so, just the same. What is there romantic about a +queue, or slipper buckles, and knee breeches? Nothing at all. + +"It was fun to see how important the Brewers and Distillers looked in +blue. The merchants and their sons wore red, and after them came +Frederick the Great's fine Royal Guard, and they all arranged themselves +in two lines for the carriages to enter. + +"The Berliners refused to have Royal Chamberlains about the carriages. + +"'We want to see the Princesses, not Chamberlains,' they said. + +"Ludwig named the people to me. + +"The handsome, white-haired lady with bright, sparkling eyes, was the +Countess von Voss, the Mistress of Court Ceremonies, who had gone to +Potsdam to meet the Princess. There was the Duke, and the grandmother, +and the brother of the Princesses, and the Maids of Honour, the two +Ladies Vieregg, and Master of Court Ceremonies von Schulden. + +"We could hardly see them for the crowd, and there was a woman near me +who talked so much I could hardly hear Ludwig. She said that her husband +was a member of the Guild of Butchers and he had marched to Potsdam, +which was splendidly decorated, in a brown suit with gold shoulder-bands +and a gold-figured vest and splendid red galoon hat with lace trimming. +They gave the first welcome to the Princesses and, goodness knows, the +butcher's wife was proud of it. + +"But at last she was still, for in a splendid gold coach drawn by eight +horses came the two brides. + +"They are so beautiful I cannot describe them. + +"They are both slender and very graceful, and they both have blue eyes +and golden hair, but if you once see Princess Louisa, you can never look +again at Princess Frederika. + +"The people were enchanted. + +"'Never have we seen such eyes, never,' was all we heard, for the +Princess turned as she stepped on the platform and smiled right at us. + +"They were blue and true, and oh, they are so different from other +people's that I do not know how to tell it. They seem to say: 'I love +you, I love you.' + +"The sweetest thing happened. + +"The prettiest little baby girl in white and pink, with a wreath of +roses on her curls, came out on the platform to welcome the Princess. +She was like a round-cheeked cherub, and she carried a bouquet of roses +almost as big as herself. It was a poem she said of great big grown-up +words, and her mouth was so tiny that it made everybody smile just to +see her. + +"'When thou appearest,' she began, and kept ducking her little head and +then smiling at the Princess and looking out of the corners of her eyes. + +"I have never seen anything half so pretty. + +"And when she was through, what did she do but just stand and look at +the Princess and smile, as much as to say: 'And how, dear Princess, do +you like it?' + +"And then what did our new Princess do but spring forward, catch the +little round-cheeked thing in her arms and hug and kiss her as if not a +soul was looking. + +"'You darling!' she said. + +"The people were just wild. + +"'She will not only be our Queen,' said the woman who talked so much, +'she will be a mother to her people.' + +"But the Mistress of Court Ceremonies was shocked. + +"We could hear what she said, quite distinctly. + +"'My heavens!' she cried, and her voice was so full of horror that even +Ludwig laughed, 'what has Your Highness done? That is against all +etiquette.' + +"Then our Princess turned just like a girl. + +"'What!' she cried, and I never heard a voice so sweet and like a silver +bell, 'may I not do such things any more?' + +"'She is adorable," said Monsieur de Paillot, who was standing quite +near mother. + +"'She is an angel,' said the woman who talked so much." + +"Why, Mariechen," interrupted Elsa, "that's what everybody now calls +her." + +Marianne nodded. + +"Go on," commanded Carl, whose blue eyes were quite eager with +listening. + +"After that," went on the journal, "the Princesses went to the palace, +where the Princes were waiting. We had to wait for the crowd to thin, +and Monsieur de Paillot and Ludwig fell to talking. He is a French +refugee, I think. Berlin is full of them. + +"'Monsieur,' he said to Ludwig, 'this parade to-day recalls another that +I saw when a Princess came, also, to my kingdom.' + +"We all listened politely. + +"'She came, my friends,' he said, 'from Vienna, that Princess. Her +bridegroom was the Dauphin of France. She, also, was beautiful.' + +"He looked so solemn he took all the pleasure from our procession. + +"A queer wrinkle came in his forehead and he looked almost like a +revolutionist. + +"'Many things have come to pass,' he said, 'since I first saw that Queen +of France.' + +"It was Marie Antoinette, I knew it, then. Poor lady, the wicked French +have beheaded her. + +"Monsieur de Paillot looked at me sternly. + +"'These are troubled times,' he said. 'Old things are passing, new +things are being born. Ours is a day of revolutions, of changes. There +has been a struggle for liberty in America. I had the honour, as you +know, of fighting with the noble Lafayette in the Colonies. I have seen +Washington. I have talked with Thomas Jefferson, with the learned +Franklin. You, here in Prussia, still have serfs, no constitution, and +no patriotism. In America, the women went in homespun, the men starved +at Valley Forge, and all for the rights of man. But here, pardon me, +Madame, but is it not true that you borrow your language, your customs, +everything from France? I fear that lovely young Princess may suffer.' + +"Mother was furious. So was I. But Ludwig nodded. + +"'You are right, Monsieur, quite right,' he said, and I think that +horrid in him, even if he will be my husband. + +"'Monsieur,' I said, 'was the Queen of France as beautiful as our +Princess?' + +"Then he made me a grand bow that made me think he was not quite so +horrid. + +"'Mademoiselle,' he said, 'I have never seen so lovely a woman as this +Princess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, never.'" + +When Marianne read this the children stopped her. + +"Was that our Queen?" asked Carl. + +"Of course," said Ilsa, "first she was Crown Princess, then our Queen." + +At that moment the maid brought in the supper. + +"To-morrow night," said Marianne, "I will read you the next things that +happened. Come, now, Bettina, you may pass the bread, and Ilse, you and +Elsa sit here one on each side of me, and Carl, you may be father." + +"It is nice, Mariechen," said Ilse, "to have you take care of us." + +"Yes," said Elsa. + +"I love you, Mariechen," and Carl hugged her until she was nearly +strangled. + +Marianne, her eyes dancing, was glad that she was trying to be better. +It made her happier, she found, than even "The Sorrows of Werther." + + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE MARRIAGE + + +"Now," said Marianne, next evening, "I will read again in the journal. +Are you ready, children?" + +And she glanced around the little group. + +There were the twins with their tent stitch, Carl with his pencil and +drawing book, Bettina with her knitting. + +Marianne smiled and settled herself most importantly. + +"Carl," she said, "bring another candle. Elsa, will you please draw +closer the window curtain, and Bettina, child, sit nearer the light. +Now, ready?" + +"Our Princess," began the journal, "was married last night, Christmas +Eve, in this year of 1793. When mother lit our tree and my sister +Clarechen's children, Franz and Wolfgang, were clapping their little +hands in joy, Ludwig lifted his hand. + +"'Our Crown Prince has a wife now,' he said, and glanced at the clock. + +"Baron von Sternberg, an old friend of my father's, came to-day to see +mother and told us all that happened last night, for he was at the +wedding. + +"He said that our new Crown Princess was most beautiful in white with a +crown of sparkling diamonds that the Queen herself had placed on her +lovely golden head. Before she was married, the widow of the Great +Frederick gave her a blessing, the blessing of an old woman, she said. +Then came the wedding in the Ritter Saal. The altar was beneath a +baldachin of purple velvet embroidered in crowns of gold, and hundreds +of candles made a splendid light. Oh, how I should love to have seen all +the velvets and jewels and the fine ladies with powdered hair and the +men with their clothes of fine velvet! + +"I long for the Court, and because of my father's fine position, I could +go there, but my mother will not have it. + +"No, she says, it is wicked there. Our King is too gay, and she told me +a sad story of the Countess von Voss, the lady I saw in the procession, +and who, it seems, is mother's old friend from girlhood. This lady went +to Court very young and the King's brother fell in love with her, and it +was all so unfortunate, for he must marry a Princess, and the Countess, +her cousin. + +"But the wedding. + +"Ober-Consistorial Rath Sack performed the ceremony, for he had both +baptised and confirmed our Crown Prince. The Berliners wished a fine +illumination, but the Crown Prince would not have it. + +"'Nay, nay, good Berliners,' he said, 'give the money to the widows and +orphans of the soldiers killed in the war with France.' + +"Ludwig says that he is much worried over the debts of his father, the +King, who is jolly and beloved of the people, but who spends everything +he can lay his hands on. + +"After the wedding came the polonaise. It is an old custom and takes +place at the marriage of every Prussian Crown Prince. + +"The pages first bring in torches and present them to eighteen +ministers of state. Then trumpets sound, the royal family rise from the +semi-circle in which they sit under a baldachin, the Lord Chamberlain +gives a signal, and the dance begins, all in the light of the torches +the performers bear with them. + +"The Baron said that it was most enchanting. The King danced with our +new Crown Princess, the Crown Prince with the Queen and the widow of +Frederick the Great. Round they marched to the pretty polonaise step at +the corner of the room, dividing and changing partners, the torches +blazing, and oh, the lords and ladies so fine and grand! + +"To-day is Christmas, and I was in the old Cathedral, and who should +come in but the Crown Prince and Princess? They seem so in love with +each other that it is beautiful to see. And they are most religious. + +"As we were coming home from church we met Monsieur de Paillot. He told +us something which filled me with the greatest joy. + +"Our King was not quite pleased with the wedding. + +"'There were too many embroidered coats,' he said, 'at the second we +will have a few commoners.' + +"And so the Berliners can go to the wedding of Prince Ludwig and +Princess Frederika, and my Ludwig will take me. Oh, what happiness, for +I shall see our Crown Princess in her robes and her diamonds. + +"The dress I wore to the wedding was most beautiful. A young French girl +designed it with the taste and skill of her nation. It was made for a +great ball at which I am to be introduced to society, but mother bade me +wear it to Court. + +"It was of white tissue, and above the hem of my flowing skirt was +embroidered a border of fleur-de-lys in purple and gold. My kerchief was +fine as a web and edged with rare lace, and for the first time my hair +was raised high and powdered. Mother finished my joy by clasping about +my throat a necklace of purple stones. + +"'Your dear father gave them to me when I was a bride,' she said with a +sigh, for it is but two years since we lost him. + +"'Lovely!' cried my sister Clarechen when she saw me, but Ludwig +frowned. + +"'Why French flowers?' he asked, his eyes on the fleur-de-lys. Ludwig +sees all things. 'Why not something German and blue?' he asked with +great discontent. + +"Ludwig is very strange in some ways. For one thing, he will not speak +French, like all well-bred people. + +"'I am a German,' he will say, 'why not speak my own language?' + +"And he calls mother 'Frau,' and not 'Madame,' and me 'Fräulein,' and +all my notes to him must be written in German, and German is so hard, +not beautiful, like French, and he scolds me when I make more than a +dozen mistakes in my articles: _die, der, das_. + +"But my dress, my lovely, lovely dress! + +"It might have been blue, or red, or any colour, for all that it +mattered. The crowd was so great no one looked at poor little Erna von +Bergman, and next day she spent hours darning a great rent in her skirt. + +"But I have seen our Crown Princess, and she smiled right at me, so what +else matters? No one could behead her as the French did Marie +Antoinette; no, not even for liberty. + +"She was in white and wore a crown of sparkling diamonds. The Crown +Prince looked at her as if he adored her. He is very earnest and grave, +she, very bright and gay. There is great love between them, I can see +that, because of my own love for my Ludwig. + +"I saw our King at the wedding, and he was most amusing. Of late years +he has grown very stout, and because of his increased size he found it +difficult indeed to pass through the room with his arm laden with the +widow of Frederick the Great, our Queen Dowager. + +"The crowd could not help punching him with their elbows. + +"Think of it! Even Ludwig nudged our King! + +"But he was not the least angry. + +"He winked, actually winked, and then called out in his merry, jolly +way: + +"'Don't be shy, my children. The wedding father can have no more room +to-day than the guests.' + +"The Berliners were delighted. + +"Our King is a great favourite because of his jokes and his calling the +people 'Children.' + +"But Ludwig does not admire him. He says one should weep to think of +such a man wearing the crown of the Great Elector, or Frederick the +Great, that he is like Charles II of England. He believes much in +spirits and has mediums and such people always about him. But he is very +benevolent and gives to the poor. + +"Oh, it was fine at the wedding! I saw all the great people of the +Court, and how I longed to be one of them and live in such splendour! +But with torn dress and tired feet I came home to our humble dwelling. +At least, it isn't so humble--mother would frown at such a word--but one +says that when one goes to Court, where all is the grandest.... + + * * * * * + +"I have decided to always put down what I hear of our Crown Princess, +how the King loves her, and how our Crown Prince forgets his sad nature +when he is with one so happy and gay, and all that the Berliners talk +about." + +Here Marianne paused and turned over some pages. + +"I will skip," she announced, "because all on these pages is about other +things. To-day I have read it all and have marked only that which will +interest you." + +"There are many things we hear of our Crown Princess," she then read. +"She and the Crown Prince play many pranks upon the Countess von Voss, +who loves etiquette and ceremony above all things. But that is on the +surface; in her heart she adores the Crown Prince and the Princess +Louisa, who is now like her daughter. As for them, they are full of +mischief. + +"All Berlin just now is talking of how our Crown Prince and Princess say +'thou' and not 'you' to each other, according to our sweet German custom +of making a difference between friends and strangers. + +"The Court, when this report spread, cried out in horror. It was not +according to French etiquette. + +"The King commanded his son before him. + +"'What is this I hear?' he demanded, 'that you call the Crown Princess +"thou"?' + +"'You hear it upon good grounds,' answered our Crown Prince, with his +slow, good-humoured smile, 'when a man says "_du_" (_thou_) the person +to whom he speaks knows whom is being spoken to, but when I say "_sie_" +(in German written "_Sie_" for "_you_,"--"_sie_" for "_they_") who can +know whether I say it with a capital letter, or not?' + +"From the beginning our Crown Prince had objected to the formal +etiquette which Frederick the Great imposed upon our Prussian Court. He +longs always to have his home life free from formality. + +"'I desire with all my heart,' said he, 'to live as a plain person and +not as a royal one.' + +"One evening the Crown Princess returned from a feast, and ridding +herself of her finery, ran like a girl to her husband. + +"Clasping her hands, he gazed in her wonderful eyes. + +"'Thank God,' he said, 'thou art again my wife.' + +"The Crown Princess' silvery laugh rang through the room. + +"'What?' she cried, 'am I not that always?' + +"The Crown Prince shook his head with an air of sad discontent. + +"'No,' he said, 'thou must so often be Crown Princess.' + +"The Countess von Voss thought it her duty to bring this lively pair to +order. + +"'You do not please me,' she said one day to the Crown Prince. 'French +etiquette rules all Europe, and I, as Court Mistress of Ceremonies, must +lecture your Royal Highness for seeking the Crown Princess without +announcement.' + +"The Prince made a face and looked as if he were going to be +stubborn.--I heard all this from Baron von Sternberg.--Then suddenly +inspired by a secret thought, he laughed. + +"'Good!' he cried like a penitent boy, 'dear Voss, I will reform. So +have the kindness to announce me to my wife and ask if I may have the +honour of speaking with her Royal Highness, the Crown Princess, and +express my hope that she will graciously grant it.' + +"The good Countess beamed her approval. + +"Now, indeed, was the wayward young man behaving as he should. + +"With dignified steps she sought the apartment of the Princess, and was +beginning the announcement when a laugh interrupted her. + +"The Crown Prince, laughing as hard as he could, sat on the couch with +his arm around his wife. + +"Jumping up, he seated the Countess between them. Then he took her hand +and spoke quite decidedly. + +"'See, dear Voss,' said he, 'I hurried in another way to show you that +my wife and I see each other unannounced and quite as often as we will. +That, in my opinion, is the only Christian fashion for married people, +Royal or commoners. You are our charming Court Mistress,' the Crown +Princess gave her one of her enchanting smiles, 'but Louisa and I have +made up a name for you. You are now to be Dame Etiquette.' And all +Berlin now calls her that. + +"Dame Etiquette arranged a drive for the Crown Prince, the Princess, and +herself, only last week, the Baron says. She insisted on a grand +carriage, with bodyguard in costume. Above all the Royal pair hated +this, but Dame Etiquette firmly commanded the equipage and arrayed in +state she seats herself, at the Royal command, to await the others. + +"The Crown Prince, coming out, gave a low order to the coachman, and off +drove Dame Etiquette alone in the splendid state carriage, and behind +her the naughty laughing Prince and Princess in a plain two-horse affair +like commoners. All eyes were fixed on her, and Louisa and Fritz had as +good a time as if they were not Royal. + +"It seems strange to me how we long to be grand like princes and all +they want is to be like us. + + * * * * * + +"Yesterday was our Crown Princess' birthday. All Berlin has made much of +it, but in the palace it was grandly celebrated with a fine masquerade +ball. + +"All Berlin talks of what happened in the palace. When Princess Louisa +came to the King for her birthday kiss he embraced her like a real +father and said: 'You are the Princess of Princesses, my Louisa.' + +"Then a company of Court ladies and gentlemen appeared before her, all +arrayed as citizens of Oranienburg. One made a fine speech and presented +her with a key. + +"'Of our castle,' they said. 'You are to be its mistress.' + +"Then, amid the excitement, the King explained that he gave her the gift +of this castle for a summer residence. + +"Ludwig told me that the wife of the Great Elector, another Louisa, +lived there, and so it is very fitting that our Crown Princess have it +because of her name. + +"The King gave our Crown Princess another gift. + +"At the ball he said quite suddenly to her: + +"'Princess of Princesses, if you had a handful of gold, what wish would +you grant yourself?' + +"'I should make happy the poor of Berlin,' answered the birthday child. + +"'How large, then, must the handful be, Princess of Princesses?' asked +the King with a smile. + +"'As big as the heart of the best king in the world,' answered our Crown +Princess, her eyes dancing. + +"And now we hear that because of this clever answer Berlin is to have a +fine new charity. + +"Ludwig says it would be much better if our King paid his debts, but I +like our King, and so do the people." + +Marianne skipped a little. + +"Our Crown Prince has gone to Poland. We hear much of a brave man called +Kosciusko, but Prussia rejoices that at last we have defeated him. + + * * * * * + +"To-day seventy-two guns sounding from the palace informed us that our +dear Crown Princess has a son. We are glad, indeed, for she lost her +first little daughter, who never lived a day. + + * * * * * + +"For godparents our new Prince has the Queen, the widow of Frederick the +Great, the Prince and Princess Henry, Prince and Princess Ferdinand, and +the Crown Princess' father. His name is Frederick William, for the King, +who held him during the ceremony, when the same clergyman who baptised +his father gave him his name. + +"Our Crown Princess is more beloved than ever and now all Berlin +rejoices over her son. + +"As for me, Ludwig will have it that we marry in a year. I will then be +sixteen and two years older than mother was when she was a bride. There +is much to do. I must fill my wedding chest with linen and all things +for my house." + + * * * * * + +"Our Crown Prince has bought a country home at Paretz. He and our Crown +Princess long for a simple life. We hear much talk of what happens +there, how they ramble in the woods, seek wild flowers, have supper +under the trees and spend their days very happily. + +"Our Crown Princess calls herself 'Gnädige Frau von Paretz (the Gracious +Lady of Paretz), and takes part in all the village festivities. One +evening all the villagers came in costume and announced that they would +have a dance on the green. Our Crown Princess led the whole Court to +take part. The village fiddler played, the peasants danced, and all was +as merry as possible. + +"But suddenly the Crown Princess had an idea. + +"She ordered the castle thrown open, the Court musicians summoned, and +all went in to dance on the fine polished floors. + +"When Monsieur de Paillot heard this he shook his head. + +"'Marie Antoinette played at being dairymaid, n'est-ce-pas?' and he +looked as if we intended to turn revolutionists and cut off the head of +our dear Crown Princess just for pleasure. + +"Old General Röckeritz, the friend of the Crown Prince, is much at +Paretz, and Berlin tells a story of him also. + +"He had a way of leaving the table the moment the meal was at an end. + +"No one could imagine what he did with himself, and it worried the +Gnädige Frau von Paretz to have him leave her. + +"'Let him alone,' said her husband, 'he is old and wants his comfort.' + +"But our Crown Princess was not satisfied. + +"Next day at the end of dinner she appeared with a tray on which were +cigars and a lighted taper. The whole company gazed at her in surprise, +the general, as usual, trying to escape. + +"With a smile the Crown Princess detained him, presenting her tray. + +"'No, no, dear Röckeritz,' she said, 'do not go away. To-day you must +have your dessert with us.' + +"The old general was enchanted. Now he need not sit alone to enjoy his +cigar." + +Marianne, pausing, began to turn over pages. + +"There is so much, children, I can't read it all. Besides, it is sad. +The Princess Frederika loses her husband, the widow of Frederick the +Great dies, and so does the King. Then the Queen has a second little +son. His name is Frederick William Louis, but you know who he is, our +Prince William. He was the tiniest little babe, it says here. But you +must hear how good our Queen is. 'I am Queen,' she wrote to her +grandmother, 'and what rejoices me most is that I need no longer +economise in my charities.' + +"The citizens of Berlin at once, when she became Queen, waited upon +her," read Marianne. "The Queen made them welcome and said: 'It gives me +great pleasure to know you. The good will of my Prussian subjects and of +you will never be forgotten. It shall be my aim to hold that love, for +the love of his subjects is the best crown of a King. With joy I embrace +this opportunity to know my citizens better.' + +"To Röckeritz the King said: + +"'My blessed uncle, Frederick the Great, has said that a treasure is the +basis and prop of the Prussian states. We have now nothing but debts. I +shall be as economical as possible.' + +"Then did he propose to continue, as King, to live upon the income he +had made suffice as Crown Prince? + +"'The debts of my father,' said he very earnestly, 'must be paid by +industry, discipline and economy.' + +"Ludwig," wrote Erna, "is much pleased with all this, but he hopes the +King will not forget that France is not yet at the end of her troubles. +There is talk of a young man named Napoleon Bonaparte, who is the hope +now of France. They say he will right everything. + +"There are many stories told about our new King and his hatred of +ceremony. I will write them to amuse myself. My wedding will not be +quite so soon. I am not well and it is best for me now not to work. I do +not know what is my trouble, but I cough and do not sleep well at nights +and all are very, very kind to me. + +"Now for the stories of the King. + +"Immediately after the death of the late King, the Chamberlain threw +open both folding doors for the entrance of Frederick William. One had +been enough for him when he was Crown Prince. + +"'Am I,' he asked in his whimsical way, 'in a moment grown so much that +one door will not do for me?' + +"When the chef added two more dishes to the bill of fare, with a smile +he remarked to his wife: 'It is easy to see that they believe that since +yesterday I have received a larger stomach.' + +"According to a custom established by Frederick the Great, two +Lieutenant-Generals always stood at the Royal table, and, with the Court +Marshal, waited until the King first should drink. + +"When Frederick William saw them standing like posts at his board he +waved his hand toward chairs, inviting them to be seated. + +"'We cannot be seated, your Majesty,' they answered with great dignity. + +"'Why not?' + +"'Your Majesty must first drink.' + +"'And what must I drink?' inquired William, smiling and gazing at the +glasses. + +"'It is not stated, your Majesty.' + +"The King seized a glass of water and drank it standing. + +"'Now sit,' cried he in relief, as if he thought it all foolishness. + +"Soon after the Crown Princess became Queen she went with her husband on +a journey through his realm. It was the first time that a King of +Prussia had taken his Queen with him so far from Berlin, and Ludwig says +the people were delighted. + +"Baron von Sternberg comes in now and then to see mother, and he is +always full of court gossip. At Stargard, in Pomerania, he says, the +King reviewed the troops and then the Queen started towards Custrin. At +one of the villages the people surrounded the royal carriage and begged +our Queen to alight and have some refreshment they had prepared. + +"At once she left the carriage and went right into their houses, seeing +their children and talking with the villagers. + +"They were delighted, the Baron said. + +"At Dantzic there were great ceremonies, and the amber workers gave the +Queen a most lovely necklace. We hear that she wore it all the time she +was in that city. As the Queen loves the country, she made many +excursions. One was to Karlsberg, and now they will always call the spot +where she stood 'Louisa's Grove.' + +"It would take too long to tell everything, how the Queen stayed a week +in the old palace at Königsberg, and the people, to please her Majesty, +who always loves to do good, gave a great dinner to the poor, and +everywhere she stepped flowers were strewn before her. So in love with +our Queen were the people of Königsberg, that a large body of citizens +insisted on going with her to Warsaw. As they were going down a steep +hill, because of the carelessness of the coachman, our Queen's carriage +was overturned. The Countess von Voss, declaring him to be drunk, +reproved him very sharply. But our Queen can never stand seeing people +unhappy. She touched the Countess on the arm. 'Thank God, we are not +hurt,' she said, 'let it pass over quietly, for the accident has +frightened our people much more than it has us; let us not add to their +troubles.' + +"But how delighted Berlin is over the Queen's reception in Warsaw I +cannot write. Ludwig has explained to me that the Poles do not love +Prussia, who has conquered them, but they forgot all their hatred and +received our King and Queen with cheers, flags, and much waving of +handkerchiefs. And fifty Polish girls in white, with wreaths on their +heads and baskets in their hands, walked before their Majesties, +strewing flowers. And at a village sixteen Polish girls greeted her with +a song. Everywhere there were processions. For myself, I should tire of +so many, but the Baron says that our dear Queen loves gaiety and she +loves her people and smiles are always on her face and kind greetings on +her lips. + +"As she talks she waves a little fan, fast if she is merry, slow if she +is thoughtful or sad. Ludwig brought me one of the fans now the fashion +in Berlin. They are small and all young ladies have them. There is a +picture of the King and Queen on them, and 'Long live Frederick William +and Louisa,' as an inscription. + +"Mine is blue and the pictures have gold frames about them." + +"But I must not forget the Queen's journey. At Breslau there was a great +procession of market gardeners and butchers, and there came a young girl +with a poem in her hand to welcome our Queen. But, alas, she could not +speak for bashfulness. And what did our good Queen do but smile on her +and hold out her Royal hand to encourage her?" + +"And such presents as our Queen received!" + +"There is now a new Princess. Her name is Charlotte, and the people of +Breslau gave her all her clothes, most beautifully embroidered." + +"As the Queen's carriage passed through the country it had to have fresh +horses, and the villagers dressed up their manes with ribbons, put red +nets over their ears and adorned their heads with flowers and gold and +silver paper, this being the custom among the peasants, and it amused +the Queen greatly." + +"In June our Queen came home, and now we often see her in the +Thiergarten, arm in arm with the King, walking quite simply like +every-day people." + +"Mother went last week to pay a visit to the Countess von Voss, and she +told her something I shall write here. + +"The first Queen of Prussia lived in the palace at Charlottenburg, and +her portrait hangs there with many others. One is that of the wife of +our Great Elector. Her name was Louisa, like our Queen, who feels a +great love for her. + +"'Her face,' she told the Countess, 'seems to greet me with a heavenly +smile.' The Countess wrote it in the journal she keeps and writes in +each morning. 'I look upon it until I feel that there must be a living +bond of sympathy between us.' + +"This Louisa, history tells us, had much trouble, and once with her +children was forced to flee before an enemy. All that our Queen +discussed with the Countess. + +"'But oh!' she exclaimed--I can shut my eyes and picture her as she said +it--'what must have been her happiness in finding that she could help +and comfort her husband in the hours of his heavy trial!' + +"But our Queen is not to flee before an enemy, for our King alone in +Europe keeps the peace." + +"But she did, Mariechen," interrupted Ilse. + +"I met her in the snow," said Bettina, her blue eyes filling. + +Marianne nodded. + +"Our Aunt Erna could not know that," she said, and continued the +reading. + +"Our Queen has three children now, and all Berlin says what a good +mother she is, very often in her nursery. Every morning she and the King +go in and kiss each child, and as they grow old enough our King sends a +basket of fruit to each one every morning. And now they begin to give +parties for the Crown Prince." + +"Yes, indeed," interrupted Marianne, "when we lived in Berlin the Royal +children had many entertainments. Once the little daughter of the +famous Madame de Staël was there. She is a writer, children, and she has +written a fine book about us Germans. Her little girl is not so good as +her books," laughed Marianne, "but very spoilt and very rude, and what +do you think she did at the Royal party?" + +The children shook their heads. + +"She boxed the Crown Prince's ears." + +"Oh!" Carl's eyes grew round in horror. + +"Ja," said Marianne, "she did, and the Crown Prince ran to the Queen and +buried his face in her dress, but nothing anyone could say would make +little Mademoiselle de Staël apologise. But she was never asked again to +even one of the masquerades, balls or plays. At Christmas they had +always a tree and our dear Queen decorated and dressed it herself, and +there were dances and jugglers, and once at Paretz they had a lottery +for all the children. I was there with our father and when a child did +not draw a prize, our Queen, with one of her lovely smiles, gave a +present herself." + +Then she returned to the journal. + +"At Paretz, our Queen's country home, all ceremony is laid aside. The +King will be called 'Schulze' (magistrate) and they join in all the +sports and dances of the people who live there. + +"But our Queen loves to be grand, also, and there was once in Berlin a +fine masquerade in her honour, a play where girls represented cocoons, +and at her approach untwisted themselves from their wrappings and danced +out butterflies. And once there was a fine play representing the +marriage of Queen Mary of England and Philip of Spain. Our Queen was +Mary and many people think it a bad omen, for this Queen was so unhappy +and lost Calais to the English. The Duke of Sussex was Philip. But there +are people who do not love our Queen. Colonel York is one. He came +yesterday to pay his respects to mother and he said horrid things, that +our Queen's hands are too big and her feet not well made. Ludwig says +this is because she has influence over the King and because she will +have a well-behaved Court. Colonel York says she does not treat the +military with proper respect. + + * * * * * + +"It is again May, and our Queen has gone on another journey. To-day we +visited Peacock Island, where she lives so happily in the château built +like a ruined Roman villa. I saw the very rooms of our Queen, and the +menagerie, and heard from Ludwig and the Baron, who was with us, how +happy our King is when he can throw off affairs of state and come 'home' +to Peacock Island." + +"Yes," interrupted Marianne, "we used to hear a great deal about Peacock +Island when we lived in Berlin before this awful war. Once Bishop Eylert +was sitting beneath the trees with our King and Queen and her Majesty +inquired of a servant where the children were. + +"'Playing in a meadow, Majesty,' said the attendant. + +"Our Queen jumped up in the way she does and cried out that she would go +to them and surprise them. + +"Our King agreed, and they all three got into a boat and the King rowed +them up the Havel, which, you know, makes the Island. + +"Suddenly the boat appeared before the children. 'Where did you come +from, papa?' cried our Crown Prince in surprise. + +"'Through the reeds and rushes,' answered our King. + +"'Amongst reeds is good whistle cutting,' said our Crown Prince quick as +a flash. + +"And then our King asked him what that proverb means, and he answered +that it means that a wise man knows how to take advantage of +circumstances. Then our King wanted to know if he were in the rushes, +what whistle he would cut, and the Crown Prince said he wished they +could all have tea together there on the meadow." + +"And did they?" inquired Carl, who was very fond of picnics. + +"Ja," answered Marianne, "and it was lovely, with our Queen helping them +and laughing, and their father teasing and telling stories." + +"I know a story, too," said Carl. "Mr. Jackson told me." + +"Tell it," begged the twins. "Go on, Carlchen." + +"Two Englishmen went to Peacock Island," said + +Carl, puffing out his words in his eager importance. "They had no right +to go and they went. An officer ran them away. But they met a lady and a +gentleman. It was our King and Queen. They made them stay and they +showed them everything, and the Englishmen did not know that it was our +King and Queen. My story is best, ja, Mariechen; isn't it, Bettina?" + +Marianne nodded. + +"But now, let us read," she said. + +"Peacock Island has also a palm house, and there are many peacocks and +doves and pigeons, of which our Queen is so fond. + + * * * * * + +"Our Queen is so good to all children. + +"'The children's world is my world,' she says, and she is always being +kind to some child, and when she and the King drive out she will salute +the people with smiles long after he is tired and stops it. + +"Often I think of what our poets have said of her. She is one of four +sisters. One is our Princess Louisa; another, Theresa, is the Princess +of Thurn and Taxis; and the third, Charlotte, is the Duchess of +Sachsen-Hildburghausen. Our great poet, Jean Paul Richter, called them +'the four noble and beautiful sisters on the throne.' And famous Wieland +said of our Louisa, 'Were I the King of Fate, she should be Queen of +Europe.' And Goethe," Marianne rolled her voice and the twins giggled, +"who was with the Duke of Weimar in camp and saw our Queen and her +sister, Frederika, when, as princesses, they came to visit their +betrothed with their grandmother, from his tent, wrote in his journal +that they were visions of loveliness which should never fade from his +memory. And she has set the Berlin young girls a fine example in dress. +Ludwig is delighted. She wears very simple muslins, and, indeed, why +should she waste her time over silks and brocades when white so suits +her?" + +Marianne here stopped in her reading. + +"Go on, Mariechen," said Carl, the other three looking up in surprise. + +"That is all, children. Our dear Aunt Erna died the month before she was +to marry Cousin Ludwig. But there are stories I can tell you, which have +happened since our dear Aunt Erna died. + +"Once on a journey she arrived at the place where they were to eat, a +long time before her husband. They entreated her to eat, as the meal was +ready, but, 'No, I will not eat until my husband comes,' she said. 'It +is the duty of every wife to wait for her husband.' + +"And once, children, our dear Queen, when she was gay and happy, and not +sad as now, came to Memel on a visit, and the Czar was here and they had +oh! such feasts. Uncle Joachim has told me about it, and when the next +baby came she was called Alexandrina, because of her mother and father's +great friendship for Alexander. Uncle told me another story. Once the +treasurer told our Queen that she gave too much money to the poor, and +said that he must speak to the King. + +"'Do so,' said our Queen; 'he will not be angry.' And she was right, for +when she opened her writing case she found her purse full of gold, and +the King laughed and told her that a fairy had placed it there. + +"And once, when the Countess von Voss was angry with a poor woman for +making a mistake and sitting in the Royal pew, our dear Queen sent for +her and told her how sorry she was. Oh, children, I could talk all night +of her, she is so good and so kind to everybody. Once she made a grand +lord wait until she could talk with a poor shoemaker who had come first, +because, she said, the shoemaker's time was valuable and the lord's was +not. + +"Once our King came to breakfast with our Queen and saw a new cap lying +on the table. + +"'What does that cost?' he asked the Queen. + +"'It is not good for men to ask the cost of ladies' things,' answered +the Queen, with a laugh. + +"'But I should like to know,' insisted the King. + +"'Only four thalers.' + +"'Only! For that thing?' + +"Then the King ran to the window and called in an old invalid soldier +who was taking his air. + +"'The lady who sits on that sofa has much gold,' he said, and pointed to +our Queen. 'What do you think, old comrade, she gave for that thing on +the table?' + +"'Perhaps, sire, a groschen.' + +"'You hear that?' asked our King. 'She has paid four thalers. Now, go +ask her to give you twice as much!' + +"With a smile the Queen paid the money, and then said: 'Now, see that +gentleman who stands by the window? He has four times as much gold as I +have. All that I have he gives me, and it is much. Go to him, then, and +ask for double eight thalers.' So, you see, children," laughed Marianne, +"our King got the worst of it. + +"I could tell you many other stories, but it is bedtime. I have let you +sit up late, very late, and I can only tell one more, and then to bed. +Franz, Wolfgang, and I were once in the Christmas Markt. We were +choosing our gifts, when the crowd moved back for a gentleman with a +lady on his arm. It was our King and Queen, and they came straight to +one booth where a poor woman was buying her gifts. At once she tried to +get out of the way. But our Queen stopped her with a smile. 'Remain, my +good woman,' she cried; 'what shall this merchant say if we drive away +his customers?' Then she asked the poor woman all about her family, and +when she heard that she had a boy just the age of the Crown Prince she +bought a lovely toy for her boy to send to the poor one. Now, wasn't +that good in her? And is it not fine that she is here in Memel and we +can know her? As for Napoleon, he is wicked to cause her such trouble." + +"I hate him," said little Carl, his cheeks puffing and his face becoming +quite red. + +"Yes, yes," cried the twins; "we hate him." + +But Bettina looked eagerly at Marianne. + +"Gracious, Fräulein," she said, "when will Frederick Barbarossa awake? I +am always telling the ravens." + +Before Marianne could reply Carl jumped from his seat, the twins started +up in fright. + +A sharp knock had sounded on the window. + +"What is it, sister?" And the twins ran to Marianne. + +At that moment the Professor came in at the door. + +"Nonsense," he said; "who could be at our window?" + +But the children insisted. + +"We heard it, father," they said. + +The Professor, crossing the room, opened the sash, the children +following. + +On the window lay a piece of folded paper. + +His face full of amazement, the Professor brought it to the candles. + +The writing was in German, and the letters like those of a person who +wrote very seldom. + + "Your son, the Herr Lieutenant, has escaped and is in hiding. + Put money and food on the window to-night and it will be + fetched to him. It is not safe to say more. + + "ONE YOU KNOW." + +"One you know," repeated the Professor. Then his eyes scanned the +writing and he shook his head. + +"Grandfather writes that way," said Bettina, her eyes all afire. + +Before anyone could stop her Elsa cried out in surprise: + +"Why, Bettina," she said, "your grandfather can't write. A soldier +brought news to the King that he is dead." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +WHAT HAPPENED TO HANS + + +When Hans left Memel he went at once to the house where he had stayed +the night with Bettina. The woman who had cleaned the dress was standing +in the doorway. + +"It's a cold day," she said in French to a man who had paused with a +bundle to ask her a question. + +Hans started. + +"Ach Himmel," he said, for the look of her face, the way she pronounced +her words told the old man that she was no Prussian. + +He turned in at the next house and begged a lodging. + +The woman took him very willingly. + +"Money is scarce," she said, "and my man will be glad to have me help a +little." + +She was a large, honest-faced woman, not clever looking, but one Hans +felt safe to talk with. + +Ja, ja, her neighbour was French. She and her husband had come there a +month after Jena. He pretended to be a peddler who was prevented from +travel by the war. + +"We do not believe a word of it," said the woman, lowering her voice. +"Too many strangers come there who do not speak honest German. My man," +she shrugged her shoulders, "has his own opinion of what they are here +for." + +Hans looked at her inquiringly and waited. + +"It's Napoleon," said the woman, and she brought Hans his black bread +and cheese. + +The old man reflected as he drank. + +He remembered that a little fellow who looked foreign had sent him to +the house that day when they had entered the village with the Queen's +party. He knew that all along his way the French had been warned against +a messenger bearing a secret letter about the Secretary Lombard, who +was suspected of treachery and dealings with the French. There were +other matters in the letter, matters the King should have knowledge of, +but how to get possession of it again the old man had no idea. + +"I shall watch here, however," he concluded. "I may find out things just +as useful as the letter." + +For three days nothing happened. + +On the night of the fourth he could not sleep because of the rattling of +his window. + +Rising to stop it with paper he was astonished to see a long ray of +light across the snow in the garden. + +"Himmel," said Hans, "it comes from next door. It must be after +midnight. She has visitors." + +He threw on his clothes and crept to the garden. + +Ja, he was right. The light came from the kitchen of the next house. + +"I shall wait," said Hans, "and see what happens." + +It was bitterly cold. The wind cut like a knife, the trees and bushes +cracked their icy dress; but Hans had a fur cap, and he drew it well +over his ears. + +He had been in the cold for a half hour when a sound made him start. + +It was the creaking of the kitchen door of the next house. The light +vanished, and with careful steps a dark figure moved across the snow. + +Hans nodded. + +"You go, I follow," he thought. + +He was a spy himself. The man in the snow, he knew, was another. + +The man left the garden. Hans left his. + +On he went through the snow, Hans always a good pace behind him, +stopping if he stopped, running if he ran, and, two men moving as one, +they came to the open country. + +Pausing, the man gave a low call. + +It was answered with cautious care. + +Then a sleigh with high runners and a driver in a fur cap glided from +the distant darkness. A figure, not the driver, leaned from the fur +rugs. + +"You have it?" was asked in French. + +"Yes," said the man; "the woman told the truth. It is the one we are in +search of." + +The man in the sleigh uttered a sound as of congratulation. + +"Lombard, you mean?" + +"Yes, yes. The woman has had it three days. Here." + +Something white was held in the air--his letter. Hans recognised it. + +The man moved to spring into the sleigh, but a quick hand caught him, a +foot tripped him up, and snow flew everywhere as two bodies rolled in +the whiteness. + +It was all over in a second. + +Paper flew on the wind, torn fiercely in pieces, and then Hans found +himself bound fast with handkerchiefs and woollen scarfs, flat in the +bottom of the sleigh, four feet upon him. + +What matter? + +He had seized the letter in the scuffle and only the swift wind of the +Baltic knew where were the pieces. + +The Prussian King would never know if Lombard were guilty, but the +French would not possess a drawing of certain frontier fortresses. + +The Frenchmen were furious. They vowed Hans should be shot that night +like a dog. + +The driver brought them a piece or two of the letter, but one was half +blank and the other was the address to His Majesty. + +"Dantzic!" ordered the man, when the driver declared further search was +useless. + +Then off they dashed. + +After some talk in low tones they changed their direction, but to what +place they decided to go Hans could not discover. + +One of the men addressed him in French. + +"For safety's sake," he muttered to his neighbour. + +Hans feigned ignorance. + +"I do not understand, monsieur," he said stupidly, in German. + +With relief the two raised their voices and talked steadily as they flew +over the snow. + +Dantzic must fall. It grew daily weaker. + +"The Emperor," said one, "will wipe Prussia out of existence." + +Then he told how it was believed that Napoleon meant to make a new +kingdom. + +"His brother, Jerome, has nothing yet," he said, and he laughed at the +Prussians and called them pigs and cowards, and made jokes about the +generals, and said things that Napoleon had invented about the Queen. + +It was hard for Hans to lie still and say nothing, but the first thing +in life is to know when to hold one's tongue, and Hans knew it was +useful to listen. + +Early in the morning they came to a town, through whose gate they +entered. The sleigh drew up before a great building. A French soldier +came quickly to greet the travellers, one of whom sprang out and entered +the house with him. + +"Coffee," ordered the other. "We are freezing." + +In a few moments several soldiers appeared. They ordered Hans from the +sleigh; handcuffs were locked on his wrists, and he was marched away, +the second traveller and driver following. + +Hans asked the soldier near him in what town he was. + +The man laughed mockingly. + +"Where you are," said he in bad German, "is none of your business, old +man. What you are, you and I know." + +He thrust out his under lip and shrugged his shoulders. + +"Old man, what you are I can tell you--a spy of the King of Prussia and +a prisoner of the Emperor Napoleon!" + +Then he held up his hands to imitate a gun, and half closing his eye +pretended to take aim at the prisoner. + +"To-morrow? Next day? Who knows?" and he led Hans to a cold bare room, +when, locking the door, he left him. + +"What matter?" muttered Hans. "I am old, and the French will never read +the letter." + +Very likely he would be shot, and soon. In Magdeburg they had shot down +Prussians by dozens. The day he had stopped at the farmhouse he had +heard how they had chained a father and son together, marched them +through the town and shot them. + +"It is war," said Hans; "I took my chances. The good Mademoiselle Clara +will take good care of my Bettina." + +The next day came, and the next; a week passed and nothing happened. + +The truth was, the victory at Eylau was uncertain. Napoleon was checked +and all things were waiting. There was hope of peace, and an order came +to march all prisoners to another city. + +It was the good God, Hans believed, who directed his eye to a field as +he was marched to his new prison, a castle the French then were using. +The field itself was white and crusted with snow, but Hans' eye noted a +large spot where the whiteness had been melted and then had frozen, as +if water had flowed upon it. It was near spring now and there were +thaws, then more snow, and then fresh melting and freezing. + +The spot Hans noticed had nothing to do with this. It was as if a large +stream of water had a habit of pouring out there. Yes, he was right, for +he saw that the snow was broken and frozen towards a ditch on the +boundary of the field. + +"It must be a sewer," said Hans, and thought no more about it. + +Life in the castle was easy and pleasant. The place was so strong there +was no danger of escape, so the commander, being easy-going, permitted +the prisoners much liberty, allowing them to walk about for air in the +paved courtyard. + +Hans enjoyed this, being used to the air and freedom of his Thuringian +forest. + +His room in the castle had a window, and that also made him happy. One +day, gazing out, he discovered that the field he had noticed lay quite +near the wall of his prison. + +"Ach Himmel!" cried Hans, with a start. "It is the sewer pipe of this +castle!" + +A thought struck him. He was old, yes, and he had said he did not mind +dying; but his heart beat wildly at the thought of escaping from certain +death by shooting. Day after day he thought on the sewer. Where was the +exit, he wondered, from the castle! He would find it, yes, if it were +possible. + +To get air he went to the courtyard. New prisoners had arrived in the +night. They, too, were walking. + +"Ach Himmel! God be praised!" cried Hans, for he came face to face with +the Herr Lieutenant. + +But what a change! + +He was thin, gaunt, and pale, and his face and figure looked wretched +and hopeless. + +"Hans Lange!" he cried, and then there was much to talk of. + +To his ear Hans confided the idea of the sewer, and hope at once began +to change the expression of the prisoner. + +After the great victory of Friedland there was a truce to discuss peace, +so Hans still remained a prisoner; and one day he was ordered to work in +the garden of the castle. + +"Food is scarce, prisoners are many and idle. We may have some +vegetables; why not?" asked the commandant. + +"The good God again," thought Hans, for he had his own idea about that +sewer. The garden must be drained. The pipe, certainly, must do the +labour, and, the good God helping him, he might again see his Bettina. + +And one day in the garden he came upon the iron lid of a manhole, +overgrown with grass and very rusty. + +"The sewer!" thought Hans, with joy. "It is big enough for a man to slip +through." + +He bent over. He pulled on the bars. Then he glanced up to see if he +were observed. The eye of a sentinel seemed on him, so, seizing a weed, +he pulled hard, tugged, and then rising with the thing in his hand, +flung it aside. Satisfied, the sentinel showed no more curiosity. + +Again and again he tried to loosen the lid, but no effort could move it; +but though he went about his work, he returned now and then to his +prize, and suddenly, while he was in a different part of the garden, an +idea struck him. The bar on which the lid was swung was eaten with rust. +Could he break it, the lid could be lifted at will. + +He returned and examined closely. Yes, he was right; the rust was of +ages. Lifting his spade, he pressed with all his might. God be praised! +It was easier than he had thought. More pressure and it broke like wood. +The other side was more difficult and it occupied days, but at last it +was free. + +"Now the Herr Lieutenant!" thought Hans in glee. + +"The thing for me," cried Franz, his face alight with new hope, "is to +feign illness, entreat for some labour and beg to be allowed to help in +the garden." + +Hans did not believe this would be possible. + +"You, an officer!" he said, and shook his old head. + +"I can try," said Franz, and presented himself before the proper person. + +"Inaction is killing me," he announced. And, indeed, he looked most +dreadful, pale, bloodless, and a ghost of the brave young officer of +Jena. + +The French were always good-natured with the German prisoners until the +time came to shoot them, and that, after all, was Napoleon's affair, not +theirs, and so the Herr Lieutenant was permitted to dig. + +"A strange occupation for an officer," and the commandant shrugged his +shoulders. But the Germans, at best, he thought, were only pigs, so if +this one wanted to root, let him. The walls of the castle were high. +Escape was impossible. + +"Now," said Hans, "now, may the good God help us with the rest!" + +"Amen," said the Herr Lieutenant. + +And it seemed that He did, for on the second day of Franz's digging a +quick, pelting June rain hid them entirely from the view of the castle. + +The rain came down in sheets; all were safe in the castle, not a soul +could see them. The rain changed suddenly into hail. All the better, and +the good God be thanked! + +"Now," cried Hans; "now or never!" + +He jerked the lid off the hole. + +Down went the Herr Lieutenant, his feet landing in the sewer, his head +still in view. + +"Good," he said, "good! There is space enough below." + +Then down he went, and Hans saw him no more. + +The old man had kept for himself the hard task. He must cover the drain +after him with the lid. Down he went, holding the cover in his hand +above him, for the drain was too narrow for him to lift his arm once in. + +"Ach Himmel," he thought, "the rain is ceasing." + +Then he lowered the lid, balanced on his palm, and as he struggled into +the sewer proper it fell into its place with a crash. + +"Ach Himmel," said the old soldier, for he was sure the noise would tell +the story. But he pushed forward eagerly. + +Only the thought of liberty could make such an awful journey possible. + +The Herr Lieutenant, being ahead, kept out the air from one end, and +water came pouring in at the other. But fortunately the way was short, +and the Herr Lieutenant was soon in the field, and the water coming +suddenly with a rush bore Hans like a straw, landing him almost drowned +in the ditch near the Herr Lieutenant. + +For a few moments he could not breathe, but the voice of the Herr +Lieutenant recalled him. + +"Come," said the young man, "come!" + +"Ja, ja," and off they started. + +For an hour they crawled in the ditch, which seemed to be interminable. +Once or twice they heard guns, but who shot them they had no idea, and +then presently the ditch ended. + +"Come; we are safe now," said the Herr Lieutenant, and he raised himself +up from the bushes, Hans following his example. + +"Gott im Himmel!" he cried. + +On the road before them came soldiers in French uniform. + +"Back!" cried the old man, "back; lie flat, or they will see you!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +AT TILSIT + + +It was while the children were in charge of Marianne that something very +important happened at the town of Tilsit, on the river Niemen. + +On that twenty-fifth day of June, in the dreadful year of 1807, all the +people of the place were gathered on the river banks in high +excitement. Actually their faces looked joyful, a thing which had not +happened since Napoleon had entered Prussia. + +"Now we shall have peace. Congratulations!" they exclaimed one to the +other, gazing at a raft gay with flags, anchored midway between the +shores of the river. + +"They have bought every bright rag in Tilsit," said a fat, jolly-faced +merchant, nodding in congratulation. + +"Ach ja," returned a friend, "God be praised! It is many a day since +there has been selling in Prussia." + +Then, "Look! look! Napoleon! Napoleon!" as a man, heavy now to fatness, +stepped into a boat most gorgeously decorated. + +"The monster! the upstart!" muttered the people. But that was of no +concern to the conqueror, whose eyes wandered restlessly from shore to +shore and whose mouth pressed its lips to cruel firmness. Behind him +followed marshals and generals, gay in scarlet, gold, and white, and +blue. + +A boat decorated with the colours of France awaited their coming. + +"The Czar!" cried the people, as a second cavalcade approached. "Our +ally, Alexander!" + +There was no handsomer man in Europe. Tall, majestic in appearance, in +every way a contrast to Napoleon, the ruler of Russia approached a +second boat, opposite Napoleon's, and brilliant with yellow and black. +The monarch was followed by his brother, Grand Duke Constantine, by his +generals and many Russian lords. + +At a signal and amid the cries of the people, off pushed the boats. + +The first to arrive was Napoleon, who sprang to the raft, and with his +own hands opened the door of the pavilion and turned to welcome his +guest. + +Cannon announced the arrival of the Czar, and the two monarchs stood +hand in hand in full view of the allied and French armies, lined up on +both banks, and of the people of Tilsit, who stared at each other in +surprise. + +"Where is our King?" they asked. "Is he to have no voice in the making +of peace?" And their eyes searched everywhere. + +Alone, on his horse, his face troubled and anxious, they saw the one +they sought. There was no boat to bear him to the raft. Prussia's +colours appeared nowhere. The two emperors were to settle the affairs of +Europe. The King of Prussia was conquered and not wanted. Joy faded from +the East Prussian faces. + +"Our King is a good man," they said. "We do not find it good that he is +so neglected." + +The King himself looked neither to the left nor the right. He rode +forward, his splendid figure outlined now against the sky, now hid by +the soldiers. At a certain point he turned. Back he rode, and then +turned again. + +"Our poor King!" said the people, and while cannon roared and soldiers +cheered, their hearts began to beat fiercely against both Alexander and +Bonaparte. + +For an hour the two emperors conferred, the generals waiting in their +boats, Frederick William pacing back and forth on his horse. + +Then presently it began to rain, at first lightly, and then suddenly in +torrents, as if Heaven itself was weeping over blood-stained Europe. + +The King of Prussia rode to and fro, not minding the downfall, but +thinking only of the cruelty of the man who had shut him out of the +conference. + +Everything was against him; he had lost his kingdom, his friend the Czar +was deserting him, and yet, as his wife the Queen wrote her father, he +was "the best man in the world," a King who lived only to help his +subjects; a King who loved right and hated wrong, who believed in good +and tried to do it. + +But, like the Queen, he trusted in God, and even as he rode up and down, +shut out in the rain from the conference, he knew that Napoleon and +wrong could not always have their day, that right and justice always +conquer. But Frederick William, good as he was, had a foe worse even +than Napoleon. At no time in his life could he decide a thing quickly, +or at just the right moment. He must think things over, he must look at +both sides, and while he wavered in came the enemy and took the prize. + +When an hour had passed there came a change. Napoleon summoned all the +generals and counsellors, who, drenched and dripping, entered the door +of the pavilion. + +For two hours more they talked, the King still riding in the rain. + +Surely, he thought, the peace which they were making must be favourable +to poor Prussia. His friend, the Czar, must see to it. He himself had +stood by Alexander; now let Alexander be true to him. + +Had they not sworn an eternal friendship; was not his little daughter +named Alexandrina, and was not the Czar also the friend of the Queen and +the old Countess, to whom he had promised many things? + +When Alexander of Russia entered the pavilion in the Niemen he had at +heart the welfare of Prussia only. In one hour Napoleon did much. Always +he studied citadels, or men, and discovered what we call the weak point. +On it he turned his battery. + +"We all know," he said to Alexander, "that no monarch in Europe has such +thoughts as your Majesty for the welfare of mankind." + +Alexander's face softened. He was truly a philanthropist. + +After a few moments' talk along this line Napoleon mentioned the word +"England." + +The Czar's eyes flashed. + +Napoleon abused that country with vigour. + +Alexander drew nearer. + +"I dislike the English as much as you do," he said, "and am ready to +second you in all your enterprises against them." + +"In that case," said Napoleon, taking note of Alexander's fine head and +the weak lines in his handsome face, and remembering how, when he had +been First Consul, the Emperor of Russia had been his most ardent +admirer, "everything will be easily arranged, and peace already is made. +You and I," he added, with an emphasis very flattering, "understand each +other. It will be better if we do without our ministers, who often +deceive us, or misunderstand us. We shall do more in an hour than our +negotiators would in several days." + +Then he talked as if the Czar and he were Atlases of the world and that +all the earth rested upon their shoulders. + +Alexander, listening, began to think that after all his allies had been +no good. Prussia had dragged him to defeat; England had done nothing to +help either of them. Surely a monarch must consider his own welfare. + +When at last the conference ended and the two mighty emperors came forth +into the sight of the people of Tilsit and their waiting soldiers, their +faces were glowing. Waving their hands again and again, each was rowed +to his own bank of the Niemen. They had formed a friendship--Russia and +France, Alexander and Napoleon--and the whole world was to profit. + +When Napoleon stepped on shore the people of Tilsit were deafened by the +cheers of his soldiers. + +As for Alexander, he gazed up into the gloomy face of the King of +Prussia and a cloud passed over the sun of his joy. + +"The Emperor desires to meet your Majesty to-morrow," said he, and his +eyes fell. "We can go together," he added, and then hastily deserting +the subject, he proposed that they arrange about lodgings, as for the +time they must remain in Tilsit. + +"Very well," said Frederick William, and his heart sank. + +Next day the King of Prussia was admitted to a second and very different +conference, and his noble dignity under his misfortune so struck +Napoleon that he spoke of it. + +"I have nothing to reproach myself with," said the King very simply. + +Napoleon's eyes fell, but only for a moment. + +He answered with a shrug. + +"Nor have I." + +The King was silent. + +"I warned you," Napoleon looked entirely innocent, "against England. It +is she who has caused your troubles. But France," his tones became most +grandiloquent, "can afford to be generous. In a few days all will be +arranged." + +Never was any man treated more cruelly than poor, good, unhappy King +Frederick William. Yet there has never been a King who behaved better in +time of trouble. In peace he had been irresolute and sluggish. In +trouble his figure stands out against a background of woe in outlines of +dignity and nobility. + +Napoleon made him feel absolutely alone, taking away his friend as he +had taken away his kingdom. Though he asked him to dinner, when the last +morsel was eaten, the last wine drunk, he bore off the Czar to his +private apartment, excusing both to Frederick William. When they were +abroad the French soldiers called "Vive Napoleon!" "Vive Alexandre!" but +never a cry from the Imperial Guard for the King of Prussia. + +"It is better for me to be friendly with Napoleon," said the Czar in +excuse. The King was silent. + +As for Napoleon, he utterly refused to have the King near him, unless +absolutely necessary. + +"I can't stand his gloomy face," he told Alexander. + +The Czar and Napoleon embraced in public. The French and Russian +soldiers became like brothers, leaving the Prussians to humiliation and +solitude. The King, who had always suffered from shyness, felt more and +more uncomfortable, being made always an unwelcome third. He had no +opinion of himself, the Queen was not there to cheer him, and each day +he grew more gloomy and sad. + +One day the people of Tilsit saw the three monarchs riding together, the +Czar and Napoleon entirely ignoring the King, who let his horse drop +behind and rode alone. + +"Has not our good King been true to the Czar?" they cried, and in their +hearts the fire against Napoleon and Alexander burned fiercer. "In +January," they said to each other, "we could have made peace if our King +had promised to desert Russia. And now the Czar deserts our King." + +But in spite of his friendship with Napoleon, the Czar truly loved his +friend and wished to help him. His brother Constantine forced him to +many things, threatening him with the fate of his father, who had been +assassinated, if he did not save Russia at the cost of Prussia. + +In the midst of all the great worry an idea entered his head and at once +pleased him. + +Of all living women he most admired Queen Louisa, not only for her +wonderful beauty and lovely ways, but for her goodness and her love for +her husband and her people. + +"Send to Memel for the Queen," he proposed to Frederick William, for he +knew things which were to come to pass that the King did not. "Napoleon +now is very anxious to see her. Who can tell what good she may do for +Prussia? One so beautiful, so spiritual, so unhappy, may soften his +heart and awaken his noblest feelings." + +For a moment or two Frederick William did not answer. Above all things +on earth he loved Queen Louisa. Napoleon had mistreated her. She was +very delicate, like a flower, "the beautiful rose of the King," a poet +called her, and was it right that he ask her to beg favours of her foe? +Of the man who hated her? + +"Do, Majesty, do." General Kalreuth pressed near and gazed pleadingly at +the King. + +"Perhaps," suggested the Czar, "the Queen may bend the iron will of +Napoleon, may she not?" And he looked flatteringly at her husband. + +Frederick William sought pen and ink and wrote Queen Louisa a hasty +letter. + +"I will go to Memel, also," proposed General Kalreuth, as the King +delivered the letter to a messenger. + +Frederick William nodded. + +"Act as escort to the Queen," he commanded, having not a doubt of his +wife's answer. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE ESCAPE + + +The Herr Lieutenant obeyed Hans quickly. + +In breathless silence they lay hid in the bushes. + +For some time they could hear the soldiers, and then all was silent. + +"God be praised!" whispered Hans, "now let us seek the road." And out +they cautiously scrambled. + +All night they walked steadily, meeting no one, but now and then +catching sight of some village burning against the sky. Where they were +they had no idea, but somewhere, they knew, in East Prussia. Everywhere +was desolation. Houses had been burned, fences had fallen, and once they +came upon the blackened remains of a village. For two days and nights +they kept in the fields and woods, Hans going but once to a house to beg +for food and some coffee. + +On the third evening they came upon a farm at some distance from the +road. + +"We might venture there," said Hans, "for it is out of the line of +soldiers. I am sure that, Herr Lieutenant, all is deserted." + +But when he reached the window of the house he returned in a scamper, +motioning the Herr Lieutenant away with his hand. + +"There are French officers eating there," he announced. "Forward, +march," he added, and on they trudged. + +The Herr Lieutenant grew whiter and whiter. + +"I can go no farther," he gasped, and sank on the grass at the side of +the road. + +His old wound had broken out afresh, and for a moment or two he looked +as if he were dying. + +What to do Hans had no idea. While he was perplexing, his brain he heard +the sound of a slow, discouraged step, and presently an old peasant, +with long, unkempt gray hair and a tired, hopeless face, approached from +the wood. + +When Hans told him their trouble he hesitated. Kindness and bitterness +seemed to struggle hard in his wrinkled face. + +"The French have left me almost nothing," he said. Then he hesitated. He +looked at Hans, then at the suffering man on the grass. + +"My house is near here," he said at last, reluctantly. Then he called, +"Heinrich! Heinrich!" + +A stupid-looking boy of thirteen or fourteen was quickly at his side. + +"Help," he commanded, and the three bore Franz to a small peasant house +behind the wood. + +Hans promised to find money at once. + +"You say we are near Tilsit?" he asked. + +The peasant nodded. + +"Can your boy carry a letter to Memel?" + +The man hesitated. + +"There are the French," he said, and went on to explain that if his boy +were seen going into Memel houses he would perhaps be shot as a spy, +their home burned, and then where were they? + +"But at night," urged Hans, "let him lay a note on the window of the +house I mean and they will put out money and provisions." + +After much talk the old man agreed, and Hans, with great difficulty, for +he had little education, wrote the letter that the Professor had found +on his window. + +For days Franz was unconscious, but when he came to himself again Hans, +with a smile, handed him a letter from his father. + +"And we have money now," said the old man with a laugh, "and all the +good food you'll be wanting." + +He did not tell the Herr Lieutenant, however, that since they had found +refuge with the peasant the French army had advanced and they were +surrounded by the enemy. Instead, he announced that he had heard from +the peasant that there was talk of peace. + +Now, all might have gone well had Hans been content to be quiet. But he +was a restless old fellow and he could not bear sitting still doing +nothing. + +"I will go out," he announced next day, "and discover the whereabouts of +the enemy." + +In an hour he returned his face full of excitement, his legs shaking. + +"The soldiers saw me," he cried. "They are coming this way. Ach Himmel, +if I had been quiet!" + +Then he ran for the peasant and told him that they must hide the Herr +Lieutenant. + +The peasant, whose face grew dark with dread, nodded, shrugging his +shoulders. + +"There is a loft," he said, "but hurry." + +In his small barn was this loft, and opening from it and well concealed +by wood, a tiny closet. + +There was just room for Franz, who almost fainted from excitement as +they hurriedly moved him. + +"And you?" he gasped, looking at Hans. + +The old man shrugged his shoulders. + +"What comes, comes," he said. "Auf wiedersehen, and we will bring you +supper, Herr Lieutenant." + +For hours Franz lay in the stuffy darkness. He heard the arrival of the +soldiers, loud voices, the sound of many feet and then it seemed to him +that for an hour he would die of a sudden hotness. There was a smell of +burning, too, which lasted long after it was cool again. + +What had happened? His heart stood still. Would they burn the barn? The +smell of charred wood seemed stronger. + +By and by hunger told him that it was supper time, but all continued +silent. He fell at last into a sleep which lasted until what he thought +must be morning. The closet was quite dark, the only air coming in from +the loft, and he felt suffocated. He must have light and air. Where was +Hans? What had happened? At last he felt that he could stand the +suspense no longer. + +Putting out one foot he kicked open the door, which, kept in place by a +log, went down with a crash like thunder. Franz was in terror, but, +nothing happening, he dragged himself forward to the loft. Then he could +rise, and standing erect he waited until the dizziness in his head had +settled. + +Then seeking the ladder he stepped below. Instead of the neat barn of +the day before, he saw disorder everywhere. Hay was tossed here, horses +had trampled there, and not a sound of a chicken was heard. The day +before he had seen at least a dozen. + +He dragged himself to the door. + +There was now no peasant's house. Only a scene of blackened ruins met +his eye. + +The barn, too, was scorched; but perhaps the wind had blown in an +opposite direction, for it had not burned. + +Franz trembled like a poplar leaf when he thought of what might have +been his fate. + +"Thank God, thank God!" he murmured, and then, before he could reach out +his hand for support, he fell on the floor in a dead faint, and there he +lay while they were making peace at Tilsit. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE FOES MEET + + +Marianne, a few days later, went one morning to the drawing-room of +Countess von Voss. + +The room was full of ladies. Dr. Hufeland was there, the Englishman, and +the Queen herself, busy with her lint. + +The talk was very violent. + +News had come to Memel that the Czar had made a separate peace with +Napoleon, and that the Emperor of the French, in his hatred of Frederick +William, meant to rob him of his kingdom, proposing that he be no longer +called King of Prussia, but only Marquis of Brandenburg. + +"The monster! The upstart! The villain!" The room was full of abuse of +Napoleon. + +"I hate him; I would kill him!" cried one lady, her face hot with wrath. + +The Queen lifted her blue eyes from her work. + +"Dear Mademoiselle," she said, "we cannot lighten our sorrow by hating +the Emperor, and malicious thoughts can only make us more unhappy." + +The lady bit her lips and coloured, but even she had to laugh with the +rest when the parrot of the Countess suddenly called out in French: + +"Down with the upstart! Down with Napoleon!" + +While the room was yet echoing with the merriment, a servant announced a +courier from Memel. + +"A letter from the King," cried the Queen, and seized it with eager +fingers. + +Reading it hastily, all watching, she suddenly burst into tears. + +"My Queen, my dear, dear Queen, what is it?" and the Countess flew to +her side. + +The Queen, recovering herself, clung to her old friend. + +The King wished her to come to Memel, to stay with him and plead the +cause of her country with Napoleon, to entreat for a better peace. + +Her voice quivered as she told of the request, and for a moment her blue +eyes gazed pathetically at her friends in the Saal. + +The whole room was silent, though indignation flashed across a face or +two. + +Each knew that Napoleon had treated the Queen most shamefully, and that +it was cruel that she must plead before him, must entreat a favour. + +"It is the hardest thing I have had to do," at last the Queen's sweet +voice broke the silence, her body quivering as a rose on its stem when +the blasts blow. "It is the greatest sacrifice I can make for my +country." And her lips shook pathetically. + +Then she stood in silence, holding the letter in her hand, while the +company waited. Marianne felt her heart beat until it was near bursting. +They all knew that the Queen could say that she was not well. The winds +and cold of Memel had never agreed with her. As an excuse to save +herself it would be quite justifiable. + +Marianne leaned forward eagerly. It seemed to her at that moment as if +all her life was to be settled. + +"I will do it," said the Queen; "the King wishes it." And then the whole +room relaxed from its tension. + +"Perhaps," added the Queen, folding the letter with trembling fingers, +her lips quivering, "I can do good, be of some service." + +"Most certainly, Majesty," urged General Kalreuth, following the +courier, his face eager to have his way. + +He had brought her a second letter. + +It was from the Czar, entreating her to come, and setting before her all +that she with her talents and beauty might accomplish. + +"To do my full duty, dear General," said the poor Queen, the tears in +her voice, "is my only wish. As the loved wife of the King, as the +mother of my children, as the Queen of my people." + +She swayed, as if faint. Then sudden strength seemed to come, and a +smile, like sunlight after clouds, suddenly illumined her face, which +was even lovelier in her sadness. + +"And, dear friends," she gazed kindly at the people about her, "I +believe firmly in God. And, dear General," again she smiled, "I do not +believe Napoleon will be secure on his throne. Truth and righteousness +only abide. Napoleon is only politically clever." + +So the good Queen, who loved everybody better than her own ease or +comfort, kissed the lively, handsome Crown Prince; simple, honourable, +sensible little William; shy, beautiful Charlotte, and answered jolly +little Carl's many questions as to when she was going, and, loosening +baby Alexandrina's arms from her neck, set forth with the old Countess +and her Maids of Honour to meet her foe in Tilsit. + +She knew that she must smile when her heart was weeping for her country; +she knew that she must be pleasant and beg favours of the man who had +treated her as no woman has ever before been treated in history. + +"Truly," she said to the old Countess, "I am like Atlas, and carry the +sorrow of the world." + +The Countess pressed her hand and listened while the Queen continued, +for to her she might say things which might distress her husband. + +"I cannot, I may not forget the King in this crisis. He is very +unfortunate and possesses a true soul, but how with my broken wing"--she +had not been well and was very nervous, always having to stand the noise +of the children and the laughter of the Maids of Honour in the tiny +house in Memel--"can I do anything? How can I do anything?" she repeated +pathetically. + +Full of foreboding, she and the Countess and the Maid of Honour, +Countess Tauentzein, came to Tilsit, or rather to the village of +Piktupöhnen, where her husband was in lodgings because of the truce with +Napoleon. + +The State Minister Hardenburg, General Kalreuth, and the Czar +surrounded her. + +"Plead with Napoleon," they urged, "for Silesia, for Westphalia, and for +Magdeburg, but especially for Magdeburg." + +Napoleon, who, having all he wanted, was more amiable, sent greetings at +once to Louisa, explaining that according to the terms of the truce he +could not come to Piktupöhnen, and therefore he entreated her to come to +Tilsit that he might pay her his respects immediately. + +His state carriage, drawn by eight horses and escorted by splendid +French dragoons, conveyed them to a plain, two-story house in Tilsit. + +An hour later a messenger announced her royal foe, the Emperor Napoleon +Bonaparte. + +According to etiquette, the Queen awaited him at the head of the stairs, +a smile of welcome forced by politeness to her lips. + +"What this costs me," she had said to her ladies, "God alone knows, for +if I do not positively hate this man, I cannot help looking on him as +the man who has made the King and the whole nation miserable. It will be +very difficult for me to be courteous, but that is required of me." + +The two Countesses were, by accident, in the hall below when the King +met the Emperor and conducted him in. + +The Countess von Voss, who hated him with all her old heart, shrugged +her shoulders at the sight of the small, bloated-looking man who stared +at her rudely. + +With him came Talleyrand, his famous Minister, his eyes alert, his +expression watchful. + +The Emperor lifted his eyes; his whole face softened; for, standing with +her hand on the rail of the stair, he saw a slight, graceful woman, +golden-haired, and arrayed in a white gown of tissue, or gauze, a narrow +ribbon sash tied short-waisted fashion, its ends hanging to the +embroidered border of her gown; her mantle on her shoulders, a tiny +tissue scarf twisted across her throat, like a frame for her face of +loveliness. + +Never had "The Rose of the King" looked more beautiful, for excitement +had brought back colour to pale cheeks, a fire to eyes faded from +weeping. And about her whole figure was a girlish pathos. + +Napoleon mounted the stairs heavily, for he had grown very stout in +Prussia. + +"I am sorry," said the Queen, her sweet voice welcoming him, "that you +have had to mount so inconvenient a staircase." + +Napoleon stared in the bold, rude way he did at everybody. + +"One cannot be afraid of difficulties," he said, with a bow, "with such +an object in view." And he gazed at her with bold admiration. + +"And while reaching up to attain the reward at the end," he added, again +bowing. + +"For those who are favoured by Heaven," returned the Queen, "there are +no difficulties on earth." + +Napoleon made no answer, but stared at her as if enchanted. + +Approaching, he touched the material of her dress, like a child. + +"Is it crêpe," he inquired, "or Indian gauze?" + +The Queen's face flushed, but she controlled herself most beautifully. + +"Shall we talk of light things at such a moment?" she asked, and led the +way into the room prepared for his reception. + +Then she inquired concerning his health, adding the hope that the severe +climate of North Germany had agreed with him. + +"The French soldier," he answered bluntly, "is hardened to bear every +kind of climate." + +Then he looked at her curiously, as if making a study of the woman of +whom he had heard so much and whom he had treated so cruelly, and who, +in that poor little house in Tilsit, stood before him as bravely as the +Duchess had in Weimar. + +He admired her beauty, but her sorrows were absolutely nothing to him. +In a short time he was to divorce the wife who had borne with his +weaknesses and who loved him through many long years of both joy and +trouble. So he was not likely to treat the Queen of Prussia very gently, +merely because she was a woman who loved her husband and her country. + +"How could you think of making war upon me?" he demanded. + +Though his manner and tones were irritating, the Queen took no offence, +but answered politely: + +"We were mistaken in our calculations on our resources," she said. + +"And you trusted in Frederick's fame and deceived yourselves--Prussia, I +mean." Napoleon swung his riding whip to and fro as she talked, and +stared steadily. + +The Queen's blue eyes met his bold ones, though they filled a little as +she continued: + +"Sire, on the strength of the great Frederick's fame we may be excused +for having been mistaken with respect to our own powers, if, indeed, we +have entirely deceived ourselves." + +Napoleon's face softened quickly. He tried to change the subject, but +the Queen, treating him as a kind man and a friend, told him in an +almost girlish way of all her sufferings, of all she had endured, and +why she had come to Tilsit. He tried again and again to change the +subject, but she persisted, beseeching him to be kind and merciful, for +the love of man and because of the laws of justice with which God rules +all the kingdoms. + +Napoleon's answer was all kindness. He had never seen such a woman. She +had not a thought for herself, and when she spoke of her husband the +tears splashed down her cheeks on the crêpe dress the Emperor had +admired so openly. + +"Sire," implored the sweetest voice that ever had fallen on his ears, +"be kind, be generous, be merciful to your fallen foe. Sire," the Queen +gazed like a child in his face, "give us Magdeburg, only Magdeburg." + +The conqueror of Europe wavered. + +"You ask a great deal," he said dubiously, "but I will think of it." + +Why not make this lovely woman happy? he tells us that he thought, and +kindness for a moment entirely changed his countenance. + +Now, of all men in the world, the King of Prussia was the most unlucky. +There was no one who could so irritate Napoleon as he could, and at that +moment his entering the room probably changed the history of Prussia; at +least Napoleon himself says it did. + +But he had begun to be uneasy waiting below. He thought he could help +matters, and in his zeal entered, and entered at the wrong moment. + +There he stood, handsome, dignified and honest-faced, wanting, as +always, to do the right thing, and blundering. + +For once the Queen had no smile ready for him, and her face showed her +chagrin, for Napoleon, catching himself up hastily, with a relieved face +turned to Frederick William. + +"Sire," he said, "I admire the magnanimity and tranquillity of your soul +amid such numerous and heavy misfortunes." + +The King of Prussia hid his feelings. If he was conquered by the man who +was complimenting his behaviour, he was a Hohenzollern, but alas, too, +he was tactless. + +"Greatness and tranquillity of soul," he answered shortly, "can only be +acquired by the strength of a good conscience." + +Never did a King make a more unfortunate answer. + +Napoleon turned away with a glare, and after inviting the King and Queen +to dine with him, departed, followed by Talleyrand, his whole mood +changed to hardness. + +When they were below the Minister looked inquiringly at the Emperor. + +"I knew," said Napoleon, his eyes firing, "that I should see a beautiful +woman and a Queen with dignified manners, but I found a most admirable +Queen and at the same time the most interesting woman I ever met with." +Again his face looked soft and almost yielding. + +Talleyrand's laughter rang out in sarcastic mockery. + +"And so, sire," he said, with a sneer, "you will sacrifice the fruits of +victory to a beautiful woman. What will the world say?" His voice was +mocking. + +Napoleon flushed and bit his lip, the hard look returning. + +Talleyrand, seizing the moment, hastened to show what a gain Magdeburg +would be to French interests and how its loss would cripple Napoleon. + +"You cannot give it up, sire," he pleaded; "you cannot." + +Napoleon, his lips curling in amusement, shook his head. He was again +the Emperor, the Conqueror. + +"No, no," he answered, "Magdeburg is worth a hundred Queens." + +Then he laughed, as if he had escaped a great weakness, and his eyes +narrowed. + +"Happily," he swung his whip, "the husband came in, and trying to put +his word into the conversation, spoilt the whole affair and I was +delivered." + +As for the Queen, she was repeating every word of Napoleon's to +Frederick William. + +"He promised, Fritz," and she clung to his hand, "that he would think of +it. Moreover," she added, "I shall see him at dinner. Something then may +be done." And she caressed him tenderly, her whole body quivering from +the strain she had been under. + +In honour of Napoleon, Queen Louisa arrayed herself for the dinner in +her most regal splendour. Her dress was white, most delicately +embroidered, a velvet and ermine mantle flowed from her shoulders, a +diamond star shone in her golden hair, and the crown of Prussia was +arranged to surmount her exquisite tissue, or gauze, turban. + +When her maid had given the last touch she stood before her mirror in +the small Tilsit house. Near by stood her dearest friend, Frau von Berg, +gazing at her in loving admiration. + +But the Queen's thoughts were bitter. With a shrug she turned from the +mirror to her companion. + +"Do you remember, dear friend," she asked, with a sad smile, "how the +old Germans of the pagan times used to dress the maidens they would +sacrifice to their gods in gorgeous raiment and jewels?" + +Frau von Berg nodded. + +"Yes, dear Queen," she said, the tears starting. + +"I am such a victim," said the Queen. "But the question is, will the +angry god whom the world now adores be, through me, appeased and +reconciled?" + +Frau von Berg had no answer. + +Then in came the two Countesses in splendid raiment, and off went the +Prussian Court to dine with Napoleon. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE ANSWER + + +Certainly Napoleon was most courteous. + +He was at the carriage door to open it for Queen Louisa. He led her to +the table and placed her by his side, the King of Prussia sitting on his +left, and the Czar by Queen Louisa. + +The table was long, it was well set, and there were many guests arrayed +in court splendour, but one person did the talking, and that person was +Napoleon. + +The Queen, alone, was expected to answer. + +Why, he began, had she been so foolish as to go to the seat of war? Did +she know that Napoleon's hussars had almost captured her? + +The Queen with a smile shook her head. + +"No, no, sire," she said with forced gaiety, "that I cannot believe. I +never saw a Frenchman while I was on that journey." + +"But why did you expose yourself to danger?" persisted the Emperor, +though he knew quite well that it was an old Prussian custom for Queens +to accompany their husbands to the battle. + +"Why did you not await my arrival at Weimar?" he asked. + +"Really, sire," said the poor Queen, trying to be merry, "I felt no +inclination to do so." + +At that Napoleon laughed and changed the subject, without a thought for +all the Queen had endured on her journey. + +"How is it that the Queen of Prussia wears a turban? That," he added, +"is not complimentary to the Emperor of Russia, who is at war with the +Turk." + +Now, the Queen of Prussia knew how to make a pretty answer. It was one +of her charms. + +"I think," and she smiled, "it is rather to compliment Rustan," and she +glanced at Napoleon's favourite Eastern servant, who, wearing a superb +turban, stood behind the chair of his imperial master. + +Napoleon was delighted, and the two began to discuss the province of +Silesia and the old ones of Prussia, which now were perhaps to be ceded +to France. + +Frederick William, who had been silent, at once expressed his opinion, +and, as usual, got into trouble with Napoleon. + +"Your Majesty," he said, and his brow darkened, while he twisted his +handkerchief and knotted it in a way he had, "does not know how grievous +it is to lose territories which have descended through a long line of +ancestors, territories which are, in fact, the cradle of one's race," he +added gloomily. + +Now, Napoleon was a man who had made his own fortunes, his name had not +been royal, and his race had no such cradle. + +A sarcastic smile played on his lips and a laugh of derision rang +through the room. + +"Cradle!" he said, and his lips curled in amusement. "When the child has +grown to be a man he has not much time to think about his cradle!" + +The guests gazed down at their plates. + +Why on earth had the King spoken? + +But the Queen saved the day. + +"The mother's heart," she said, "is the most lasting cradle." + +Then she enquired about Madame Bonaparte, whom above all living people +Napoleon honoured, and the Empress Josephine, and Napoleon's good humour +came back and he talked steadily through the whole dinner, everybody +being forced to listen and eat in silence. + +"That odious man," whispered the Countess Tauentzein, when at last they +arose from dinner; "he has the manners of a peasant." + +"And how ugly," answered Countess von Voss. "Did you notice how fat he +is, and how bloated his face, and how brown his complexion?" + +"He is altogether without figure, the wretch!" answered the other. "See +how he rolls his great eyes, and how severe is his expression!" + +"But his mouth is beautiful," admitted the old Countess, "and his teeth +perfect. But see how he looks the very picture of success!" She lowered +her voice cautiously. "But what a happy day it will be for the world +when God takes him!" + +As for Napoleon, his eyes never left the Queen. He followed her +everywhere. + +For a moment she stood alone in the room, in whose window-seat stood a +pot in which grew a rosebush with one lovely flower. + +Napoleon broke off its stem, and bearing it in his hand he approached +the Queen and offered it to her, smiling. + +"Sire," she said, her blue eyes pleading, "with Magdeburg?" + +[Illustration: "_Sire, with Magdeburg?_"] + +Napoleon still offered the rose, his face flushing. + +"I must point out to your Majesty," he said, "that it is for me to beg, +for you to accept, or decline." + +It was the Queen's turn to flush. + +"There is no rose without a thorn," she said, "but these thorns," she +gazed at the rose, "are too sharp for me." + +And turning, she left Napoleon with a rose in his hand, his lips +pressing themselves together. + +He had given the Queen her answer. Prussia was to lose Magdeburg. The +Queen had appealed in vain. + +The banquet ended in a dance, and at a late hour the King and Queen +returned to their lodgings in Piktupöhnen. + +The next day the King and Napoleon had a talk, and those listening heard +hot words and angry voices. + +Frederick William was entreating for Magdeburg. Napoleon answering with +scowling insolence. + +"You forget," said the Emperor, his eyes narrowing, "that you are not in +a position to negotiate. Understand that I wish to keep Prussia down and +to hold Magdeburg that I may enter Berlin when I wish to. I believe in +the stability of but two sentiments--vengeance and hatred. For the +future, the Prussians must hate the French; but I will put it out of +their power to injure them." + +Again, that day, the Queen was forced to dine with Napoleon. She prayed +to be excused, but all begged her to go. It would appear better, for the +treaty now was signed. + +"I have given Prussia a few concessions because of its Queen," announced +Napoleon, but what they were it was hard to guess. + +The King of Prussia must give up half of his dominions; he must reduce +his army to 42,000 men; he must pay 140,000,000 francs as the cost of +the war, and he must acknowledge the Confederation of the Rhine and all +the kingdoms Napoleon might set up anywhere. Jerome Bonaparte, as King +of Westphalia, was to receive half of the Kingdom of Prussia. + +Knowing this, the Queen sat in her ermine and jewels; she talked with +Napoleon, she smiled, she thanked him for his hospitality. + +When she left he led her to the carriage. + +"I regret, your Majesty," he said, "that I must not do what you asked +me." + +"And I regret," said the Queen, "that, having had the honour of knowing +the hero of the age, whom I can never forget, the impression left on my +mind must always be painful. Had you been generous, sire, I would be +bound to you by an everlasting gratitude." + +"Indeed, your Majesty," returned Napoleon, "I lament that so it must be; +it is my evil destiny." + +"And I have been cruelly deceived," were the Queen's last words, and off +drove her carriage. + +The two Royal Foes parted, never again to meet. + +That day Louisa thought herself the vanquished, and before the world +Napoleon wore the laurels of victory. Seventy years later the President +of France wrote that it was his belief that, at Tilsit, Napoleon was +conquered; that had he then been generous and bound the King and Queen +of Prussia to him by a tie of gratitude his last days need not, perhaps, +have been spent on the island of St. Helena, for in his troubles they +would have been his ally. + +When the Queen reached her room she turned to her ladies in tears. + +"When I am dead," she said, "it will be as with Queen Mary of England; +not Calais, but Magdeburg will be graven on my poor heart in letters of +blood." + +Peace was signed on the seventh, and on June 24 Napoleon, in triumph, +entered Frankfort-on-Main, and three days later he arrived at his palace +at Saint Cloud and immediately was off again, marching armies into +Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Austria. + +"Peace is made," wrote Queen Louisa to her father, "but at a dreadful +price. Our boundary will only go as far as the Elbe. Yet is the King +greater than his adversary. After Eylau he could have made a more +advantageous peace, but then he must have followed wicked principles, +and now he has acted through necessity and not forsworn himself. That +must bring a blessing on Prussia. After Eylau he would not desert a +faithful ally. Once more, I repeat, it is my firm belief that this +conduct of the King will bring good fortune to Prussia." + +Napoleon had insisted upon the dismissal of Hardenburg as Prime +Minister, and in September the King called Stein to his assistance. From +the Queen this great man received a letter. + + "I conjure you," she wrote, for he had made some objections to + remaining in office with a certain fellow minister, "have but + patience in the first few months. For Heaven's sake, do not let + the good cause be lost for want of three months' patience. I + conjure, for the sake of the King, of the country, of my + children, for my own sake, patience! + + "LOUISA." + +As for Baron von Stein, he had at heart only the good of Prussia, and +waited. + +The war was ended. Prussia was in the dust; its King and Queen exiled +from the capital. Crops were ruined, villages were burned, and this +poor, unhappy country must pay its war debt. + +"Now, God be everlastingly praised," wrote the poor Queen, "that my +daughter, who would now be almost fifteen years old, came dead into the +world." + +"I must play my life days in this unlucky time," she said. "Perhaps God +gave me my living children that one of them might bring good to +mankind." + +And there was one who did the great things the Queen dreamed of. + +It was not the handsome Crown Prince, though he was a clever monarch; it +was not Princess Charlotte, though she became Empress of Russia; it was +not Alexandrina, who, a lovely old lady, died only a year or two ago as +Dowager Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg; nor jolly Carl, nor Louisa, nor +Albert, who came later. + +It was simple, honourable, sensible little William. Every pain his +mother felt sank deeply into his heart, and at last the day came when he +led the Prussian army to the great battle of Sedan, where he conquered +the nephew of Napoleon and created the German Empire. + +But no one dreamed of this that dreary summer in Memel, and though the +Queen did her best to be cheerful, all who loved her saw that the +canker-worm of sorrow was drawing nearer and nearer the heart of the +beautiful "Rose of the King," the flower whose stem had been so roughly +handled by its enemy. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE HERR LIEUTENANT + + +When Franz again opened his eyes it was to see a little figure sitting +near by with her knitting. + +"Am I crazy?" He gazed about the room in which he found himself lying. + +He saw a huge porcelain stove of green and white and blue and yellow, +with a pelican on top for an ornament. A chest of drawers boasted a vase +of roses, and there were pretty white curtains to the window. + +"Bettina," he said, "Bettina!" + +She ran to him, her blue eyes eager. + +"Ach ja," said Franz, "but it is the same Bettina." + +Yes, it was the old Bettina with the bright, eager eyes, the golden +hair, but it was Bettina grown older. + +"God be praised," she said, her eyes dancing; "I will call your Frau +Mother." + +He was home, but how had he come there? + +There was Madame von Stork, the tears flowing; there was his father; +Pauline, too; how handsome she was! And Marianne; but how serious she +had grown! And the twins. + +"Come here, Ilse. The other hand, Elchen! And Carlchen, how big you +are!" + +The children, hanging their heads, were pushed to the bed by Marianne. + +Franz's eyes sought other figures. + +"Wolfgang?" he said. "And Otto; where is Otto?" + +It was days before he heard all the news, and it was days before he +learned all that had happened. + +Wolfgang was dead. + +The Herr Lieutenant turned his face away. + +Otto had run off, and no one knew where he was. + +The rascal! That was exactly like Otto. + +As for the Herr Lieutenant himself, the peasant boy had come for the +Professor. The French soldiers had fired the house and the peasants had +fled at once to Memel. + +It was all very simple. Peace was made now, and his father had brought +him in a carriage. He for days had remained unconscious. They were all +soon to move to Königsberg, and Franz was to go also, and Otto must come +home now, for the war was over. + +Then Marianne, who came in often and sat with her tent stitch, told him +how the poor Queen had been deceived by Napoleon, how she had believed +in his promise and had not been well from the shock of disappointment +since she had returned from Tilsit. + +And when Marianne was gone, in came his mother and she wept over +Wolfgang and Otto and told him how Ludwig Brandt, who was soon to be +betrothed to Pauline, was always at Königsberg, for there were great +plans among the students in which Ludwig was helping, plans for rousing +the nation against Napoleon. + +Then she told of Marianne, and of how she was now a great comfort. + +"And it is all because of our good Queen," she assured him, and related +how Marianne now adored her instead of Goethe, and of how she had gone +all winter to make lint and to read aloud to her Majesty. + +"And she has now a longing to be useful," said Madame von Stork, her +face brightening. "At first it was to be useful in some high-flown way," +she added. + +At that Franz laughed merrily. + +"That is like Marianne," he said, "exactly, dear mother." + +"She wanted to nurse the soldiers," continued Madame von Stork, "but our +good Queen assured her that she was far too young and that home is the +true place for a German maiden. She told her how she herself had never +interfered in politics, but had been content to be a good wife and +mother. + +"And so," concluded Madame von Stork, "each day she becomes more of a +comfort. God be praised," she added, "that we came to Memel. Our Queen +is an example to all German women." + +"She is an angel," said Franz, who like all the soldiers adored Queen +Louisa. + +The very first day Franz asked about Hans. + +"We had thought him dead," explained his father. "The King had news of +his disappearance and believed him to have been shot as a spy. But when +you were brought home the peasant told me the soldiers had marched him +away with them and I could do nothing." + +"He will probably soon arrive in Memel," said Franz, "now peace is +made." + +"The soldiers about Tilsit knew nothing of him. Why they took him +prisoner I have no idea, but can only wonder," added his father. + +But the days passed, and no Hans came, and the weeks went by and turned +into months. + +Bettina, though, was sure that he would come to her. + +"He promised," she said, "that when peace was made we should go back to +our dear Thuringia." + +She had wept bitterly when Elsa had come out with the news of his death, +but only for a moment. + +"That is my grandfather's writing," she had said, "and so he must be +living." + +And now she still believed in his coming. + +Nothing, however, could make Marianne happy, for the Queen's health +seemed to fail entirely. + +As the summer advanced to autumn, and autumn marched into winter the +winds of Memel grew fiercer and fiercer. With their coming the Queen +lost her colour, her cheerfulness was forced, and she drooped like a +flower. + +One thing alone comforted both her and the King, a letter from the +people of Westphalia, who must now belong to Napoleon. + +Frederick William had bade them farewell, telling them that he felt like +a father separating from his children, that it was only necessity which +made him yield them to their new ruler. + +The Westphalians answered him like children. + +"When we read thy farewell," they wrote, "our hearts were breaking; we +could not believe that we should cease to be thy faithful subjects, we +who have always loved thee so much. As true as we live, it is not thy +fault that after the battle of Jena thy scattered armies were not led to +our country to join with our militia in a fresh combat. We would have +staked our lives and have saved the country, for our warriors have +marrow in their bones and their souls are not yet infested with the +canker. + +"Our wives nourish their children with their own milk, our daughters are +no puppets of fashion, we desire to keep free from the pestilential +spirit of the age. Yet we cannot change the decrees of Providence. +Farewell, then, thou good old King. God grant that the remainder of thy +country may furnish thee with wise ministers and truer generals than +those which have brought affliction on thee. It is not for us to +struggle against our fate, we must with manly fortitude submit to what +we cannot alter. May God be with us and give us a new ruler who will +likewise be the father of the country, may he respect our language, our +manners, our religion, and our municipalities as thou hast done, our +dear, good King. God grant thee peace, health, and happiness." + +Such a letter was a great comfort to the Queen, and though her heart was +very heavy, she occupied herself first in the sale of her jewels, then +she and the King sent all their golden dishes to the mint to be turned +into money. She bought only simple dresses and tried to set all the +people of the Court an example of patience and cheerfulness. She talked +much with good Bishop Eylert and Bishop Borowsky. + +One Sunday the Bishop found her alone in her sitting-room reading her +Bible. + +When he entered she greeted him with a smile and they sat and talked +over the 120th Psalm. + +In a firm, clear voice the Queen repeated aloud all its verses. + +"In thy light," she said, "shall we see light." And then she told the +Bishop how, though her foe had conquered her and taken away her kingdom, +she firmly believed that God would send His light and show to all the +reasons of the wars of Napoleon. + +"I think," she said, "it is wise to study a portion of Scripture each +day, really study it." The King, coming in, agreed. + +Then the Bishop suggested that each should choose a book. + +"I," said the Queen, "choose Psalms." + +"And I," said the King, "select the book of Daniel, because it teaches +that kingdoms do not rise and fall by chance. God's ways may often seem +to us dark and mysterious, but we may feel assured that they are always +holy, wise, and salutary. By His wisdom and mercy this world is so +ordered that evil works out its own destruction, and good,--that is, all +that agrees with the will of God,--must avail at last." + +When Marianne heard of this study of the Queen, she, too, selected a +book, and decided upon Psalms because the Queen had selected it for her +study. + +Now and then, however, pleasant things happened. + +The house where the King and Queen lived was so small that there was no +room for the children. Therefore Prince Frederick and Prince William +lived in the house of a wealthy merchant named Argelander. + +"To-day," said the Queen one morning, "is Frau Argelander's birthday. We +hear that for fear of disturbing the Princes she has gone to the country +to have her feast with her friends. Come, then, let us decorate her +house and send a message for her to come and enjoy it." + +Everyone was delighted to see the Queen again lively. Marianne ran to +the Stork's Nest and sent all the children for evergreens, the ladies +hurried to the shops and purchased little gifts, and the great work +began. + +A servant flew about Memel with invitations, and by late afternoon all +was ready and a messenger departed to fetch Frau Argelander. + +"My goodness, oh, Heaven!" cried the ladies when he returned with the +message that Frau Argelander begged to be excused, as she was enjoying +her feast with her friends, and did not need in the least her house, +which the Princes were free to use as they would. + +Nobody knew what to do, but the Queen arranged a plan. + +"You go, Fritz," she said to the Crown Prince, "take the carriage and +fetch Frau Argelander." + +And this time the lady appeared with many apologies to find lights +streaming from her windows, decorations everywhere, garlands wreathing +the doors, and presents spread on a table. Beneath the chandelier in the +Saal stood the Queen, lovely in white, a Prince on each side, Charlotte +and Carl and Alexandrina grouped about all holding bouquets in their +hands to present to the lady who had been so kind to them in their +trouble. + +"Dear Frau Argelander, dear Birthday Child!" cried the Queen, and +slipped on the lady's plump arm a bracelet containing the hair of the +two Princes. + +Then did the Queen begin the festivities, part of the fun being the +reading of a poem on each present, written at the command of the Queen +by a Memel poet. + +Marianne was standing near the table on which were the presents when +Franz, who was well, now turned towards her smiling. + +"Mariechen," he said in German, for after a talk or two with Ludwig +Brandt he no longer spoke the fashionable French, but always his own +language, "do you remember what Schlegel wrote about our Queen?" + +Marianne shook her head. + +"I have never heard it." + +Franz, in low tones, repeated the words: + + "She would be a Queen if she lived in a cottage, + The Queen of every heart." + +Marianne's eyes danced. + +"Oh, Franz," she cried, "oh, brother, how, how lovely!" + +"And it is true," said Franz, gazing about the room, his eye resting on +the handsome old Countess, looking bored because of her love of her own +Saal in the evening, yet brightening if the Queen so much as looked at +her, at the Princes and Princesses hanging on their mother's words, at +the young poet, happy ever in the honour done his verses, at Frau +Argelander, at the people of Memel. + +"Ja, ja," he said, "the Angel of Prussia, the Queen of Every Heart!" + +But there was one person who was determined not to let the Queen of +Prussia be happy. + +"Pay your war debt. Pay me what you owe," Napoleon kept crying. + +The King of Prussia, who had no money, begged for time, and he would pay +everything. + +"Pay me, and at once," insisted Napoleon. + +What was the King to do? He had no money. + +Then his brother, Prince William, had an idea. + +"There is no gold," he said, "how can we pay? I will go to Paris and +entreat Napoleon to have mercy." + +He said this in public, but his real plan, told only to his wife, was to +offer himself as a hostage until Prussia could pay her debt. + +"I will join you," said the Princess Marianne. "Our little Amelia died +in our flight from Dantzic and I can be as happy with you in a prison as +in a palace." + +So the Prince departed, and the King and Queen waited. + +The great scientist, Alexander von Humboldt, prepared Napoleon for his +coming and he was received with both politeness and kindness. + +At once, with glowing face, he offered himself as a hostage for his +country. + +Napoleon embraced him. + +"That is very noble," he said, "but impossible." For he wanted money, +not Princes. + +When the news of this act spread through Germany it fired the people +like a draught of strong wine. + +"We will rise!" they cried. "Our Prince has set us an example! We will +throw off the yoke of the oppressor!" + +And so, in the darkest hour of the Fatherland, patriotism began to blaze +brightly. + +The French having evacuated Königsberg, the Queen longed to leave Memel, +whose winds had never agreed with her. + +"Do, Majesty," urged Baron Stein, advising the King, "it is more +dignified that you hold Court in a large city like Königsberg." + +While all this was being discussed, to the surprise of the von Storks, +the Queen sent one day for Bettina. + +"What can she want?" and Madame von Stork made Bettina ready, brushing +her hair, putting on a blue dress Pauline had made her, and seeing that +the elastics of her slippers were in exact order. + +Bettina went alone, the Queen requiring it, and with eyes eager, her +bright smile on her lips, the little girl appeared before her. + +"Dear child," said the Queen, "I have sent for you because I have some +news to tell you." + +[Illustration: "_I have some news to tell you_"] + +Then she explained that she feared Bettina's grandfather might not +return to Memel, that Professor von Stork had many to care for, and that +she, the Queen, meant in the future to provide for Bettina. + +"My dear people of Berlin," she told her, "have founded a home for +orphans in my honour. The Luisenstift, they will call it. Now, dear +Bettina, I am to name and support four of these children and I have +selected you as one of them." + +Poor Bettina! Her little heart sank. Must she leave the Stork's Nest, +must she go among strangers? + +The Queen understood. + +"You cannot, dear child," she said like a mother, "always live with the +good Professor. Go happily, dear child, to this Home. It will help the +good Professor to have you cared for. You may visit them in your +holidays, and, if you are a good girl and study well, one day you may +come and live at Court and be a maid to Princess Charlotte, or my little +Alexandrina. Would you not like that?" And the Queen smiled +enchantingly. + +Bettina's eyes glowed. + +To be always near her Majesty! What happiness! + +"But go now," said the Queen, "and tell the Herr Professor that I will +talk this over with him before he moves his family to Königsberg, and +after Christmas I shall send you to Berlin, to the Luisenstift. Until +then, be happy!" + +"My grandfather will come," thought Bettina; "the Queen is good, but we +will go to Thuringia and I shall see Hans and the baby, my godmother and +Willy." + +And she believed this so firmly that she hardly worried over the Orphan +Asylum. + +But the Professor was relieved. Money was scarce. He had many children, +and he thanked the Queen over and over for her goodness. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +DAYS OF DARKNESS + + +All the Storks, grown and children, liked their new Nest in Königsberg. + +It was a city, and there was more to amuse one than in Memel. But life +still had its troubles both for them, for the Queen, and for Prussia. + +One day Marianne was standing with the children on the bridge of +Kantstrasse. They were looking down at the Fish Market and laughing at +the fish women from the Baltic as they sold their fish. There were Dutch +vessels in the Pregel, and queer sailors, and Marianne told the twins to +look at the queer signs hanging on the houses on the bank. "When the +Poles were here," she explained, "each man painted the sign of his trade +and swung it from his house. See, that was a shoemaker, there was a +tailor." + +While they talked, people were passing along Kantstrasse by the dozens, +professors going to and fro, town people, soldiers, sailors or fishers +from the Baltic. + +Presently along came Franz. + +When he saw the little group he smiled and joined them. + +While they watched the scene he told them a dreadful story of Napoleon, +of something which had helped bring on the war. + +"It roused all Prussia," he said. + +It was the story of the bookseller, Palm of Nuremberg. + +In that quaint old town where they make the toys of the world, where the +famous Albrecht Dürer once lived and drew and painted, had lived a +certain honest young man named Palm, and his young wife, Anna. He was a +bookseller, and respected by everybody. + +One day he received a package of books by mail which he was to sell in +his shop. The name of the book was "Germany in Her Deepest Degradation," +but it was anonymous. + +Herr Bookseller Palm placed the books in his shop as requested. + +A little later he was arrested by order of Napoleon and threatened with +death unless he revealed the name of the author. + +Palm had one answer. The books had been sent him without a name, and +that was all he knew. + +There was much more, but Franz first told how Palm, who had hidden, was +arrested by a trick. A man pretended to be in great trouble from which +only Palm could save him. The kind bookseller came forward to see the +messenger, was seized, dragged off, and shot without proper trial, +though the women of the town appeared before the judges clamouring for +mercy, and his poor young wife implored his life from Napoleon's +officers. Only a good Roman Catholic priest supported him to the end, +although Palm was a Lutheran. "Shot down like a dog!" cried Franz hotly. + +Marianne's tears fell when she heard of the suffering of the wife, of +Palm's goodness, his belief in God, and his bravery in refusing to give +the name of the author. + +"How I hate Napoleon!" cried Marianne. "Oh, if I were a man and able to +fight him!" + +Those were stormy days in Königsberg. + +The Stork's Nest was thronged with students and professors, all full of +talk and bitter against Napoleon. + +Ludwig stayed there always now, and he was prime mover in a great plan +among the students, and so when Pauline was betrothed to him many +professors and students came with congratulations. + +"I shall never marry," said Marianne, quite positively. + +Everybody laughed, but she was herself very serious. + +"My heart is with my country," she said. + +In the evenings all the family gathered again about the big table, but +instead of reading they listened now to talking. + +"Stein will save our land," said Ludwig one evening. "God be praised! +The King no longer opposes him, but is guided by his counsel." + +"But will Napoleon permit him to remain?" The Professor looked anxious. + +Ludwig shrugged his shoulders. + +"At all events," he said, "our King's conduct is noble. He had given up +everything, plate, wealth, all he has, to help with this debt to +Napoleon. The future is God's, not ours." + +As for the Queen, all Prussia sang praise of her nobility in going to +Tilsit. + +Marianne had been once to Memel on a visit to her uncle Joachim, who was +happy now with Rudolph at home again, and had been to Court and had seen +Queen Louisa before she herself moved to Königsberg. + +She had been reading a wonderful book called "Leonard and Gertrude." + +"I wish," she told Marianne, "that I could get into a carriage and start +off to Switzerland and find the author." + +His name was Pestalozzi, and he was full of new ideas of how to educate +children. + +But what pleased Marianne was the news that the Queen was soon to come +to Königsberg. + +"But our dear Queen is not well," said the old Countess to Marianne. +"Since her visit to that monster she lies awake at night and weeps and +often suffers a pain in her heart, though in public she smiles and is +always an angel." + +"Down with Napoleon!" called out the parrot. "Upstart! Villain! Monster! +Down with the Emperor!" + +The old Countess gave him a cracker. + +"Pretty Polly," she said. "But now be quiet." + +"Upstart! Villain!" repeated Polly. + +Then the Countess complained to Marianne of all the noise of the Royal +children and of the conduct of the Maids of Honour. + +"One night when our dear Queen was ill the noise was dreadful. It woke +her from a doze and I went out to see who was making it. And what did I +find?" + +The old lady shook with offended dignity. + +"Why, the Maids of Honour, my child, flirting and laughing with the +generals! I spoke to the King, but, my dear Marianne, what good can it +do? Etiquette has gone entirely out of fashion! The Maids of Honour will +have their ways, will laugh, talk, and behave in a way most unseemly. +But never mind, we shall soon come to Königsberg." + +It was deep winter when the royal family arrived. The people of Memel +were sad, indeed, to see them depart, and the King wrote them a letter. + +"I thank my brave citizens of Memel for their true and steadfast +attachment to my person, my wife, and my whole house. Memel is the only +town in my dominions which has escaped the worse calamities of the war, +but it has proved itself capable of enduring them and ready, if called +on, to resist the enemy. I shall never forget that Divine Providence +preserved to us an asylum in this town and that its people evinced the +warmest and most constant attachment to us." + +The people of Königsberg on their part were delighted. Immediately they +elected the Crown Prince rector of their famous University. + +"On the sixth of March," they said, "we will confer this honour on him, +give a grand fête, and have a torch-light procession." + +The Crown Prince, who was thirteen now, thought this very fine, and for +a few days walked about with dignity, but then he grew tired of such +stiffness and joined Prince William and his friend Rudolph von +Auerswald, Carl von Stork, and little Prince Carl, in their battles +against the mice and rats in the old castle. + +On February the first all the bells of this old city of the King rang +out most joyfully. + +"We have a new little sister," the Royal children told Rudolph and Carl. + +"Her name," said the King, "shall be Louisa, for her mother." + +"It is because I love thee so dearly," he said to the Queen, "that I +have named our youngest little daughter, Louisa." + +Tears started to the Queen's eyes. + +"May she, dear Fritz, indeed grow up to be thy Louisa." + +"I am weary," the King said, "of lords and ladies. It is the people of +Prussia who have been my friends and helped me. Therefore, it is they +who shall be sponsors at the baptism of my daughter." + +So there came men to represent every class of the Prussian people, and +they sat down to as fine a feast as the King's pocketbook would permit +him to give them. + +The Queen, who was not well, lay on a sofa and received all the +godfathers of the tiny Louisa, and the baptism took place there, and not +in the church, because of the cold weather. + +The Countess von Voss brought the baby to the Princess William and gave +it its name of Louisa Augusta Wilhelmina Amelia for its mother. + +The court ladies all wore round skirts and tunics, and the Queen gave +the old Countess a handsome set of ornaments, but they all wept bitterly +for the little girl whose blue eyes had opened on so cold and cruel a +world as Napoleon and winter had made East Prussia. + +When all sat at the banquet one of the godfathers arose and addressed +the tiny Louisa, whose blue eyes stared at him in wonder. + +"Louisa Wilhelmina," he said, "god-child of the people, thou art a +gentle mediator between the King and us. Mayst thou live to stand a +full-grown blooming virgin amongst thy brothers and sisters; may then +thy royal house be flourishing in renewed glory. Meanwhile, dark hours +will pass like storm-birds over thy head--thou wilt hear the rushing of +their wings, but it will not frighten thee. Thou, sweet one, wilt smile, +feeling nothing but thy childish happiness and the charm of life. Loving +arms will hold thee safely, high above the precipice on the edge of +which we stand. May the future smile on us through thee. In thee we see +thy father's love to us, and by thy bright eyes may the people speak +comfort to the King, saying, 'We are thine, thou art our lord and +master: be strong and true to thyself. Trust not in thy councillors and +thy servants, for they are not all full of courage, nor all of one mind. +What they have done and what they have left undone has brought us near +to ruin. Trust thine own judgment, thine own heart, and we will trust in +thee. We are all thine, master, be strong and true to thyself.'" + +But the people of Königsberg had other things to think of than tiny +Louisa. + +All the patriots of Germany came to and fro, among them Schleiermacher, +who had refused to remain in Halle when Napoleon took the city from +Frederick William. He believed that Austria and England would join in +throwing off Napoleon. + +"Now," he said, "while Napoleon is in Spain, let us do what we can." + +For, all over Germany, the French army were still masters, driving +people from their homes, burning villages, doing all that Napoleon +permitted. + +"Now," cried Schleiermacher. + +"Now," cried Ludwig Brandt. + +"Now," cried all the students of the University. + +So in that summer in Königsberg was founded a secret society called the +"Tugendbund," or "League of Virtue," whose purpose was to spread +patriotism throughout Germany. Members sprang up everywhere, agents went +to and fro, and the watchword was "Secresy." + +Nevertheless, Napoleon heard of it. + +"Dismiss Stein," he ordered the King, "he is the founder. He shall not +remain as Prussian Minister." + +Then he put a price on this great man's head, and he was forced to flee +for his life to Prague in Bohemia. He had done his best for his country +and, therefore, Napoleon wished to be rid of him. But it was untrue that +he founded the "Tugendbund." + +"I am heartily tired of life," he wrote, "and wish it would soon come to +an end. To enjoy rest and independence it would be best to settle in +America, in Kentucky, or Tennessee; there one would find a splendid +climate and soil, glorious views, and rest and security for a +century--not to mention a multitude of Germans--the capital of Kentucky +is called Frankfort." + +But the Prussians refused to be conquered. + +"We will outwit Napoleon, who has declared that the Prussian army can +consist only of forty-two thousand soldiers," they cried, and they +drilled soldiers, sending set after set home, always keeping the army at +forty-two thousand, but training every man and boy of Prussia. + +Otto von Stork refused to return home, but while he drilled away with +the rest he sent letters telling of the dreadful times of the Berliners, +how they had no food, how even the once rich lived like beggars, how +there was no wax for candles, and how Napoleon had robbed the city of +all he could lay his hands upon. + +So another unhappy year for Prussia passed away and brought in 1809. + +The Queen's pink cheeks had faded to white, her eyes showed that their +blue had been washed with tears, and about her mouth were lines of +sorrow. + +"If posterity," she wrote, "will not place my name amongst those of +illustrious women, yet those who are acquainted with the troubles of +these times will know what I have gone through and will say, 'She +suffered much and endured with patience,' and I only wish they may be +able to add: 'She gave being to children worthy of better times and who +by their continual struggles have succeeded in attaining them.'" + +Sometimes she talked this way to the Crown Prince and little William, +and their eyes would glow and they would promise that they would do +great things for Prussia. + +When she went through Königsberg streets, in the warm days when the +flowers were in bloom, it was the joy of all the little children to +offer her nosegays. Never did she decline one, and she always had a +smile for everybody. + +One day came news of Otto which startled his father and sent his mother +weeping to bed. Major Shill, a brave Prussian soldier, refused to stop +fighting against Napoleon, and became a great hero of Prussia, though on +the 30th of December, 1808, while the King and Queen were in St. +Petersburg on a visit to the Czar Alexander, the Emperor had withdrawn +his soldiers from Prussia, and the Brandenburg Hussars and a cavalry +regiment under this Major Shill entered Berlin. + +When Napoleon began again to fight the Austrians Major Shill departed +from Berlin against the French without a declaration of war, angering +the King, but attracting a thousand to his banner. + +Among them was Otto von Stork. + +"Do not grieve, my dear parents," he wrote; "never shall I lay down my +arms until Napoleon is defeated." + +But what were a thousand men? + +The end came quickly. + +Ludwig brought the news to the Professor. + +"Shill is killed," he said; "shot while fighting in the streets of +Stralsund. Twelve of his officers have been taken and shot by the +French, the others sent to the galleys." + +"Otto! Otto!" cried poor Madame von Stork; "Richard, Ludwig, where is my +Otto?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE ENTRANCE INTO BERLIN + + +The years marched on to another Christmas. + +Much had happened. + +Napoleon was still triumphant, for, conquering the Austrians, he had +entered Vienna as victor. + +"All is lost," Queen Louisa wrote, "if not forever, at least for the +present." + +As for Otto von Stork, he was not killed, but continued fighting where +he could find soldiers. + +"All Europe must rise," he wrote his father; "the brave Andreas Hofer is +rousing the Tyrolese, and, oh, dear father, have you heard of the brave +deed of Haydn in Vienna?" + +"Haydn?" interrupted Marianne, and then with a smile she began singing +"With Verdure Clad," from the musician's "Creation." Of course they all +had heard of Haydn. Certainly the old man was a hero. + +When he heard the cannon and knew that Napoleon was entering his Vienna, +he went to a window and opened the sash. + +"Sing!" he cried to the people in the streets, "sing, good people." + +And then the old white-haired musician lifted his voice and sang his own +hymn. + +"God save our Emperor Franz!" rang through the streets, all the people +joining. And when Napoleon entered they were singing at the tops of +their voices. But the excitement was too much for Haydn. He died two +days later. + +Then Otto was off to fight in the Tyrol. + +"He will break my heart," wept his mother, but the Herr Lieutenant's +eyes flashed. + +"If my arm----" he began, but his mother cried out so that he never +finished his sentence. + +Napoleon, in these days of gloom, divorced his wife, married the +Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria, and a son was born to them, the +little King of Rome, they called him. + +The Czar had been again with Napoleon and there had been a famous +meeting at Erfurt, and they had divided the world between them, and then +Alexander had paid his friends a visit at Memel and had been shocked at +the appearance of the Queen. + +"Come," he said, "to St. Petersburg and see the wonders of my capital. +It will do the Queen good." + +And so they went on a splendid journey and met all the Royal family of +Russia and received honour and rich presents. + +But Queen Louisa cared no more for such things as fine clothes, crowns, +banquets and jewels. + +To her friend, Frau von Berg, she wrote: + +"I am come back from St. Petersburg as I went. Nothing dazzles me now. +Yes, I feel it more and more, my kingdom is not of this world. I have +danced, dear friend," she said, "I have been agreeable to the whole +world, but God Almighty have mercy upon me." So much did she feel the +sorrows of her poor kingdom. + +But now the French had left Berlin entirely, and, at Christmas time, the +year 1809, three years after Jena, the King and Queen were returning to +their capital. + +Marianne and her grandmother were standing on Unter den Linden, Ludwig +and Pauline, who was now his wife, not far off. Again there were flags +and garlands, and again the people everywhere. + +"The Berliners have sent our Queen a new carriage lined with her +favourite violet," and Marianne smiled in gladness. + +"Ach, ja," said her grandmother, who now spoke German. "We can do such +things now, but formerly that monster Napoleon would not even permit us +to celebrate her birthday." + +And she told Marianne of the actor, Iffland, who had had courage on +March tenth, her Majesty's birthday, to wear a bouquet of flowers in his +theatre. + +Marianne listened with great interest. She was altogether a changed +girl, and tried always to think of other people. + +"Thanks to our good Queen," her mother always was saying, "God be +praised that Marianne tries now to imitate her, for she is the model for +all German maidens." + +At exactly the same hour that, fifteen years before, as a bride, Louisa +of Mecklenburg had entered Berlin, the Queen appeared in her +violet-lined carriage. + +The Berliners cheered, but at the same moment their eyes filled. + +It was their Queen and as beautiful as ever, some declared even +lovelier, but she seemed like a rose whose stem is no longer erect. Her +cheeks were pale, her eyes were washed with weeping, and about her +mouth, trying so hard to smile as of old, they saw lines of sorrow. + +"How we hate him! How we hate Napoleon!" and the people clenched their +fists when they saw her. + +With her were her niece, Frederika, the Princess Charlotte, now tall and +beautiful, the old Countess, and jolly Carl. + +The young princes were on horseback, the King was with his generals. + +"Long life to our good King! Long live Frederick William!" shouted the +Berliners, but when they saw the Queen and remembered how she had gone +for their sake to Napoleon, her name rang from one side of Berlin to the +other. + +At the palace an old man lifted her from her carriage, folded her in his +arms and led her away from the people. + +"Her father, the old Duke!" cried the Berliners, and they were not +ashamed to weep openly. + +In a few moments Queen Louisa appeared on a balcony. + +The people went frantic with joy, and her cheeks grew pink, and she +tried to smile, and then, the tears flowing from her eyes, prevented +her. + +"It is heartrending," said a stranger to Madame von Bergman, who, +herself, was making use of an embroidered handkerchief. "When, Madame, I +see that poor lady, our Queen, and think of all that she has suffered, +and of our kingdom divided in two, and still ruled by Napoleon, I +cannot restrain my speech." + +"Never mind, Herr Arndt," said Madame von Bergman, "we all feel as you +do." + +The stranger started in alarm. + +"You recognise me? I thought," he said, "that sorrow had so changed me +that no one could know my features." + +"You are safe with me," said the good lady, who knew there was a price +on the head of this patriotic poet. "I am the mother-in-law of Herr +Professor Richard von Stork of the Tugendbund." She lowered her voice as +she said this last word. + +Arndt grasped her hand and then, walking away with her, told how he had +been driven from land to land and torn from his son for the sake of the +little one's safety. + +"When I thrust the child from me," he said, "I could almost have cursed +the French and the Corsican who rules them." + +For a moment he was silent. + +Then he gazed about gay Unter den Linden. + +"But, Madame," his face looked like that of a prophet, "I see to-day in +this splendour, in these loud and continued cheers for the King, a hope +that all hearts may be united in one common German spirit. I see more +eyes wet with sorrow than bright with joy, and who knows what will come +of it for our dear Fatherland?" + +Marianne's eyes sparkled. + +Her one longing was to serve her country. But what could a girl do? + +Her face fell. + +At the corner of Friedrichstrasse and Unter den Linden she came face to +face with Bettina marching homeward with the girls of the "Luisenstift." + +"Come home with us, pray, my child," said old Madame von Bergman very +kindly. + +Permission was given and Bettina joined them. She was now a big girl, +and thirteen. + +"Gracious Fräulein," she said to Marianne, "how happy I am." Then she +laughed her gay little gurgle. "I think, Gracious Fräulein, Frederick +Barbarossa is waking. He is stretching himself, I think. He will rise +soon and drive away Napoleon." Arndt looked at her in surprise and then +nodded. + +In the evening there was a grand illumination. + +The Berliners had pressed the King to appear in the theatre. + +"Yes, yes," he said, "but first we will go to church and thank Almighty +God for his mercy." + +To celebrate his return he freed many prisoners, gave money to the poor, +and remembered to thank all who had been loyal. + +On their part, the Berliners had the sculptor, Schadow, make a statue of +the Queen and place it on an island in the Tiergarten. + +The King also founded an Order of Merit, and with grand ceremony +bestowed it upon many, among them the actor, Iffland, and the old +clergyman who had answered Napoleon. + +But, in spite of all this, Prussia had no money. + +"But our King does all he can," said Ludwig to Madame von Bergman one +evening when he and Pauline came to supper. + +"Yes," put in Franz, who was then in Berlin, "he has ordered the Royal +table to be laid with four dishes only at dinner, and at supper with +two." + +"And I heard," said Pauline, looking up from her embroidery, "that when +a servant asked how much champagne to order, the King said none should +be purchased until all his subjects could drink beer again." + +Madame von Bergman shook her head sadly. + +"No hope of that. Look at this coffee," and she poured out a cupful from +the pot on the tray the maid had brought in for the visitors. + +"Oak bark, carrots, and beans burned together, that is our coffee, +thanks to Napoleon." + +While they were talking, in came a visitor. + +"Napoleon has shot Andreas Hofer," he announced, "at Mantua!" + +The two men started from their seats. + +"Impossible!" they cried out, but alas, next day they learned the truth +of it. This brave innkeeper of Innsbruck, who had fought so bravely to +free his people, had been betrayed by a friend to Napoleon and shot in +Mantua, over the mountains. + +The Queen wept tears of sorrow when she heard of this sad tragedy. + +"What a man," she had written, "is this Andreas Hofer, the leader of the +Tyrolese. A peasant has become a captain, and what a captain! His +weapon, prayer, and his ally, God. Oh, that the time of the Maid of +Orleans might return that the enemy might be driven from the land!" + +It was about this time that Napoleon permitted Minister Hardenburg to +return to his duties. At once affairs began to prosper. + +"And the Queen," Marianne wrote to her mother, "is to take a journey. +She is to go with the King and her children to all the places where she +had lived as Crown Princess, to Paretz, to Oranienburg, and Peacock +Island." + +At Paretz the Queen walked up and down the avenues with her husband. +Suddenly she turned to him very solemnly and said: + +"Fritz, you have made me very happy, you and our children." + +But Napoleon had no mind to add to her happiness. + +"Pay your war debt!" he kept crying. + +"We have no money," said the poor Prussians. + +"Then I rule you until you do," was Napoleon's unchanging answer. + +"And the wretch," said Madame von Stork, "has ordered our King to assist +a huge Russian force through Prussia." + +"And I heard," said Pauline, "that when the King heard the news he bowed +his head and said that of all men he was most unlucky." + +"But our Queen," put in Marianne, who was working at tent stitch, "is to +have a great pleasure." + +The two ladies gazed at her in curiosity. + +"She is going to visit her father," answered Marianne. "The Countess +told me. She has not been home for many years, and when she told the +King of her great longing, he consented. She is to leave to-morrow." + +Bettina, who was on her way to the "Stork's Nest," saw her depart. +Catching sight of the girl, the Queen smiled a farewell. For some reason +it made Bettina solemn. + +"It was as if she were saying good-bye forever," she told Marianne +later. Marianne laughed merrily. + +"She will be back in a few days. What nonsense!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +"MY QUEEN, MY POOR QUEEN!" + + +On the night of July 18 a travelling carriage dashed towards +Fürstenburg, the first town within the Duke of Mecklenburg's dominions, +the driver urging its horses to their utmost. + +Within sat the King, pale and thin from a severe attack of malaria. With +him were the Crown Prince and Prince William, the faces of the boys wet +with tears, their eyes struggling with weariness. + +On dashed the horses. + +"Faster! Faster!" now and then ordered the King, clenching his hands. + +Presently a rosy light heralded the day, the clarion of the cocks +announced the morning, the stars faded from the brightening sky, and the +carriage dashed through Fürstenburg. + +Two hours more. The King looked at his watch and cried: + +"Faster! Faster!" + +The people of the town, startled by the wheels, wondered who was passing +in such haste. Later came a second carriage, a girl's white, tearful +face gazing from one window, a round, rosy-cheeked boy against her +shoulder. + +It was the King, the Crown Prince and Prince William, and Princess +Charlotte and Prince Carl hastening to Queen Louisa. + +After she had reached Mecklenburg the King had joined her. + +Never had he seen her look happier. + +Like a girl, she told him of how she had been met at Fürstenburg by her +sister, Frederika, her father and her brothers. Her grandmother, being +old, welcomed her at the door of the Duke's palace, and for the first +time in many years she found herself alone with her own people. + +When the King came they were given a public reception. + +"But only one, let it be, dear father," begged Queen Louisa. "I feel +that this happiness cannot last. Something oppresses me, so please let +us make the most of seeing each other in quiet." + +When she dressed herself for this one reception, her ladies noticed that +she had only pearls for jewels. + +"I have sold the rest," she said with a smile, "but, never mind, pearls +are suitable for me, for they signify tears, and I have shed many. +Moreover," and she took out a miniature worn about her neck, "I have my +best treasure." + +It was a picture of the King, and the Queen gazed at it lovingly. + +"After all these years, my good Fritz loves me quite the same," she +said, and looked as happy as a girl. + +"Come, Fritz," she cried to her husband, and led him about, showing him +this and that and telling stories of her childhood. Never had she seemed +so happy. + +One morning they were to go to see a chapel the King had expressed an +interest in. + +"I will stay with George," said the Queen, who complained of not feeling +well, and so they left her with her brother. + +When her father returned he found on his writing desk a note written in +French, by his daughter, the Queen. + + "My dear father," he read, "I am very happy to-day as your + daughter and as the wife of the best of husbands. + + "LOUISA. + + "New Strelitz, July 28, 1810." + +At once he showed it, to the King, and the two men were silent with +happiness. But little did they think that never again was the woman who +so loved them to touch paper or pen. + +She had not been well, but nothing had been thought of it. And now, in +the early summer morning, the King was hastening to her. + +"Faster!" he called. "Faster!" + +She had told him good-bye with a smile and the hope of soon seeing him, +and he had returned to Berlin. + +There had come despatch after despatch. + +"The Queen is ill. She grows worse. Come! Come!" + +But this poor, always unfortunate King was himself severely ill with a +sudden attack of malaria. For days he could not leave his bed, and it +was not until the twenty-eighth that he set off for New Strelitz. And +then the Queen was so ill there was no delaying. + +It was between four and five in the morning when the carriage reached +the castle. + +The Queen, who lay awake in her room, heard them come. At midnight she +had grown worse, at two she had called out to her sister, who at once +went to her bed. + +"Dear Frederika," she asked in a voice like a whisper, "what will my +husband and children do if I die?" + +But now the King had come. + +In the hall he met the physicians. They explained that an abscess had +formed and burst in one lung. The heart was involved and the Queen was +sinking. + +"Majesty," they said, "there is no hope." + +The Queen's old grandmother, her withered cheeks wet with tears, took +the King's hand in both of hers. + +"While there is life there is hope," she said, her old voice struggling +to comfort him. + +Unlucky Frederick William shook his head. + +"If she were not mine," he said, "she might recover." + +The old Duke joined him. In the night they had called him from his +sleep. + +The Princess Frederika was at the door. + +"Is my daughter in danger?" he asked. + +She pressed his hand. + +"Lord," said the poor old father, "Thy ways are not our ways." + +With trembling hands he now led the King to the room. + +Propped up on pillows, the bed curtains looped back to give her air, lay +poor Queen Louisa. + +On one side was the old Countess von Voss, Frau von Berg held one hand, +and Princess Frederika the other. + +The poor "Rose of the King," whose stem had been so roughly handled, had +drooped forever. + +When the physicians had entreated her to move that she might be more +comfortable, it was impossible for her strength to accomplish it. + +"I am a Queen," she said sadly, "and I have no power to move my arm." + +But when she saw the King, joy made her like the old Louisa. + +The King embraced her as if he would never again see her. + +"Am I then so ill?" she asked. + +The King went from the room. + +The poor Queen gazed from one face to the other, and the strength again +left her. + +"The King seems as if he wished to take leave of me," she gasped. "Tell +him not to do so, or I shall die directly." + +At once he returned and sat on her bed and the minutes wore away, the +arms of the old Countess supporting her dear Queen Louisa. + +"Where are my children, Fritz?" + +The Crown Prince and William came, hand in hand, to her bed. + +"My Fritz! My William!" she said, and gave them each a smile. Then she +struggled to ask about Charlotte, who had sent her a letter about her +birthday full of tears that her mother was absent. + +The effort brought on such pain that they sent the boys away. + +They went from the castle and out into the garden where the air was +fresh and cool and the dew lay on the roses. + +In the room the doctors were begging the Queen to stretch her arms that +she might lie higher. + +"I cannot," said the poor Queen. "Only death will help me." + +Holding her hand, the King sat on the bed, the old Countess knelt, and +Frau von Berg supported her head. + +All through her illness she had repeated over and over the texts which +she loved and found comfort in, but now her lips could only flutter as +the breath came slower and slower. + +The poor King, with bowed head, was thinking of Jena and all his Queen +had suffered. + +Suddenly the Queen drew her head against the breast of Frau von Berg. +Her blue eyes opened and gazed towards heaven. + +"I am dying," she said quite distinctly, "Lord Jesus, make it short." + +In a few minutes the Queen of Prussia had passed beyond the power of +Napoleon to harm. + +"The ways of the Lord," wrote the old Countess, "are implacable and +holy, but they are dreadful to travel. The King, the children, the city +have lost all in the world. I speak not for myself, but my sorrow is +great. My Queen! Oh, my poor Queen!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +AFTERWARDS + + +When his first grief was stilled, the King went to Fritz and Willy in +the garden. Plucking a branch on which grew three roses, he returned +with the little princes to the Queen. The three kissed her, and the King +laid the roses in her hand as the second carriage dashed up to the +palace. + +Charlotte and Carl had come too late. Their mother had been dead a half +hour. The old Countess was all they had now, and she hushed her sobs to +comfort the King and her Queen's poor children, but, poor old lady, her +heart was broken at eighty and she lived only a few years more. + +The doctors who examined the body of Queen Louisa after death declared +that a polypus, formed by grief and worry, had grown on her heart and +killed her, but the people of Prussia would have none of this. + +"A polypus, nein," they said. "It is Napoleon who has done this. We will +rise. We will drive the tyrant from our land, for he has killed the best +friend of Prussia." + +"The ravens, Bettina," said the Herr Lieutenant, "will fly now from +Kyffhäuser. Wait, old Barbarossa will wake now and save us." + +But the peasants had another hero. + +"Shill is not dead!" they cried. "The brave Shill is not dead. He, too, +loved our Queen. He is in hiding and will lead us against Napoleon." + +"It is as if we had lost a member of our own family," wept Madame von +Stork, as she tried to comfort poor Marianne. + +When they brought the Queen's body to Berlin and it lay in state, +Bettina went, with the girls of the "Luisenstift" to look for the last +time on the face of the Queen who had cared for her. The Berliners who +gazed also, thought their own thoughts, made up their minds, and went +home to await the funeral, which took place on the thirtieth, the Royal +children with their father following the coffin, a nurse bearing in her +arms the new baby, little Albrecht. + +"After Jena," said the Berliners, "we thought we had lost all, but then +we had our Queen." + +Not even the Queen's death, however, moved Napoleon, who, having Prussia +under his thumb, meant to keep her there. Realising this, many patriotic +Germans, refusing to accept French rule, departed to St. Petersburg. +Among them was Baron von Stein, for the Czar, who was beginning to tire +of his friend Napoleon, invited him to be his counsellor. After his +departure Professor von Stork received a letter from Otto. + +"Napoleon rules Prussia," he wrote. "If I return home I must fight as he +orders, for we fear a war with Russia. In St. Petersburg Baron von Stein +is forming a German legion of deserters from Prussia. I shall join it. +Never will I fight under the banners of France. Arndt is in St. +Petersburg, also, and will be Stein's secretary. Between them and with +Hardenburg as Minister, Prussia may yet be saved. Until then, Auf +wiedersehen." + +On the very day that this letter arrived, Berlin was startled by the +news that Napoleon with his soldiers was to march against Alexander. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +THE CHECK + + +East Prussia again was frozen. The snow lay deep on the ground and the +ice rattled on the tree limbs as it had done in that year when Bettina +and Hans met the Queen on her flight to Memel. Never, the East Prussians +declared, had they known a winter so terrible. In the towns the women, +in their wadded cloaks, went still and sad, and the men, in the +high-runner sleighs with the breath frozen on their beards, talked in +mournful sentences, for they knew that the frozen Vistula held fast +beneath its icy crust a secret which, when spring should reveal it, +would turn them sick with horror and make fiercer than ever their hatred +of Napoleon. + +Not that they did not hate him enough already. The Tugendbund had +carried the news of the poor Queen's suffering into every hamlet of +Prussia. Napoleon had killed her, the people cried out, and in secret +they were making ready to fight him. Never, they believed, had a country +been more cruelly treated. Villages had been destroyed, towns burned, +innocent men shot or mistreated. In the free city of Hamburg hundreds of +sick had been driven by Davoust from the hospitals, orphans expelled +from their asylums. Twenty thousand Hamburgers, ordered from the city, +shivering in the icy coldness, watched the French burn their country +houses, the flames blazing up against a winter sky and lighting a +blackened and desolate country. Near Dresden women were ordered out from +their homes and children, and with wheelbarrows, were compelled to bring +in the dead and the dying, while Napoleon enjoyed himself in the +theatre. + +The check, however, had come in that icy winter of 1812-13. + +Along the road from Russia, limping on frozen feet bound with straw, or +marking with blood the snow, came French and Prussian soldiers, dropping +here, dying there, sinking on land or into the Vistula. Five hundred +thousand French and the Germans forced to assist Napoleon in this war +against Russia, had marched with flying banners against Moscow. Instead +of Russians, flames met them, and now twenty thousand, for the others +had perished in the snow, or were frozen in the Vistula, were limping +back to Prussia. The horses had fallen like leaves before the icy blasts +of the Baltic, and their bodies marked the line of Napoleon's retreat +from Moscow. On they struggled, swords gone, their feet like clods, +their glory vanished. Half starved, there was nothing for them to eat, +for in Napoleon's own war against Prussia they had burned her +farmhouses, destroyed her crops and killed her farmers. They had sown +destruction and now were reaping famine. + +"But God be praised," cried Otto von Stork, sitting at the campfire of +the German legion, "Napoleon is beaten." + +"Ja wohl," cried his companions, flushed with their pursuit of the +flying. Then Otto lifted his voice and started a hymn Arndt had written +for German soldiers: + + "What is the German's Fatherland? + Oh name at length this mighty land, + As wide as sounds the German tongue, + And German hymns to God are sung, + That is the land; + That, German, name thy Fatherland! + To us this glorious land is given; + Oh Lord of Hosts look down from Heaven, + And grant us Germans loyalty + To love our country faithfully; + To love our land, + Our undivided Fatherland!" + +And, as they sang, Otto remembered Friedland and his brother, Wolfgang. +He remembered Queen Louisa and how she had often smiled at him in Memel, +he remembered his beloved hero, Shill, and brave Andreas Hofer. Suddenly +he interrupted his song with a laugh. + +"Bettina was right," he thought. "Poor little maiden! Old Barbarossa has +waked up and his sword is the spirit of the German people." + +And when war was over, one day he appeared in Königsberg, a great, +handsome soldier. + +"Ach Himmel!" said his mother, "but I am glad to see my boy again." But +Otto had talk only for the future of Germany. + +His father nodded when he declared that good fortune would come again to +Prussia. And then he told how, all over Prussia, and in the smaller +states, the people were refusing to speak French, wear French clothes, +or be anything but good Germans. + +"God be praised!" he ended piously. + +"Where is Bettina, mother?" asked Otto quite suddenly. + +When he heard of the "Luisenstift" his face fell, for he had intended +teasing her about Frederick Barbarossa. + +"And Hans?" + +"Not a word has ever been heard of him," answered his father sadly. + +"Shot, perhaps," said Otto. "Poor old man!" and he offered his arm to +his mother. Nothing pleased her more than to walk out with her fine +soldier boy. She forgot all the trouble he had caused her and remembered +only that he had returned a hero. + +Carl followed him everywhere, and informed the family that he, too, +would be a soldier. + +"No, no!" cried his mother, shrinking. + +But the professor reproved her. + +"All my sons," he said most solemnly, "I give freely to the Fatherland." + +But Madame von Stork, remembering her Wolfgang, set hard her lips. + +"If there comes a war against Napoleon, I shall go as a nurse. I am old +enough now, am I not, dear father?" and Marianne slipped her arm around +his neck. + +The professor nodded. + +"I agree willingly, dear daughter," and he pressed her hand. + +Goethe was no longer Marianne's hero. + +"He sat in his garden in quiet," she said, "when the cannon roared at +Jena, and never in all our trouble has he raised his voice for Germany. +He is the greatest poet, yes, but not a hero. He saw Napoleon, he +admired him, and says he has sympathy with him because of his great +dream of uniting Europe. I cannot forgive it." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +THE PEOPLE'S WAR + + +Bettina's head was shaven like a boy's, and she held out to Marianne her +golden hair, long, heavy and in thick waves. + +As for Marianne, herself, she was laying on a table in the room in which +the two stood, all her books, her beloved Goethe, Schiller, all of them, +her laces and the jewels which had been given her since her childhood. + +"How nice it is, dear Bettina," she said, "to have you again with us, +now that after all these dreadful years, we are again in Berlin." + +Bettina's face glowed. + +"Yes, dear Mademoiselle----" + +Marianne lifted her hand. + +"No French, Bettina, German." + +"Ja, ja, dear Fräulein Marianne, please excuse me. I was so happy when I +heard that the Herr Professor was to come to the new University here in +Berlin and that the Gracious Frau Mother would need me again." + +Marianne smiled, and then, lifting her hand to stop conversation, for +she heard someone, she called out: + +"Ilse, Elsa, here, come, bring your offerings here!" + +In came the twins, tall like Bettina, and quite young ladies, but as +much alike as ever. + +In their hands were trinkets, books, needlework and laces. + +"Here," they said, and placed them on the table. Then catching sight of +Bettina, they cried: "Your hair, oh, Bettina! Your lovely, lovely hair!" + +"It was all I had," said Bettina blushing. "They tell me it will sell +and for much money." + +Carl came out next, a tall young fellow now with a faint moustache to +foretell his manhood. + +"This is all I have, dear sister," and he added to the pile a little +purse, some books, and a pair of pistols, once his grandfather's. + +Madame von Stork followed, her hair gray now, her face lined with +sorrow. In her arms was a pile of fine embroideries, linen and +lace-trimmed table covers. In one hand was a box of jewels, in the other +the amethyst necklace her sister Erna had worn to the marriage of +Princess Frederika. + +Behind her came the Herr Professor, Franz and Otto, bearing books, old +weapons and each a purse of gold. + +"Now, the maids," cried Marianne. "Here, Gretchen, oh, that is fine!" +for the rosy-cheeked girl laid on the pile her peasant necklace of old +coins. + +Elise, the other, gave the gold pins with which she fastened her +headdress. + +"And the Gracious Frau," they said, glancing at Madame von Stork, "can +give half our wages." + +While they talked, in came Ludwig and Pauline. With them was a tiny +child, bearing in her dimpled, chubby hands an earthen pot or bank in +which people save money. Ludwig led her to the table. + +"For the dear Fatherland," she lisped, and she laid her little offering +with the rest. + +Ludwig and Pauline added theirs, the one, gold, the other, linen, silver +and ornaments. + +For a moment there was silence, then the Herr Professor stepped to the +table. His eye glanced from Bettina's shaven head to the bank of the +tiny Ernchen. Then he held his hands above the gifts. + +"Dear Father in Heaven," he said, "bless the offerings of great and +small, rich and poor, to the use of the dear Fatherland, and let truth +and rightousness prosper." + +"Amen," said all the "Stork's Nest." + +Then he drew forward Carl, Otto and Franz. + +"Our sons, also," he said, and looked at his wife. + +"Ja, ja, Richard," she said, the tears falling. "I, too, am willing +now." + +Marianne held out her hand to Bettina and drew her to the table. + +"We go as nurses, father. You have promised." + +It was the "People's War," the great German rising against Napoleon. All +over the land, men, women, and children were giving their all. Russia +and Austria joined with them and the great battle was fought at Leipsic +in Saxony. The Crown Prince fought with his father, and when the victors +marched into the city Carl, Franz and Otto were with them. + +The battle itself lasted three days. On the last of these the Emperor +Francis, the Czar, and Frederick William were standing on a hill +watching the battle. + +Up dashed an officer. Springing from his horse, he approached the three +rulers. + +"We have conquered!" he cried. "The enemy flies!" + +The three monarchs alighted with solemn joy from their horses, knelt on +the field and thanked God for the victory. + +The entrance into Leipsic was magnificent. The allied armies formed in a +great square about the market place, their sovereigns in the centre. The +Prussians in their blue coats, red and white striped waistcoats, white +trousers, high boots and bearskin caps, held their eagle aloft before +the old Rathaus. The Russians, in blue coats and red collars, their +trousers strapped over their boots, bore their flags of white and +yellow, while the Austrians, in white and red, completed the huge square +of soldiers. + +Bells were rung, flags were waved, and, when the war was declared ended, +Napoleon was banished to the Island of Elba in the Mediterranean Sea. + +"Now we are rid of the monster," said Madame von Stork. "We can all be +happy. Thank the good God, I again have my children." + +But the world was not yet through with the foe of Queen Louisa. + +"Napoleon has escaped! Marshall Ney has joined him! Our foe is loose +again!" was the cry which, not many months later, rang through Europe. + +It was all to be done over again. But this time England joined Prussia. +Off marched Franz, Otto and Carl, and Marianne and Bettina again became +nurses. + +"Ach Himmel!" wept Madame von Stork, "will the world never be rid of +this monster?" + +Ludwig nodded. + +"This is the last," he said. "We now have England to help us." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +THE FOE CONQUERED + + +On the eleventh day of June, in the year 1815, Prince William received +his first communion, all the Royal family being present. The next day, +he and his father, the King, departed to join the army. + +At Merseburg they were stopped by a courier. A great battle had been +fought near Brussels, the English under the Duke of Wellington, the +Prussians under General Blücher, the brave commander who had wept when +he had given up the keys of Lübeck. + +"Napoleon is conquered!" announced the courier as he handed the +despatches to the King. + +The English call the battle "Waterloo," the Prussians, "La Belle +Alliance." + +Old Blücher had proved his words by fighting. The English had fought +steadily, Blücher having promised to come if he heard the firing. The +French, who had defeated him a few days before, were in a position to +render this well-nigh impossible. But when the cannon sounded, the brave +old Prussian thought only of his promise. + +"Forward, children, forward!" he cried to his soldiers. + +"We cannot, Father Blücher," they answered. "It is impossible." + +"Forward, children, forward!" the old man repeated. "We must. I have +promised my brother, Wellington. I have promised, do you hear? It shall +not be said that I broke my word. Forward, children, forward!" + +And so they came to Waterloo and the Allies conquered Napoleon. + +"The most splendid battle has been fought. The most glorious victory +won," wrote old Blücher. "I think the Napoleon story is ended." + +In triumph, the Allies entered Paris, and Napoleon, throwing himself on +the protection of the English, was banished to the Island of St. Helena. + +"Alas," wrote a great Frenchman, "had Napoleon made a friend of Queen +Louisa at Tilsit this might never have happened, for then would +Frederick William have refused to join the Allies." + +Napoleon had valued Magdeburg above a hundred Queens, but one Queen had +conquered him, and Europe was free from the man who had warred with it +for twenty years. + +"But," the Queen of Prussia once wrote, "we may learn much from +Napoleon; what he has done will not be lost upon us. It would be +blasphemous to say that God has been with him, but he seems to be an +instrument in the hands of the Almighty to do away with old things that +have lost their vitality, to cut off, as it were, the dead wood which is +still externally one with the tree to which it owes its existence. That +which is dead is utterly useless--that which is dying does but draw the +sap from the trunk and give nothing in return." + +"I did, indeed, enjoy the sight of Napoleon," the mother of Goethe told +Marianne's Bettina Brentano. "He it is who has enwrapped the whole world +in an enchanted dream, and for this mankind should be grateful, for if +they did not dream they would have got nothing by it, and have slept +like clods as they hitherto have done." + +After Napoleon had stirred up Europe with his wars, things changed, and +the ways of the world became what we call "Modern Times," and for this +even the poor Prussians thanked him, for many things improved and +liberty came more and more to the people. They spoke their own language, +they drew closer together, and, in their war against a foe, they learned +to love their Fatherland. + + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +THURINGIA + + +While Franz, Otto and Carl were fighting, Marianne and Bettina were +nursing the wounded soldiers. + +One day Bettina was called to assist with a wounded Thuringian. + +When she saw his face she cried out: + +"Willy! Willy Schmidt from Jena!" + +The soldier's face lit up with welcome. + +"Ach Himmel!" he cried, "if it isn't Bettina Weyland!" + +But the doctor ordered no talking, and so the two could only smile at +each other. But when Waterloo was many days old, and the soldier almost +well again, there was much to talk about. + +Certainly Willy had a strange tale to tell. It was about Bettina's +grandfather. + +"Ach Himmel, child!" he said to Bettina, "he is alive and with mother +and father." And he told how, after the "Peace of Tilsit," the old man +had wandered back to Thuringia. + +"But don't think he forgot you, Bettina," said Willy very hastily. Then +he touched his head. "Poor old man," he added, "he has forgotten +everything," and he told poor, wild-eyed Bettina that old Hans was like +a child, always talking about Frederick the Great and his battles, and +remembering not a word about Jena. + +"But the queer thing," said Willy, "is that he starts at any very loud +noise and he had the mark of a wound on the back of his head. What it +means we have no idea, as he remembers nothing." + +Bettina's tears fell fast. + +"Grandfather," she said over and over, "my poor, dear, old grandfather! + +"I will go home to Jena and see him," she cried. "I will tell Fräulein +Marianne." + +"And I will take you," announced Willy, "just as soon as I am well +enough to travel." And he gazed at Bettina as if he thought her very +pretty. + +"And little Hans and the baby?" asked Bettina. Willy laughed as loud as +his weakness would permit him. + +"Hans, ach Himmel! That's a joke, little Hans! There's no telling how +many Frenchmen he finished in one battle. The baby is eight now," he +added. + +"Hans a soldier, the baby, a big boy!" How the years had flown! Jena, +yesterday; Waterloo, to-day. + +"Yes," said the girl, "I will go back to Thuringia." + +Then a smile lit her pretty face. + +"Do you remember, Willy, how grandfather left word we would come back +when Napoleon was conquered?" + +"It is nine years," said Willy, "but you can come now, for Napoleon is +conquered." + +Bettina nodded, her face still wet with tears, while her mouth was +smiling. + +"They will all be glad to see you," continued Willy. "Mother and father, +and the Schmelzes, and your grandfather Weyland. He is just the same, +quite as if nothing had happened." + +And so Bettina went back, and old Hans called her "Annchen," thinking +her always his daughter, and when she married Willy and had children of +her own, he used to sing for them the old song of Frederick Barbarossa, +and tell them how he had seen the beautiful Princess Louisa come into +Berlin in a gold coach to be married. + +Marianne went back to the "Stork's Nest," and presently home came her +brothers. Madame von Stork's face lost its troubled look, and only the +memory of Wolfgang came to make their happy home troubled. + +"Marianne is the best daughter a mother ever had," she often told her +husband, "and I owe it to our good Queen, for books and Goethe nearly +ruined her." + +"Not Goethe," the professor always said, but his wife insisted. + +Certainly a great honour was to come to Marianne. + +On March 10, 1816, on the anniversary of the birthday of the Queen, +Marianne was summoned to Court, and conducted to a great room where were +gathered all the Royal family and many grand people, but the old +Countess, however, was there no more. She had been a mother to her dear +Queen's children until she, too, had gone her way to a less troubled +country than Prussia. After a long list of names, "Marianne Hedwig Erna +Wilhelmina Ernestine von Stork" was called. + +In her trembling hand the King placed a golden cross with the letter "L" +in black enamel on a ground of blue encircled with stars. On the back +were the dates, 1813-14. A white ribbon held it, and there was a pin to +fasten it above her heart. It was the medal of the "Order of Louisa," +instituted by the King in memory of the Queen, and given to those women +of Prussia who had so nobly soothed the wounded and the sick in the war +against Napoleon. Marianne was the happiest person in Germany. + +As for her mother, she was never weary of showing the medal and telling +her friends, "My Marianne received it." + +Marianne's friend, Bettina Brentano, wrote a book called "Correspondence +of a Child," into which she put all her wild fancies about Goethe, and +to-day German girls are fond of reading it. She married a German author, +and her granddaughter is a living writer. + +But the story is not quite ended. + +In the year 1872 crowds were again gathered on the streets of Berlin. + +Standing on Unter den Linden was an old man with his grandchildren. His +hair was snow white and his face wrinkled. + +"Ja, Gretchen," he said to a little girl, whose hand was in his, "in a +little time we shall see our new Emperor. This is a great day, Liebchen, +for Germany at last is free and united." + +"I know, dear grandfather," said one of the others, a clever looking boy +they called Richard, "I have learned all about it in the Gymnasium, of +Napoleon and Jena, and Queen Louisa and Napoleon, and of the Crown +Prince who was Frederick William IV, and all Bismarck's and von Moltke's +dreams of uniting our Germany." + +The old man smiled. + +"The Queen kissed me once," he said, "Queen Louisa, I mean, the mother +of our new Emperor." Then he laughed. + +"It's a great day for your old grandfather, children," he said. "Why, +the Emperor and I, he was little Prince William then, used to fight +battles against rats and mice in the old castle at Königsburg. It's a +great day. God be praised that I live to see it," said Carl von Stork to +his grandchildren. "Alas," he added, "that none of the 'Stork's Nest' +are left to rejoice with me!" + +"Simple, honourable, sensible" little William had accomplished the great +things his mother had hoped one of her children would do for mankind. +Before he had gone to fight the French Emperor, Napoleon III, at the +battle of Sedan, he had prayed at his mother's tomb that he might do +great things for Prussia. After the Germans entered Paris all the states +had elected him Emperor and Germany at last was one Fatherland. + +And now he was returning to Berlin with Bismarck and von Moltke, his +councillor and general. + +Suddenly Carl smiled. + +"Ah," he said as the Royal guests passed in their carriages, "there is +the Dowager Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. See, Richard, the +pretty old lady with the white hair. She was the Royal baby when we were +at Memel. She was named Alexandrina for the Czar, and how the old +Countess loved her! They called her 'The Little Autocrat.' I remember +Princess Louisa, who was named for the Queen and who was the baby at +Königsburg, died during the war. There is 'The Red Hussar,' grandson of +Queen Louisa. Ach Himmel! What a hero!" + +When the people of Berlin saw the kind, good face of "little William," +their new Kaiser, cries rent the air. "Long live the Emperor! Hoch der +Kaiser! Hoch!" There were cheers for his wife, also, the granddaughter +of the Duchess of Weimar, who so bravely answered Napoleon. + +As for old Frederick Barbarossa, there is a poet who tells us that, when +he heard all the noise the Germans were making, he sent a sleepy little +page from Kryffhäuser to see what the ravens were up to. + +"They have flown away, Kaiser," announced the frightened little page as +he ran back to the table. + +With a great yawn the old Kaiser rose from his chair and stretched +himself. His sword in one hand, his sceptre in the other, a glittering +crown on his flaming hair, he came blinking into the sunlight. + +"Ach Himmel!" he cried, for before him were all the lords of Germany, no +longer fighting and quarrelling with each other, but smiling and singing +the lively tunes of "Germany over all," "United Germany shall it be," +and "The Watch on the Rhine." + +The old Redbeard beamed with delight. + +"One Germany!" he cried, "then God be thanked and praised! One Germany!" + +He turned to little William, standing between Bismarck and von Moltke, +the statesman and general who had made him "Kaiser." + +In his hand he laid the scepter, on his head he placed the crown. + +"These," he said, "I lay in thy hand." + +Then he breathed a long sigh of happiness. + +"God be praised," he said again. "I can now go to sleep and be happy," +and he went back into his cave to his ivory chair and his head sank to +his hands as he settled his elbows on the marble table and the old +Redbeard went again to his dreams. + +They say he still sleeps in Thuringia, but calmly and happily, because +there is one Germany, one Kaiser, and the ravens no longer trouble him. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +THE FOES AT REST + + +To-day, the two Royal Foes sleep in the two famous mausoleums of the +Continent, Queen Louisa at Charlottenburg, Napoleon in Paris. Beneath +the dome of "Les Invalides" is the sarcophagus of Bonaparte. On the +mosaic pavement the names of his battles are inscribed within a wreath +of laurel. Sixty flags that he captured adorn the tomb decorated with +reliefs and lighted by a glow which falls, most golden, about the coffin +of the conqueror. + +With him sleep his faithful Duroc and the Bertrand who brought his +message to Queen Louisa and so offended the old Countess with his bad +manners. + +The words above the entrance are Napoleon's own: + +"I desire that my ashes repose on the banks of the Seine in the midst of +the French people I loved so well." + +On each side is a figure of Atlas, one bearing a globe, the other, a +sceptre and crown. + +All is of earthly glory and victory. + +Queen Louisa sleeps in a spot where she once loved to walk with her +husband and children. A quiet avenue of pine trees leads to a grove of +black firs, cypresses and Babylonian willows, bordered with white roses, +lilies, Hortensia, the favourite flowers of the Queen, and at the end +stands the mausoleum which Frederick William erected to her memory. + +A flight of steps leads through the iron door to the interior, where, in +a violet light, sleeps the Queen, the King, and the Emperor William and +the granddaughter of the Duchess of Weimar. + +The sculptor, Rauch, to whom the Queen once was very kind, carved a +statue of her so beautiful that it is almost impossible to gaze on its +loveliness without weeping. + +At her feet is buried the heart of the Crown Prince, King Frederick +William IV of Prussia, in a case of silver. + +As long as her husband lived he brought wreaths to the tomb. Before +Charlotte went to be Empress of Russia, she wept there. The first +Kaiser, to the end of his long life, prayed there, and little +Alexandrina, who died only a year or two ago, and saw her parent's +prayer answered, never forgot the wreath for her mother's birthday. + +Above the entrance appear two Greek letters. + +"I am Alpha and Omega," they say, "the beginning and the ending, saith +the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty." + +The golden light which falls on Napoleon tells of the glory of the world +and things of victory. + +Queen Louisa's kingdom was not, as she said, of this world; but still +she lives, the "Queen of Every Heart" in the German Empire, "Her name," +writes a German author, "a watchword with the patriot." + +Napoleon was the Emperor of the French, the conqueror of Europe; Queen +Louisa, the heroine of the German Struggle for Liberty. + + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Two Royal Foes, by Eva Madden + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TWO ROYAL FOES *** + +***** This file should be named 34220-8.txt or 34220-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/2/2/34220/ + +Produced by Darleen Dove, D Alexander, Mary Meehan and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/34220-8.zip b/34220-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..36bcda3 --- /dev/null +++ b/34220-8.zip diff --git a/34220-h.zip b/34220-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fdb7d29 --- /dev/null +++ b/34220-h.zip diff --git a/34220-h/34220-h.htm b/34220-h/34220-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b18a53f --- /dev/null +++ b/34220-h/34220-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,10221 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<!-- $Id: header.txt 236 2009-12-07 18:57:00Z vlsimpson $ --> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Two Royal Foes, by Eva Madden. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; +} /* page numbers */ + +.linenum { + position: absolute; + top: auto; + left: 4%; +} /* poetry number */ + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +.sidenote { + width: 20%; + padding-bottom: .5em; + padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; + padding-right: .5em; + margin-left: 1em; + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; + color: black; + background: #eeeeee; + border: dashed 1px; +} + +.bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + +.bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + +.bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + +.br {border-right: solid 2px;} + +.bbox {border: solid 2px;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.u {text-decoration: underline;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold;} + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +.figleft { + float: left; + clear: left; + margin-left: 0; + margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 1em; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +.figright { + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-left: 1em; + margin-bottom: + 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 0; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: + none; +} + +/* Poetry */ +.poem { + margin-left:10%; + margin-right:10%; + text-align: left; +} + +.poem br {display: none;} + +.poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + +.poem span.i0 { + display: block; + margin-left: 0em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.poem span.i2 { + display: block; + margin-left: 2em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.poem span.i4 { + display: block; + margin-left: 4em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + .poem span.i8 {display: block; margin-left: 8em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i10 {display: block; margin-left: 10em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i12 {display: block; margin-left: 12em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i14 {display: block; margin-left: 14em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i26 {display: block; margin-left: 26em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Two Royal Foes, by Eva Madden + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Two Royal Foes + +Author: Eva Madden + +Illustrator: The Kinneys + +Release Date: November 6, 2010 [EBook #34220] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TWO ROYAL FOES *** + + + + +Produced by Darleen Dove, D Alexander, Mary Meehan and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + +<h1>TWO ROYAL FOES</h1> + +<h2>By EVA MADDEN</h2> + + +<h3>ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE KINNEYS</h3> + +<h3>NEW YORK<br /> +THE McCLURE COMPANY<br /> +MCMVII</h3> + +<h3><i>Copyright, 1907, by The McClure Company</i></h3> + +<h3>Published, October, 1907</h3> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus1" id="illus1"></a> +<img src="images/illus1.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<h3><i>Bettina</i></h3> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<p> +<a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I. <span class="smcap">The Mighty Foe</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II. <span class="smcap">The Angel of Prussia</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III. <span class="smcap">At Jena</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV. <span class="smcap">At the Forest House</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V. <span class="smcap">The Journey</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI. <span class="smcap">The Downfall</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII. <span class="smcap">On the Road To Memel</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII. <span class="smcap">Among Friends</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX. <span class="smcap">The Stork's Nest</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X. <span class="smcap">Fresh Troubles</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI. <span class="smcap">The Mother of Her People</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII. <span class="smcap">Otto</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII. <span class="smcap">The Journal</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV. <span class="smcap">Princess Louisa</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV. <span class="smcap">The Marriage</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI. <span class="smcap">What Happened To Hans</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII. <span class="smcap">At Tilsit</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII. <span class="smcap">The Escape</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX. <span class="smcap">The Foes Meet</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX. <span class="smcap">The Answer</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI. <span class="smcap">The Herr Lieutenant</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII. <span class="smcap">Days of Darkness</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII. <span class="smcap">The Entrance into Berlin </span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV. <span class="smcap">"my Queen, My Poor Queen!"</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV. <span class="smcap">Afterwards</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">CHAPTER XXVI. <span class="smcap">The Check</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">CHAPTER XXVII. <span class="smcap">The People's War</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">CHAPTER XXVIII. <span class="smcap">The Foe Conquered</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">CHAPTER XXIX. <span class="smcap">Thuringia</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXX">CHAPTER XXX. <span class="smcap">The Foes at Rest</span></a><br /> +</p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + + +<p><a href="#illus1"><span class="smcap">Bettina</span></a></p> + +<p><a href="#illus2"><span class="smcap">"My Dollie is Named Anna"</span></a></p> + +<p><a href="#illus3"><span class="smcap">"Sire, with Magdeburg?"</span></a></p> + +<p><a href="#illus4"><span class="smcap">"I Have Some News to Tell You"</span></a></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>TWO ROYAL FOES</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>THE MIGHTY FOE</h3> + + +<p>One afternoon, a hundred and one years ago, old Hans took little Bettina +to visit her godmother, Frau Schmidt, who lived in a red-roofed house +not far from the old church of St. Michael's in Jena.</p> + +<p>Bettina loved to go to Frau Schmidt's. First, there was Wilhelm, her +godmother's son, who was so good to her, and cut her toys out of wood, +and told her all kinds of fine stories. And then there were the +soldiers. They were everywhere, standing in groups about the Market, +marching in companies, or clattering on horses through the never quiet +streets.</p> + +<p>The way from Bettina's home to Jena led through a deep, still, green +forest, and as she and her grandfather strolled along that October +afternoon the little girl begged him for a story.</p> + +<p>"Ja, ja, my Bettina," and the old man gave her a smile, "there is old +Frederick Barbarossa."</p> + +<p>Then, with a "Once upon a time," he told her how, in a cave in their own +Thuringian Wood in the Kyffhäuser Mountain, an old emperor of Germany +had slept for hundreds and hundreds of years, his head on his elbows, +which rested on a great stone table in the middle of the cavern.</p> + +<p>"And his beard, child, has grown down to the floor, and it is red as a +flame, and his hair—it is red, too, quite blazing, child, they +say—wraps about him like a veil. And before the cave and around it—you +can see them yourself, little one, if you go there—are ravens, cawing +and cawing and flying ever in circles."</p> + +<p>"And when will the old Emperor wake up, dear grandfather?" Bettina had a +sweet, high little voice which quivered with eagerness. The old man +shook his head.</p> + +<p>"No man knows, child," he answered, "but I have heard always that one +day the ravens will flap their wings, caw aloud, and fly forever away +from the mountain. And then," his blue eyes flashed, "the old Kaiser +shall awake; he shall grasp his great sword in his hand and holding it +fast shall come forth from his gloomy old cave to the sunlight."</p> + +<p>"And then, dear grandfather, what then?"</p> + +<p>"There shall great things be done, dear child." Again his eyes flashed. +"Germany shall stretch herself like the old Redbeard. She, too, is +asleep, and she shall take her sword in her hand and come forth, and we +shall be one people, one great, great Fatherland." The old face grew +dreamy, the voice, very slow.</p> + +<p>"And will there always be fighting, dear grandfather?"</p> + +<p>Hans shook his head.</p> + +<p>"Nein, nein, the old Redbeard is to bring war which shall make peace."</p> + +<p>Hans was silent for a moment and then, with a laugh, he lifted a very +full, deep voice and sang an old German song of the same Kaiser +Barbarossa, and when Bettina caught the tune, she sang, too, and the old +forest rang with the music all the way to Jena.</p> + +<p>When they entered the town the old man took Bettina almost to the +church.</p> + +<p>"Now, little one," he said, "run away to Tante Gretchen and tell her to +keep you until I come after supper."</p> + +<p>"Auf wiedersehen, dear grandfather," and off trotted the little girl and +into her godmother's house with a "Good-day, dear Tante Gretchen!"</p> + +<p>Wilhelm was at home, and he carved Bettina a little doll, and she +enjoyed herself very much indeed, hearing all about the soldiers and all +that they were doing in Jena, but she was only nine years old and tired +with her walk, and so, when long after supper her grandfather opened the +door, she was fast asleep in her chair, her tired little feet dangling.</p> + +<p>Frau Schmidt greeted him crossly.</p> + +<p>"Don't excuse yourself, Hans," she said. "You forgot the child, I know +it. Perhaps you have been home and had to come back for her? Nein? Well, +what was it then that kept you? You know, Hans, how anxious her mother +will be, with the child out in the night time."</p> + +<p>The old man hung his head. Certainly he had forgotten the child. He was +always forgetting everything and everybody, and some day, as the women +of his family were always telling him, he was certain to have a good +lesson, a lesson, perhaps, which might teach him to remember.</p> + +<p>"You are right, Gretchen," he said, "but, you see, my dear woman, when +an old soldier of Frederick the Great meets again the Prussians, there +is much news to hear, isn't there?" And he looked with smiling blue eyes +into Frau Schmidt's kind, plump countenance.</p> + +<p>"Well, well," she said, her frown vanishing, "but come now, it's a +dreadful night and you must have a glass of beer before you start out +into the darkness. Willy, uncork the bottle there."</p> + +<p>Then she went to Bettina.</p> + +<p>"Wake up, Liebchen," and she gave her a tiny shake.</p> + +<p>"Is it Frederick Barbarossa?" And Bettina came forth from dreamland.</p> + +<p>"Nein, nein, child, it's grandfather," and she wrapped the little girl +in her shawl. "But wake up now. It is late, and time to go home to +mother."</p> + +<p>Then she turned to Hans, Bettina's little hand held fast in hers.</p> + +<p>"Quick, friend, hurry," she said, "and be off now. The night is terrible +and Annchen will be anxious, will she not?" And she nodded to Wilhelm to +hold the light.</p> + +<p>Draining his glass, Hans set it down on the table with a sigh of +pleasure.</p> + +<p>"Ja, ja," he said, as he drew closer his cloak.</p> + +<p>"A moment," and Frau Schmidt stepped to the tall, green porcelain stove +which served, before firetime, as her storehouse.</p> + +<p>"Here," she said, and from one of its little recesses she brought forth +a bundle done up with paper and string.</p> + +<p>"Some sausages, please, for Anna," and she gave Hans the package, "and +best greetings."</p> + +<p>Then, in her quick, kind way, she hurried them to the door, bundling +Bettina more closely as they went.</p> + +<p>"Auf wiedersehen, good-night, good-night," and she held open the door. +"The weather truly is dreadful. Here, Willy, here, my son, hold the +candle higher. Ja, ja, that is better. Can you see, Hans? Good-night, +Bettina. Best greetings to your dear mother, and good-night, +good-night."</p> + +<p>"Good-night, dear Tante, good-night, Willy," and Bettina stumbled +sleepily off with her grandfather, Willy calling after her not to let +the Erl King get her.</p> + +<p>It was, indeed, a dreadful night. The candle which Wilhelm held high, +standing long in the doorway, made but little impression on a fog which, +wrapping the world in mystery, stung Bettina in the face, choked up her +throat and gave her a queer feeling of having lost even the world +itself.</p> + +<p>She drew close to her grandfather and nestled against his side, her hand +seeking his in the darkness.</p> + +<p>"Ja, ja, little one," he said, "do not fear, child, grandfather knows +every step of the way."</p> + +<p>He might know the way, but he certainly did not know the puddles.</p> + +<p>Splash!</p> + +<p>Bettina's little wooden shoe went deep into the water.</p> + +<p>Bump!</p> + +<p>One foot was in a hole, a bush held fast her shawl.</p> + +<p>It would be all right when they reached the forest and the path went +straight between the fir trees, but here it was awful.</p> + +<p>"Ach Himmel," groaned Hans, splashing and stumbling, "but your mother +will scold, little one! But what could your poor grandfather do? I find +it good that a man hear the war news and, talking with the soldiers, I +forgot the hour."</p> + +<p>"Never mind, dear grandfather," came the little voice out of the fog. +"Mother will be in bed and we will slip in, oh, so lightly, just like a +kitty, and she won't hear a sound."</p> + +<p>Bettina took care of her grandfather like an old woman, her father +always said, and so she tried to speak very bravely.</p> + +<p>She might talk bravely; talking is easy enough even for little Bettinas; +but to feel bravely is quite a different thing and, deep down in her +heart, Bettina was frightened to coldness.</p> + +<p>Willy had told her the story of the Erl King who gets children who are +out on wild nights. He promises them toys and all sorts of playthings, +and then when they listen he clasps them in his arms until they are +frozen and dead. And this King has two daughters and they call out +through the storm.</p> + +<p>Would he get her, this Erl King?</p> + +<p>Little Bettina shivered all over.</p> + +<p>From over towards Jena she surely heard a tramp, and sometimes she +seemed to see the waving of the Erl King's mantle in the fog.</p> + +<p>But her grandfather kept on with his talking.</p> + +<p>"Ja, ja," he said, "we'll beat them, we'll beat them. We'll give the +French a lesson this time, our soldiers all promise it. And that +Corsican—we'll teach him, too. Why not? We Prussians are three to the +French one, and soldiers of Frederick the Great to boot. Ja wohl, little +one, we'll have a famous victory!"</p> + +<p>But Bettina was not listening.</p> + +<p>While her grandfather had gone on with his talk, her little hand had +grown cold in his clasp, her tongue had become dry, and her back felt as +if water were running down it.</p> + +<p>It was the Erl King that was coming, Ach Himmel! she knew it.</p> + +<p>There were his two eyes, blazing like great stars through the fog.</p> + +<p>Nearer they came, and nearer, and she heard the tramp of his steed, and, +oh, if he called her, not even her grandfather could hold her, Willy had +said so.</p> + +<p>Brighter grew the eyes, and brighter.</p> + +<p>"Grandfather," she tried to call, but her throat would not move. Nearer +the Erl King came, and between the eyes she saw something great, and +tall, and white, and dreadful. Nearer it came. Nearer! Nearer!</p> + +<p>"Ach Himmel!" Her grandfather's voice broke the spell. "But who are +coming?"</p> + +<p>Then the two great eyes suddenly turned into torches, and one was held +by the Postmaster of Jena, and the other by a French officer, and +between them the lights showed a white horse, and on its back sat a man +whose eyes seemed to pierce right through the fog and the darkness.</p> + +<p>Bettina shrank against her grandfather. The one on the horse frightened +her even as much as if he were the Erl King. Never had she seen such +piercing eyes nor felt so terrified. He was small and stout, and he wore +an overcoat of green with white facings. His hat was folded up front and +back, and his mouth was as beautiful as the rest of his face was hard +and terrifying. But even his beautiful lips seemed to say, "Keep out of +my way, or I shall ride over you."</p> + +<p>One firm, strong hand held the bridle of his horse, with the other he +pointed, his whip held fast, through the fog towards the dim outline of +the great old mountain of Dornburg.</p> + +<p>When he spoke it was in French. Bettina could not understand him, but +Hans, who, like most Germans of that day, spoke both languages, heard +him say:</p> + +<p>"Those Prussians have left the heights. They were afraid," then, with a +laugh of scorn, he interrupted himself, "afraid of the night," he +continued, "and have descended to sleep in the valley. They believe that +we shall not take advantage of their slumber." Again he laughed, and so +disagreeably that Bettina shivered; "but they are dreadfully mistaken, +those old wigs!"</p> + +<p>Laughter joined with his, and two horses appeared in his rear and the +torches revealed their riders to be French Marshals in uniform.</p> + +<p>But the Postmaster was silent, his face darkening.</p> + +<p>As for Hans, he muttered under his breath to Bettina:</p> + +<p>"Ach Himmel, but hear him. He calls the generals of Frederick the Great, +'old wigs.'"</p> + +<p>"Grandfather," Bettina pulled at him to bend down and listen, "is it the +Erl King? Will he get me?"</p> + +<p>"The Erl King?" The old man was completely puzzled. "The one on the +white horse, child, you mean? That, my Bettina, is the Emperor!"</p> + +<p>The Emperor! Oh, Heavens! Then, indeed, did Bettina wish that she was +home with her mother. Better the Erl King, better the old witch who got +Hans and Gretel, better any number of cruel step-mothers: better all the +witches, giants and ogres than the dreadful monster everyone called "The +Emperor!"</p> + +<p>Only that afternoon had her godmother told Willy that he lived but for +blood, and that Death followed every step of that white horse.</p> + +<p>"It would be well for the world if God took him," she had added, and now +this dreadful monster was pointing his whip at her, little Bettina +Weyland, and asking the Postmaster who were these people in his path.</p> + +<p>When he had an answer he motioned them to pass quickly. Then, +dismounting, he and his generals proceeded up the hill of Jena.</p> + +<p>As Hans and Bettina went on their way his voice followed after, and it +was not pleasant things it said, for it stormed at Marshal Lannes +because his artillery had stuck fast in a gorge. And then Hans heard +something about the Prussians and good-morning.</p> + +<p>As for Hans he was hot with fury.</p> + +<p>"'Old wigs,'" he kept muttering, "'Old wigs,' indeed! Did you hear him, +the villain, Bettina, call our generals 'old wigs'?"</p> + +<p>But Bettina had herself, and not the generals of Prussia, to think of.</p> + +<p>"Grandfather," she cried, "grandfather, will the Emperor get us?"</p> + +<p>Her grandfather laughed almost merrily,</p> + +<p>"Nein, nein, little one," he said. "In a day or two the soldiers of +Frederick the Great will set that white horse scampering back to Paris. +Nein, nein, my little Bettina, there is nothing to fear. But come, here +is our path in the forest. We are safe now, and out of the puddles."</p> + +<p>Their home lay on the edge of the deep, green wood, a little red-roofed +forest house with a paved courtyard, with a barn for the cows, and a +garden in front. It was a lovely spot, but a very lonely one, but they +must live there because Bettina's father, Kaspar Weyland, was an under +forester. But just then he was in the army and Frau Weyland was alone +with the children.</p> + +<p>Her voice reached them almost as soon as they came out of the deep +forest.</p> + +<p>"Father, is that you?" she called. "Father!"</p> + +<p>"Ja, ja, dear daughter. Open the door and hear the news."</p> + +<p>"God be thanked you have come." And she appeared in the doorway, holding +in one hand a light, and drawing a shawl about her bed-gown with the +other.</p> + +<p>"Oh, father, father, how could you?"</p> + +<p>She was young and looked like a grown-up Bettina with golden hair +showing under the edges of her nightcap. She shut the door hastily as +they entered.</p> + +<p>"Annchen, Annchen," the old man made no excuses, "we have just seen the +Emperor in the fields near Jena."</p> + +<p>"The Emperor!" Frau Weyland set down her light. Her father nodding, she +cried out, wringing her hands:</p> + +<p>"Ach Gott! Ach Gott! Then, father, we shall have a battle."</p> + +<p>The old man shrugged his broad shoulders.</p> + +<p>"It may be, daughter," he bent down and kissed her, "but who can tell? +The Prussians, to-day, said not."</p> + +<p>Then, sitting in a wooden chair by the table, she, standing and +listening, Bettina's hand in hers, he told all he had heard at Jena and +described their adventures, weary little Bettina sleepily listening. And +he told how the Prussian soldiers had gone early to bed because of the +damp and the fog, and of how they had no cloaks, and how, the bread +giving out, they had been on half rations for some days.</p> + +<p>"But their spirits are brave, daughter," he added, "and you never heard +such boasting. They are certain of victory; certain, Anna. Prince +Hohenlohe was with them this afternoon, and he laughed like a boy when a +soldier declared that he would catch one Frenchman, another two, a +third, four, and so on. You never heard such boasting."</p> + +<p>Frau Weyland shook her head, her nightcap bobbing.</p> + +<p>"Boasting, father, never won a prize yet. It is doing that counts, and +the Emperor was out in such weather, studying the field, and the +Prussians sleeping. Ach, I do not find that promising."</p> + +<p>Then suddenly she ran to her father, she clung to him like a child, her +blue eyes gazing up into his like Bettina's.</p> + +<p>"Ah, father," her lips quivered, "if there should be a battle and my +Kaspar——"</p> + +<p>The old man wrapped her in his strong arms. She was his only child and +the best of daughters.</p> + +<p>"There will be a battle, dear Anna," he said quite solemnly; "it is war, +now, and there must be. But why should harm come to Kaspar? Look at +me——"</p> + +<p>His eyes began to kindle, and his daughter, who knew what was coming, +loosened his arms and rose.</p> + +<p>"Why, in the battle of——"</p> + +<p>"Ja, ja, father," Frau Weyland interrupted with a half smile. When her +father began on his battles time might go its way unheeded. "I know, you +have told me. But come now, we have forgotten our little Bettina. She +must at once go to bed. It is late enough, goodness knows."</p> + +<p>Then she unpinned Bettina's shawl and shook out the damp.</p> + +<p>"Good-night, dear father," she kissed the old man tenderly, "sleep well, +and I'll call you in time in the morning. Oh, the sausage is from +Gretchen? Many thanks and good-night. Come, come, Bettina," and she +started towards her own room.</p> + +<p>Her father proceeded in the opposite direction. On the threshold of a +second door he paused.</p> + +<p>"Annchen," he called, for his daughter had departed.</p> + +<p>"Ja, father," she came back to her door holding Bettina by the hand.</p> + +<p>"He called our generals 'old wigs,' 'old wigs,' did you understand, +daughter? The generals of the Great Frederick's army, and he, an upstart +villain of a Corsican. Old wigs, indeed! Let him wait, the monster, +we'll show him, we'll show him."</p> + +<p>With a last good-night the old soldier of Frederick the Great departed +to snore away under his feather bed quite the same as if nothing had +happened.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>THE ANGEL OF PRUSSIA</h3> + + +<p>Next morning Frau Weyland called Bettina early.</p> + +<p>"Good-morning, dear child," she said, kissing her round little cheek. +"Grandfather must go far into the forest. Would you like to go with him? +You may have a little basket like a wood gatherer and bring mother back +some faggots."</p> + +<p>Bettina was glad, indeed, to get up. She had had a dreadful time. All +night long it had seemed to her that the awful Emperor was always trying +to catch her, and then she would wake with a start. Sometimes he had a +long, red beard, sometimes he was draped in grey mist and wore a golden +crown; and always he was riding the white horse.</p> + +<p>Her mother looked at her kindly.</p> + +<p>"If you are tired, dear," she began, but Bettina was eager to go.</p> + +<p>"Nein, nein, dear mother," she cried, "I love to go with grandfather."</p> + +<p>So she hurried on her clothes and drank her milk and ate her bread and +said "Auf wiedersehen" to her mother. Then she started off with her +grandfather. Frau Weyland stood in the door and watched them, waving her +hand and smiling.</p> + +<p>She was very pretty. When she was sixteen, and only just betrothed to +Kaspar Weyland, people said she was like the "Lorelei," the maiden who +sits on a rock in the Rhine and sings songs to enchant the boatmen, all +the time combing her golden hair and gazing in a jewelled mirror.</p> + +<p>And she was so good to old Hans, and never cross with Bettina, and +always the meals were hot and ready, and the house clean and quiet. +About the doorway grew a vine and October had brought the frost and +turned it crimson. It fell all about her like a frame as she stood +there, so gentle and smiling. It was foggy still, but there was a light +in the sky before which the mist must soon vanish. When they reached the +gate Hans turned for a last "Auf wiedersehen" to his Annchen.</p> + +<p>"Till we meet again" it means, and little did old</p> + +<p>Hans think as he waved his hand to his daughter that never in all the +world was he ever to hear his golden-haired Anna again. How could he? +What could happen? She was never so well in all her life, and he and +Bettina would return to dinner. So gaily he and the little girl entered +the forest and presently, through the fog, they saw a great red ball of +a sun which grew brighter and brighter.</p> + +<p>As for Frau Weyland, she returned to her work. There was much to do with +two children to wash and dress, a house to clean, chickens to feed, +cream cheese to make, and dinner to prepare for the family.</p> + +<p>The daylight showed Hans to be tall and strong with broad shoulders and +the walk of a soldier. His grey hair was drawn back and tied in a queue, +and on one ruddy cheek was a scar from a sabre cut. Hans was very proud +of this, because he had won it in one of the battles of the Great +Frederick. His eyes were like his daughter's and like Bettina's, very +blue, and very big, and gleaming with gentleness. But in Hans' eyes +there was something different. At once were they merry and full of +dreams as if he could joke and yet be, also, very melancholy.</p> + +<p>As for Bettina, she was a little fairy of a girl who tripped along and +seemed barely to touch the ground. Her hair was golden and hung in two +tight little braids to her waist. Her dress was of red and made very +high under her arms and clinging about her little ankles. Her head was +quite bare, and a deep little wicker basket was strapped on her back in +which to bring home some pine cones or scrub oak leaves for the goat.</p> + +<p>"I'm a wood gatherer, grandfather," she pretended, and tripped along +behind him.</p> + +<p>She loved her grandfather. He told such nice stories and never was cross +like her grandfather Weyland, who always said children should be seen, +not heard, and in an entirely different tone from the pleasant one he +used with grown people.</p> + +<p>"I love the forest, grandfather." Bettina's eyes sparkled.</p> + +<p>"Ja, ja, little one," said Hans, "it is German to love all Nature, and, +truly, our forest is beautiful."</p> + +<p>Bettina nodded and gazed about at the tall giant-like pines and her +little nose drew in the deep fragrance of the firs. She was glad that +she did not live in Jena, but deep in this lovely Thuringian wood, where +the trunks of the trees looked like armies of soldiers. There were +lovely things in the forest.</p> + +<p>In its thick, pine-needle carpet grew lovely toadstools, red and yellow +and brown, and sometimes all queerly shaped and striped and just like +umbrellas and parasols. And the moss was thick and grew like a velvet +carpet and raised up the dearest little red cups, and the ferns waved +like feathers, and, in spring, there were the lilies of the valley which +rang tiny white bells for the fairies to come and dance round the gay +little toadstools. And, later, there were the Canterbury bells, so +lovely and purple. And, in and out the trees, ran great, bushy-tailed +red squirrels who peeped at her with eyes bright and sparkling, and +sometimes she saw little companies of deer and tiny fawns with their +mothers, and their eyes were like "Little Brother" in the fairy tale, +for it was in these very forests that some of the witches once lived, +and the fairies in "Grimm," and many of the people of the German +stories.</p> + +<p>Bettina knew that the fairies slept on the moss and danced under the +toadstools, only it was strange that she never had seen them, nor had +her mother, nor her father, nor her grandfather, nor Willy.</p> + +<p>But they were there. All the stories said so.</p> + +<p>"Do you think, grandfather," she asked, "that 'Little Brother' really +was turned into a fawn?"</p> + +<p>"Who can tell, Kindlein?" answered old Hans, but his mind was on other +things than Bettina and her fairy tales.</p> + +<p>"Hard times! hard times!" he muttered. "Always war somewhere, and what +then for poor people? Work! Work! Work!"</p> + +<p>Bettina was too small to understand, but, certainly, affairs were +gloomy.</p> + +<p>The King of Prussia had declared war upon the Emperor of the French; the +Duke of Weimar, ruler of the forest they were walking through and friend +of the great poet, Goethe, had joined the king as his ally. And now +soldiers were round about and everywhere.</p> + +<p>Soldiers were nothing new to Bettina. She had seen them all her life. +But the Emperor of the French! That was another thing, and an awful one. +She shuddered as her grandfather muttered his name.</p> + +<p>He was a dreadful man. Her mother always said so. At the mention of his +name every child in Germany behaved itself. And to think that she, +Bettina Weyland, had seen this monster on the white horse everybody +talked so about.</p> + +<p>Remembering the night before, Bettina trembled. Then, too, it seemed to +her that she kept hearing a queer sound of roaring—not loud, but far +away towards Jena, a rumble which frightened her.</p> + +<p>But old Hans seemed to hear nothing. His mind, as old minds will, had +travelled into the past and he had forgotten the Thuringian Wood, the +bright-eyed red squirrels, the deer, and even little Bettina chatting so +innocently as she trotted along behind him.</p> + +<p>In his day the world had changed greatly, old things were passing away +and no one knew what was coming.</p> + +<p>In America, the Colonies under Washington had won their independence and +founded a Republic. In France, there had been a dreadful Revolution, and +Louis the Sixteenth and Marie Antoinette had been guillotined. A +Corsican soldier first had become France's first consul, and now he was +the Emperor Bettina so dreaded. The Holy Roman Empire, whose Emperor had +lived in Vienna and ruled Germany, was no more, and France's Emperor, +Napoleon, had brought war all over the world. Europe had been fighting +during Hans' whole lifetime, and all the small countries had belonged +so to first one big one and then another, that it was hard sometimes to +exactly know who was one's ruler.</p> + +<p>"And now," said Hans aloud, "the French have come into Thuringia, and +our troubles begin."</p> + +<p>How dreadful these troubles were to be the old man had not even an idea. +Little did he think as he walked along with Bettina that before +twenty-four hours should have passed, a nation should fall, his own home +be no more, and Thuringia blood-stained and overrun with soldiers.</p> + +<p>What he did know was that the King of Prussia and the Duke of Brunswick +were at Auerstädt, Prince Hohenlohe at Jena, and Napoleon, with the +French, in the same neighbourhood.</p> + +<p>"But there will be no battle; nonsense," the Prussians had all told him +in Jena. "And if there should be, who, tell us, would be victors but the +soldiers of Frederick the Great? Was not his army invincible?"</p> + +<p>"What matter?" they had answered when someone had ventured to refer to +Napoleon and his victories. "He must yield to us Prussians. Why not? The +moment that he heard that we were at Jena did he not leave Weimar in +haste and retreat to Gera?"</p> + +<p>In security they had gone to rest, and while they slept, Napoleon had +been planning a surprise for them.</p> + +<p>While old Hans was thinking, he suddenly found out what the Emperor had +meant by his good-morning.</p> + +<p>"Grandfather, oh, grandfather!" in sudden fright called out little +Bettina, "Oh, grandfather, what is it?"</p> + +<p>Hans' neck had stretched itself forward, his ears were listening, his +whole body on a strain, for a roar, deep and full and awful, seemed +suddenly to roll through the quiet of the silent, green forest.</p> + +<p>"Grandfather!"</p> + +<p>The old man turned his face as excited as a boy's.</p> + +<p>"Himmel, child, Himmel!" he cried. "The Emperor is saying good-morning. +It is cannon you hear. The battle has begun at Jena!"</p> + +<p>"Come, come," he continued, "I will not go any farther. Let the trees +take care of themselves for this morning. Come, come! What has an old +soldier of Frederick the Great to do with fir trees when the cannon are +sounding for battle?" And he started quickly in an opposite direction. +Bettina had to run so to keep up with him that her breath came in little +pants and her heart beat violently. But the roar was so awful she was +glad to be running to get away from it.</p> + +<p>If that was the voice of Napoleon saying good-morning, no wonder people +were afraid of him.</p> + +<p>"Grandfather," she panted, "dear grandfather, will the Emperor get my +father?"</p> + +<p>Hans' glowing face became suddenly sober. He had forgotten his +son-in-law, as he forgot everything. He paused in the narrow forest path +and raised his old blue eyes to Heaven.</p> + +<p>"Let us pray to the good God, my Bettina. He alone can save him in the +battle."</p> + +<p>For a moment he stood silent, his face gazing upward to the sky which +showed now between the fir trees. When he had ended his prayer he went +on more slowly and as they walked he told Bettina why the French and the +Prussians were fighting. For eight years, he said, the King of Prussia +had kept out of all the fighting in Europe, although both Russia and +Austria had entreated him to help them. But he declared that his country +was too poor, he loved peace, and his people needed quiet.</p> + +<p>"And wasn't that right, grandfather?" asked Bettina, who had been told +that fighting was wicked.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps, dear child, perhaps," the old soldier answered, "but it's a +good thing to help our neighbours when they need us. But the King of +Prussia is good and saving, too, not at all like the old King who spent +so much, and whose ministers brought Prussia to all this trouble."</p> + +<p>Then he explained how Napoleon would not let the King of Prussia alone, +how he had irritated him with taunts, how he had provoked him with +outrages, breaking a solemn promise about the Kingdom of Hanover, +quartering ten thousand soldiers on German soil, forming all the South +German States into a Confederation of the Rhine to depend upon him, and +not upon the Emperor of Austria, or the King of Prussia, and last, and +worst of all, defying the laws of nations, he had marched French +soldiers across neutral Prussia.</p> + +<p>"The King of Prussia is a good man, my Bettina, a very good man," old +Hans nodded. "He has saved much money for Prussia, but no man can stand +everything, and so now we have war."</p> + +<p>Bettina tried to listen, but all she could think of was the dreadful +Emperor on his white horse. She could see him again in his green +overcoat with its white facings, and feel the gleam of his eyes from +beneath his queer hat, and now he was firing cannon on her father. She +could not keep back her tears at the thought, and they rolled down her +cheeks and splashed to her red dress.</p> + +<p>"Will he get us, grandfather, will he get us?" she cried.</p> + +<p>"Nein, nein, little one," Hans answered. "That white horse will kick up +its heels and start back to Paris, perhaps this evening."</p> + +<p>"God be praised!" said little Bettina in the way all the Germans say +it. Then, suddenly, she pointed before her.</p> + +<p>In an opening in the forest where grew beeches, not evergreens, stood a +group of wood gatherers by a rippling stream which babbled through the +rocks, ferns dipping down their fronds from its banks to its water. They +were all women in short coloured skirts and loose jackets, deep wicker +baskets full of faggots strapped on their shoulders, their heads bare +and bowed a little because of the sticks, and their faces all frightened +and wild looking.</p> + +<p>"Herr Lange! Herr Lange!" they called when they saw Hans and little +Bettina, "what is it? What is all that roaring?"</p> + +<p>"Cannon," said Hans shortly. "The battle, women, has begun at Jena."</p> + +<p>Then came a noise of talk and tears and outcrying such as never is heard +out of Germany. Louisa had a husband with the Duke; Emma, a son; Grete, +a lover; Magdalena, a father.</p> + +<p>"Ach Gott! Ach Gott! Ach Gott!" sobbed a woman with sad dark eyes and +great shaggy white eyebrows. "The Poles killed my man," she wailed, "the +French, my sons; and now——"</p> + +<p>"Her grandsons are with the Duke," explained a pink-cheeked woman the +rest called Minna.</p> + +<p>"Come, come, women," Hans glanced kindly from one weeping face to the +other, "who says that your husbands and sons will be killed? They may +come home victorious; why not? The Prussians are three to the French +one. They are the soldiers of Frederick the Great, and is not your own +brave Duke helping them? Come, come, dry your tears. The thing, now, is +to get out of this forest. Who knows when the French will begin running +and the roads be full of soldiers?"</p> + +<p>He started forward with Bettina, and the wood-gatherers in single file +left the golden beechwood and, a line of bright colour, moved after him +through the deep, green forest, swallowing their tears and struggling +against their sobbing. On they went, the cannon roaring and thundering, +and, presently, they came out on a highway winding like a white ribbon +through the forest's greenness.</p> + +<p>They were but out of the path when a quick, noisy sound of hoofs on the +road made them start and stop suddenly.</p> + +<p>"Soldiers!" cried Hans, and the whole party scattered to the edge of the +forest.</p> + +<p>They were Prussians, and cavalry, and they acted as escort to a light, +closed travelling carriage.</p> + +<p>A dash, a rise of wet dust,—it had rained the day before,—hitting +them in their faces, and the cavalcade passed, the roar of the cannon +following like a pursuer.</p> + +<p>"We'll keep to the woods," and Hans changed their direction.</p> + +<p>Plunging again into the greenwood, they walked with the firs and pines +for company until the path brought them out on the highway opposite an +inn before which were the same Prussian soldiers, standing about +dismounted from their horses.</p> + +<p>The carriage was empty.</p> + +<p>Plainly some accident had happened, for a smith was busy at work on its +wheel. Herr Leo, the Head Forester, was asking questions, and Hans, +leading Bettina, pressed forward for the news, the wood gatherers +listening timidly on the edge of the crowd.</p> + +<p>The battle had begun before daybreak. The French guns had said an early +good-morning to the Prussians. The King was at Auerstädt.</p> + +<p>"And where is the Emperor?" The forester leaned on his gun, one hand on +his hip.</p> + +<p>"At Jena, naturally," said a great, red-faced Prussian, who was standing +with his arm round the neck of his horse.</p> + +<p>"The devil take him!" Herr Leo's nostrils swelled with anger.</p> + +<p>"Ja wohl," cried the whole party, which is the German way of agreeing.</p> + +<p>"I saw the Emperor last night, Herr Forester."</p> + +<p>Every eye turned on Hans.</p> + +<p>Then he told his story, and the brows of the soldiers grew gloomy.</p> + +<p>"He, the Devil, was awake," said one who leaned idly against the +doorpost, "and we were all sleeping." He shrugged his shoulders and +began biting his nails as if in irritation.</p> + +<p>"The Prussian generals are old," said the forester. He was a +pompous-looking man, and announced everything with an air of being a +herald.</p> + +<p>"He called them 'old wigs.'" Hans' face flushed. "The generals of +Frederick the Great's army 'old wigs'!"</p> + +<p>At that the soldiers uttered words which made the women shudder.</p> + +<p>The forester asked news of the fight at Saalfield. He had heard that +there had been a skirmish, he said.</p> + +<p>"Ach Gott," cried the soldiers, "have you not heard?"</p> + +<p>Then the listening ears were shocked with the news of the defeat and +death of Prince Louis Ferdinand, he who was the darling of the army, the +Alcibiades of Prussia, one of the bravest princes who ever took up arms +against an enemy.</p> + +<p>One thousand Saxons under this Prince had been surrounded in a narrow +valley by thirty thousand of the enemy. The Saxons had fought bravely, +but in vain. The horse of Prince Louis Ferdinand, leaping a ditch, +became entangled in a high hedge and was spied by a French hussar.</p> + +<p>"Surrender, or you are a dead man!" he cried, and, for answer, Prince +Louis Ferdinand cut at him with a sabre.</p> + +<p>The Frenchman retorted with a sword thrust and made an end of the most +gallant Prince in Germany.</p> + +<p>Bettina, listening, and not always entirely understanding, grew cold +with horror. She could see the flashing of the swords, and, oh, her +father, her dear father was at Jena, and while the talk went on the +cannon roared louder and louder.</p> + +<p>"The enemy captured thirty guns," said a red-faced soldier gloomily.</p> + +<p>"There were bad omens before the war," announced the forester pompously. +His wife, he told them, had been in Berlin and had seen the statue of +Bellona, goddess of war, fall from the roof of the Arsenal on the very +day when the King reviewed his army.</p> + +<p>"And when they had picked her up," continued the forester, "her right +arm was entirely shattered!"</p> + +<p>He had another thing to tell.</p> + +<p>Old Field Marshal von Müllendorf, being lifted on the left side of his +charger, had straightway fallen down on the right.</p> + +<p>At this the red-faced soldier looked impatient.</p> + +<p>It was certainly stupid in that big-nosed forester to be telling such +things to the soldiers.</p> + +<p>"The Queen has been in camp with us," he announced to change the +subject.</p> + +<p>Then Bettina pricked up her ears.</p> + +<p>Oh, if only they would tell more of the Queen of Prussia! Who in Europe +did not know of her beauty, her goodness, her love for her people? To +Bettina she was like a fairy princess, for her grandfather had told her, +over and over again, of how he had seen her ride into Berlin in a +splendid gold coach to marry the Crown Prince.</p> + +<p>But the soldiers had their thoughts just then on war and they were soon +talking again of the Emperor.</p> + +<p>"The Devil," announced the forester, "is the only being who can conquer +the Emperor."</p> + +<p>"Or the English," said Hans quietly; "remember Nelson and his victory of +Trafalgar."</p> + +<p>At this there was an outcry, the whole group protesting and talking.</p> + +<p>"Hold your tongue, old fool!" cried a fat, rude Prussian.</p> + +<p>"Ja, ja!" all the others approved him.</p> + +<p>"Are not the soldiers of Frederick the Great as brave as the sailors of +Nelson? Did not the Great Frederick himself say that the world was not +so well poised on the shoulders of Atlas as the Prussian monarchy on the +bayonets of the Prussian army?"</p> + +<p>"Ja wohl," cried the company.</p> + +<p>Then, suddenly, little Bettina's childish voice made the whole party +pause and listen. She spoke as fearlessly as if alone with Hans.</p> + +<p>"Grandfather," she said, "grandfather, do the soldiers know of Frederick +Barbarossa? Tell them, dear grandfather," her little face glowed with +excitement, "tell them the ravens will wake him and he will come with +the sword and kill the wicked Emperor," and she gazed from one face to +the other, her eyes bright and eager.</p> + +<p>A great laugh answered her, but one soldier, a kind-looking young man +with blue eyes, patted her head and said:</p> + +<p>"Brava, little one, brava! If the ravens won't caw enough, we'll wake +the old Redbeard with our cannon. Never fear, we'll wake him."</p> + +<p>He smiled at Bettina as if he knew how little girls feel, for perhaps he +had a little sister at home who also loved stories.</p> + +<p>Then, before the talk could begin again, out came an officer, and the +soldiers at his command mounted their horses. While the talk had gone +on, the smith had mended the wheel and now stood in his leather apron as +if waiting for something to happen.</p> + +<p>The Herr Ober-Forester stepped to one side and, with a wave of his +important hand, motioned the wood gatherers to move farther from the +carriage.</p> + +<p>The door of the inn was then thrown open by the Herr Landlord, bowing +almost to the ground as he did it. Four grand ladies and a gentleman +then approached the carriage. Nobody troubled much to look at two of the +ladies, though they were young and very noble in appearance.</p> + +<p>The third was so dignified that everybody stood up a little straighter. +Yet her face was as kind-looking as it was handsome. She was not young. +Years had turned her hair quite snow-white, and yet her eyes were as +bright and sparkling as a girl's, and she greeted them pleasantly.</p> + +<p>But it was at the fourth lady everyone gazed and gazed almost as if +enchanted. Never in all her life was little Bettina to see anyone half +so lovely. She was exactly like the Princesses in the Fairy Tales, tall +and slender, and the most graceful person in the whole world. Her hair +was quite golden and waved in the loveliest way from a parting in the +middle. Her complexion was pink and white and made you think of +snowdrops. Her features were quite perfect and her smile altogether +enchanting.</p> + +<p>And her eyes!</p> + +<p>"Never," the people of Berlin had said years before, "never have we seen +such eyes, never."</p> + +<p>They were blue, and deep in colour, and they seemed to speak right to +the heart and say things no one can write of. They were wonderful eyes, +the most wonderful then in Europe, and that is all there is about it.</p> + +<p>Though she looked worried and anxious, the moment she saw other faces +than those of the soldiers, she smiled first at one, then at the other.</p> + +<p>About her lovely throat was a light tissue scarf, and a breeze, seizing +it, blew its end sharply into the very face of the dignified, +bright-eyed old lady.</p> + +<p>"Pardon me, oh, pardon me, dear Voss," called out a voice so sweet that +Bettina and the wood gatherers thought they had never heard anything +like it. It thrilled them like gentle music. Then she swept away the +scarf and patted the old lady's shoulder.</p> + +<p>Her foot was on the carriage step, when, for the first time, she saw +little Bettina. Her lovely face suddenly lighted with a smile like a +mother's.</p> + +<p>"Voss, Voss," she said, "see that dear child. Do look at her."</p> + +<p>Then she stepped from the carriage and turned to Bettina.</p> + +<p>"God bless you, little one," she began, but a roar of cannon, loud and +thundering, came like a voice warning her to hasten. With a wave of her +hand she entered the carriage. From its window, when all were ready, she +thrust forth her lovely head.</p> + +<p>"God bless you all, good people!" called her voice of sweetness. Her +face now looked sad and very anxious. "Pray for me, dear people, pray +for my King and your good Duke who is helping him, pray the dear God +that He will give us the victory."</p> + +<p>Then she drew in her head; bang went the door; the officer gave an +order; the postilions sounded; and away dashed the carriage, the +splashing mud and the roar of cannon behind it.</p> + +<p>The women crowded around Hans.</p> + +<p>His face was radiant.</p> + +<p>"Who was it?" he cried. Then he spoke with great triumph. "Who better +than Hans Lange can tell you? I saw her ride into Berlin in a golden +coach to marry her husband. Women," his voice quivered, "the lady with +the golden hair and the blue eyes is the 'Angel of Prussia.' Yesterday, +in Jena, I heard how the Emperor of the French hates her and has vowed, +if he can, to capture her. It is from him, doubtless, that she is +flying."</p> + +<p>The old lady, he told the excited wood gatherers, was the Countess Marie +Sophie von Voss, Mistress of Ceremonies in the Prussian Court, and like +a mother to Her Majesty.</p> + +<p>"Oh, grandfather, oh, grandfather!" Bettina, in spite of the Emperor, in +spite of her father and the cannon, for the moment was again quite +happy. She had seen the Queen of Prussia, the most beautiful lady in all +Europe, and she had said, "God bless you."</p> + +<p>But her grandfather, listening to the cannon, turned to the wood +gatherers who were standing and discussing the Queen.</p> + +<p>"Go home, women," he said in a tone of command, "go home at once and see +that your children are in safety. We may win." He threw out his hands. +"We may not." He shrugged his shoulders. "Either way, you are better off +the highroad."</p> + +<p>Then he turned to the pink-cheeked young woman.</p> + +<p>"Minna," he said, "take Bettina, here, home to Frau Weyland. Ja, ja, go, +child; mother will be anxious. Go, now, and you can tell her how the +Queen spoke to you. And, Minna, tell Frau Weyland to go at once to her +father-in-law's with the children. She can lock the house, tell her, and +leave the dogs unchained. Herr Weyland can go up, or send Fritz, for the +night. I am going, myself, now, to Jena. Tell her, Bettina, to go at +once. No one knows when the soldiers will be everywhere."</p> + +<p>"Ja wohl," and Minna took the hand of Bettina.</p> + +<p>Her grandfather turned towards the roar of the cannon.</p> + +<p>"Auf wiedersehen," he said, and off he marched like a soldier.</p> + +<p>As for Bettina, she trotted along with the wood gatherers, her fright +all gone.</p> + +<p>Now that she had seen the lovely Queen and knew that the Emperor had +vowed to capture her, she could almost see the old Kaiser Barbarossa +rising from his sleep. His sword was flashing, his eyes were like fire, +and she knew that he would kill the monster, Napoleon, and save the +lovely Louisa.</p> + +<p>"Do you think," asked Minna, suddenly, "that the Queen will escape?"</p> + +<p>The women looked gloomy and shrugged their shoulders.</p> + +<p>"The Emperor does what he wills," said black-eyed Emma.</p> + +<p>"Ja wohl," agreed Magdalena. Then she shook her head wisely. "I say +this, women, poor as we are to-day, it is better to be wood gatherers of +Thuringia than the Queen of Prussia."</p> + +<p>"Ja wohl," they all said, "much better."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>AT JENA</h3> + + +<p>When old Hans left Bettina and the women he followed the highway until +he came to a path leading to a red-roofed farm house belonging to his +cousin.</p> + +<p>Seeing Herr Schmelze standing in the doorway, the old man went in.</p> + +<p>"Good-day," called the cousin. "Himmel, Hans, but the firing is awful!"</p> + +<p>Certainly the roar, always steady and loud, seemed to increase to a +noise like thunder. Towards Jena they saw a cloud of blue smoke rising +always thicker and higher. The air, usually so fresh with the breath of +the pines, choked their throats with its taste of powder. The din was +awful, shrieks, shots, and the cannon roar uniting. Before Hans could +even answer, the flying feet of the first fugitives were heard on the +road, men and frightened women, furniture on their backs, children in +their arms, hands holding what they could; on they came as if fiends +were at their heels, a great horror pursuing them.</p> + +<p>The cousin's wife, seeing Hans, came out to greet him. Her fingers were +held fast to her ears and she kept crying on God to help them.</p> + +<p>"Be quiet, Lotte," commanded her husband, "and bring Hans some +breakfast."</p> + +<p>She ran back into the house, and Herr Schmelze led the way to a rustic +table beneath an elm.</p> + +<p>"It is cold," said he, shivering at the dampness, "but out here it is +better, is it not? We can see all that is happening."</p> + +<p>Frau Schmelze returned with black bread, sausage, hard-boiled eggs, and +beer.</p> + +<p>Arranging them on the table, she bowed her head most piously.</p> + +<p>"Bless the mealtime," she said, jumping an "Amen" as the cannon +thundered a sudden volley.</p> + +<p>"Mealtime," answered the men, German fashion, and fell to eating.</p> + +<p>"Eat while you can, friends," and Frau Schmelze smoothed her clean black +apron over her short skirt of blue. "The soldiers will soon get +everything."</p> + +<p>Germans seem always able to eat, so, though the cannon roared and the +fugitives passed by dozens in the road, Hans and the cousin partook of +the meal in large mouthfuls, exchanging news as they drank their beer.</p> + +<p>"I came from Weimar to-day," said Herr Schmelze, in his slow, deliberate +way. "The Queen of Prussia has been with our Duchess, but this morning +she left."</p> + +<p>"I saw her on the road," said Hans, and told of the adventure at the +inn. "And I saw Napoleon," he added, and while he related again the +story, the roaring grew fiercer and fiercer. Suddenly Frau Schmelze ran +from the house.</p> + +<p>"Ach Gott! Ach Gott! Ach Gott!" she screamed. "Conrad, Hans, look! +look!"</p> + +<p>And she pointed to the highroad.</p> + +<p>Flying, galloping, running as if demons were at their heels, they saw +soldiers on foot, soldiers on horseback, hussars, dragoons, heard +pistols exploding, saw swords flashing, heard voices screaming madly. It +was horrible.</p> + +<p>A quick shot sounded. A soldier fell like a stone at the gate.</p> + +<p>Hans and Conrad reached him as if by magic.</p> + +<p>"Dead," said the cousin, as they drew the body to the grass. "And a +Prussian."</p> + +<p>There was a stream of blood in the road, men were falling, riding over +each other, dropping to death everywhere. On they came, faster and more +furious.</p> + +<p>"Save us! Save us from Napoleon!"</p> + +<p>Hans flung open the gate, and in rushed two wild-eyed women caught in +their flight by the hussars, who seeing them out of their way, rushed on +after higher game.</p> + +<p>"Vive l'Empereur! Vive l'Empereur!" The cry rose even above the cannon +roar. Hans and Conrad looked each other in the eyes.</p> + +<p>"The Prussians, cousin," began Hans.</p> + +<p>"Were first," said Herr Schmelze.</p> + +<p>The shoulders of the brave old soldier of Frederick the Great drooped +with shame, the fat old farmer coloured.</p> + +<p>It was the first time Hans had seen a Prussian soldier turn his back on +an enemy, and a tear stole down his cheek.</p> + +<p>"Come," said Herr Schmelze, "let us go to the height and look down on +the battle. Ulrich," he called to his son, as he passed the house, "stay +here and take care of your mother."</p> + +<p>Then he led the way to a spot from where they could see the battle. The +sight was one never to be forgotten, and as the hours passed the hearts +of the two Germans grew sick within them. They saw the Duke of Brunswick +borne from the field of dead and wounded, and then began a panic worse +than all else we can read of in history. Over the field flew the +Prussians, whole companies taking flight as if children. Horses, freed +from their riders, dashed where they would, galloping over the dead, +crushing with their hoofs the dying; swords flashed against sabres; men +fled as if mad; gunners deserted cannon; and still, through all the +havoc and confusion, steadily, unswervingly, the cannon of Napoleon +roared on. Towards late afternoon the Prussians were turning their backs +in all directions, crossing each other's paths, blockading, hampering, +as they struggled to escape to Erfurt, to Kolleda, to Sommerda.</p> + +<p>The sun dropped in the west, and, as the afterglow rose like a mist of +gold, the light fell on a field of such horror as blood-stained old +Europe rarely has seen. The cries of the wounded, the dying, the +pursued, and the victorious rent the air, and the Prussians who remained +were in a confusion most awful. Only the soldiers of the Duke of Weimar +fought with steadiness, and, presently, they began to retreat in order +towards Erfurt.</p> + +<p>The glorious army of Frederick the Great had disappeared like a bubble. +Napoleon had but touched it with his finger of might and its +many-coloured glory had vanished into nothing.</p> + +<p>For hours, old Hans and his cousin watched the fight, and lower and +lower sank the head of the old man. That he, a soldier of Frederick the +Great, should see the downfall of the army!</p> + +<p>"Ach Gott! Ach Gott! Ach Gott!" he said to the cousin.</p> + +<p>But Herr Schmelze caught his arm, his face suddenly glowing with +excitement.</p> + +<p>"Look, cousin, look!" he cried and with a fat hand he pointed towards +the field. "Look, I say, look, Hans! What courage! That Prussian is +only a boy, and there are four, no, five, six, seven Frenchmen in +pursuit. See him run! Bravo! Ach Himmel! Hans, at last, some courage!"</p> + +<p>What Hans saw was a Prussian, slender, alert, quite boy-like in figure, +fly before pursuing Frenchmen. To save himself he darted sideways, then +rushed between two wagons close together and deserted by the Prussians.</p> + +<p>Sheltered, he fired.</p> + +<p>A Frenchman dropped.</p> + +<p>He dodged the answer and fired again.</p> + +<p>"Vive l'Empereur!" called the hussars, responding, but the boy, turning +suddenly, leaped the wagon to the left; then, as the Frenchmen started +to follow, he turned on his heel, dived behind the rear of his barricade +and, turning, fled, gaining time as he ran.</p> + +<p>"Bravo! Bravo!" called the cousin, and Hans brightened at even this +slight show of Prussian courage. With shots pursuing, unharmed, the boy +fled on, the French behind, until dusk wrapped in its dimness both +pursued and pursuers.</p> + +<p>Hans and Herr Schmelze strained their eyes to see the end of the unequal +combat, but the battlefield and flying soldiers faded alike in the +gloom.</p> + +<p>"I must go home," said Herr Schmelze, suddenly remembering his Lotte, +"and you, Hans?"</p> + +<p>"I'm off to Jena."</p> + +<p>The cousin eyed him curiously.</p> + +<p>"Hans," he said, "is it wise to leave Annchen alone with the children? +The house is lonely and will be in the path of the soldiers, if they +should break through the forest."</p> + +<p>The old man's mind was full only of the battle.</p> + +<p>"Nein, nein, Conrad," he said. "I sent Anna a message by Minna +Schneiderwint. She was to take the children and go at once to her +husband's father. She is there now, that is certain."</p> + +<p>The cousin looked less anxious. He was easy going and usually minded his +own affairs.</p> + +<p>"So, so," he said, "then she will certainly be safe. You are sure she +obeyed? Otherwise——"</p> + +<p>Hans nodded with conviction.</p> + +<p>"Of course she obeyed; why not? I told Minna to command her."</p> + +<p>"Very well, then," and Herr Schmelze started home. "Auf wiedersehen, +Hans, and you might bring us the news as you come back from Jena."</p> + +<p>"Ja wohl," and the old soldier of Frederick the Great strode away in the +gloaming.</p> + +<p>Jena was a scene of horror. Its streets were noisy with the yells of +drunken soldiers; screaming women were rushing in or out of houses; in +the streets lay the dead and dying, and, above the noise, steady, never +stopping, roared on the cannon of Napoleon.</p> + +<p>About ten at night a sound of drums silenced the screams. With +triumphant flags and victorious music, in rode Napoleon, erect on his +white horse as ever.</p> + +<p>"The scoundrel, the upstart!" said a voice near Hans.</p> + +<p>The speaker wore the dress of a professor of the University of Jena, and +he stiffened his head as the conqueror approached. "I will not bow to +him," he muttered, "I will not."</p> + +<p>But Napoleon suddenly gazing at him, the professor hesitated, then, a +strange look on his face, bowed as if in spite of himself.</p> + +<p>"It is Professor Hegel, the philosopher," said a man near Hans. "He has +been writing here in Jena and did not even hear the cannon. A moment ago +the postmaster told him the news and he is like one broken-hearted."</p> + +<p>But Hans had not time for gossip. Jena men whom he knew were on the road +to the field to bring in the wounded and they hailed him.</p> + +<p>"Well met, Hans," they cried. "Come! We need men. Come, and help us."</p> + +<p>"Ja wohl," and Hans turned and joined them. "I am too old to fight, +alas, comrades," he grieved, "but God be thanked, I can do this for the +army." And he marched off with the group.</p> + +<p>Why not?</p> + +<p>Annchen and the children were quite safe with Kasper's father. Anna knew +his ways and would not worry. It had been different when he had had +Bettina. Her concern had been for the child and not for an old soldier +such as he was. Why not, then?</p> + +<p>And so he followed to the field where the horses still were racing, the +Prussian soldiers fleeing, the thieves prowling to rob the dead and the +dying, and where, above the havoc, still roared without ceasing the +cannon of Napoleon.</p> + +<p>Towards Weimar the sky was crimson, tongues of flame darting up and +suddenly lighting the heavens.</p> + +<p>There was but one cry: "Vive l'Empereur! Vive Napoleon!" and, as Hans, +with the gentleness of a woman, lifted man after man from the ground, he +knew that the soldiers of Frederick had had their good-morning, and the +country of that famous old soldier lay conquered in the dust.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>AT THE FOREST HOUSE</h3> + + +<p>Hans worked hard all night and into the next morning, and then, feeling +the need of food and finding none in overcrowded Jena, with an "Auf +wiedersehen" to his comrades, he departed for the farmhouse.</p> + +<p>Frau Schmelze stood in the doorway.</p> + +<p>"Morning, Hans!" she called. "Come in, come in, here is coffee!"</p> + +<p>Bustling about, she prepared him a meal in the living room.</p> + +<p>On the sofa lay a man in Prussian uniform.</p> + +<p>"He staggered in last night," she explained. "His hand was cut and +bleeding. I bound it up for him and he fell asleep there, though, +goodness knows, it was dangerous enough with the French tearing by every +moment!" She poured out coffee. "Ach Himmel, Hans!" she cried, "but war +is dreadful! All night the cannon and the screaming."</p> + +<p>Then suddenly she turned on him, glancing at his tumbled hair and face +stained and dirty.</p> + +<p>"Hans," she said, "have you been all night in Jena?"</p> + +<p>The old man nodded.</p> + +<p>Frau Schmelze frowned in disapproval.</p> + +<p>"Cousin," she said, "are you sure about Annchen? All night there were +soldiers that way. It would be dreadful if she were alone with the +little ones, nicht wahr? We thought you were there."</p> + +<p>"Alone?" Hans put down his coffee cup in surprise. "I sent her word to +go to her father-in-law's."</p> + +<p>The truth was, he had forgotten everything but the battle.</p> + +<p>"Why should she, cousin, have stayed on in the Forest House?"</p> + +<p>Frau Schmelze was silent; it was not her business to remind Hans Lange +that he had a daughter exactly like him.</p> + +<p>"So," she answered after a moment, "so. Perhaps you know best, but——"</p> + +<p>Then she went to the soldier whom the talking had awakened. In her hand +was a cup of the good, steaming hot coffee.</p> + +<p>"Ah," said the man, "a thousand thanks!" and he drained the cup, +smacking his thin lips as he finished.</p> + +<p>"It makes a man over." And rising stiffly he tottered to the table and +sank in a chair beside Hans. "You have news of the battle, my friend?"</p> + +<p>Hans nodded.</p> + +<p>"Napoleon is in Jena," he answered shortly.</p> + +<p>"And the army?"</p> + +<p>Hans snapped his fingers.</p> + +<p>"Gone like a bubble," he said. Then he told of the night and the flying +of the soldiers, of the crossing and recrossing of lines, of the racing +of the riderless horses, and the entrance of Napoleon into Jena.</p> + +<p>The soldier's head sank low; he left his second cup of coffee untasted.</p> + +<p>"No one can stand against the French Emperor," he said.</p> + +<p>"Ach, nein," agreed Frau Schmelze.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps the English," volunteered Hans, cutting huge mouthfuls of bread +and grey sausage.</p> + +<p>The Prussian flushed and his lip curled.</p> + +<p>"The good God helping me," he said, "here is one Prussian who will never +give up his fighting until they sign peace, or death steps in."</p> + +<p>"Bravo!" cried Herr Schmelze, coming in at the door. "If there were more +who felt that way, Jena this morning would not be Napoleon's. The +Fatherland is full of indifference, nicht wahr?"</p> + +<p>"The Germans are asleep," said the soldier, "the whole nation is +dreaming."</p> + +<p>Herr Schmelze smiled drily.</p> + +<p>"There was something loud enough to wake them, yesterday, nicht wahr?" +And he looked at the other two and laughed sarcastically.</p> + +<p>As for Hans, he moved uneasily.</p> + +<p>"That a man must grow too old to fight," he said. Then he offered to +show the soldier the way towards Erfurt, where the remainder of the army +was gathering.</p> + +<p>Frau Schmelze put down her work and whispered in the ear of her husband. +He nodded.</p> + +<p>"Hans," he said, "you had better go to the Forest House. Annchen——"</p> + +<p>"Ja wohl, Otto." The old man rose resolutely. "We go that way, you know, +and when I show our friend here the way, I'll go down and take the news +to old Weyland."</p> + +<p>Then off he started with the soldier, plunging into talk of the King of +Prussia and Napoleon.</p> + +<p>Frau Schmelze shook her head.</p> + +<p>"I hope, Otto," she said, "that nothing has happened."</p> + +<p>The farmer looked serious.</p> + +<p>"I thought, of course, Hans had gone home, or I should have sent +Ulrich."</p> + +<p>"Hans?" A look expressed Frau Schmelze's opinion of Frederick the +Great's old soldier, and she returned to her labours.</p> + +<p>"A good man is our King, there is no better," the soldier meanwhile was +saying. "He and our good Angel, the Queen, have the love of all their +people. He is upright, and saving, and truly religious, but, ach Himmel, +if he were only not so uncertain! Nobody, not even Stein, steady himself +as a rock, can make him know what he wants to do and at once to do it. +'To-morrow,' he says, 'let us wait.' It is always so, nicht? Now, take +this war. He delayed and delayed, letting Napoleon insult him over and +over. The army grew feeble from want of exercise, and our generals too +old for service. Blücher is the only one worth counting. Then, too," he +continued, "Frederick William the Second is unlucky. Look at his +wretched boyhood. He was born unlucky. And now he has made a mistake +about this war, nicht wahr? For eight years when our neighbours needed +us he wouldn't fight, and now when we are at it ourselves there is no +one to help us."</p> + +<p>"The Russians," put in Hans, "the Czar Alexander is our ally. Did you +not hear how he and our King—I am a Prussian, you know—swore an oath +of friendship at midnight at the tomb of Frederick the Great, the Queen +being witness?"</p> + +<p>The soldier nodded.</p> + +<p>"Ja, ja," he said, "if Russia will help," he spread out his hand, "that +will be entirely another affair. But who knows? That little Emperor of +the French may twist any number of Czars round his finger, but hark!" He +listened eagerly. "What was that? A child?"</p> + +<p>There was a sound as of a baby wailing wretchedly. Hans looked uneasy. +Could it be that his Anna—but, no—he had sent her word, and certainly +she had obeyed him. It was only some peasant with her baby. Presently +they left the wood and before them stood the little grey Forest House +with its red roof and garden.</p> + +<p>Hans started and called out an exclamation. Pine needles were scattered +everywhere as if feet, running, had disturbed the forest carpet. The +garden gate stood open. A rosebush, broken, had fallen across the path. +On the path, too, were dark drops which made both men shudder. The +chickens, not yet freed from their night quarters, clucked impatiently, +unmilked cows bellowed in pain, and Schneider and Schnip, the dogs, +howled long and mournfully. And yet, in spite of the noise, the place +seemed wrapped in a quiet most horrible.</p> + +<p>"Mein Gott!" The soldier looked at Hans, who, gazing steadily before +him, pushed open the unlatched door of the hall.</p> + +<p>A cold little nose touched his hand as he entered. It was "Little +Brother," Bettina's pet fawn, whose eyes seemed to speak most +mournfully.</p> + +<p>The hall was that of a Forest House, its walls ornamented with antlers +of deer, guns and sticks on the racks, and, in the corner against one +wall, a highly carved oak press, and, opposite, Frau Weyland's spinning +wheel. But Hans and the soldier took no note of furniture, for a stream, +a dark stream, was flowing from one door to the other, its source being +the living room.</p> + +<p>"Gott im Himmel!" cried the soldier. "It is blood!" Then he pushed open +the door, Hans and the little fawn following.</p> + +<p>There was the room as Hans knew it, with its sofa, its square table, its +geraniums in the windows, its tall white porcelain stove, and its one +picture of the Herr Jesus blessing the children.</p> + +<p>A candle, smoking dismally about the socket, filled the room with a +horrid odour. On the table stood the remains of supper, half eaten. But +the two men looked at none of these things, nor took note of the little +quivering fawn, whose eyes seemed to long to explain the whole story.</p> + +<p>It was at the floor both gazed in horror.</p> + +<p>"May the good God have pity," said the soldier softly.</p> + +<p>Before them lay three bodies, the first in the uniform of a French +soldier, the second, the young Prussian officer Hans had seen flying, +and the third——</p> + +<p>Hans fell on his knees and took his daughter's golden head in his arms.</p> + +<p>"Annchen!" he cried, "Annchen! Speak to me, my Annchen!"</p> + +<p>But Frau Weyland was never again to laugh at his forgetfulness, never +again to smile her "Ja, ja, dear father!" never to tease him about his +battles.</p> + +<p>The story was easy to read; the position of the bodies told it. The +Prussian had fled to the Forest House for refuge, the Frenchman had +fired from the doorway, Frau Weyland, hastily rising, had received one +bullet.</p> + +<p>As for the Frenchman, a sword thrust had finished him. Doubtless he had +received it in the battle and he had bled while running. At all events, +it was a loss of blood which had killed him.</p> + +<p>Old Hans was almost crazy. With his daughter's head on his knees, he +kept begging God to forgive him.</p> + +<p>"She was all I had," he told the soldier, "and I thought she was with +her husband's father. Herr Jesus, forgive me, forgive me."</p> + +<p>Then, presently, as is the habit of certain people, he found comfort in +blaming someone else. He flew into a wild fury against Napoleon; he +cursed him; he cried out vengeance against him, and he swore that as +long as he had a drop of blood in his veins he would struggle to +overthrow him. The soldier paid no heed. With his unhurt hand he had +been feeling the heart of the young Prussian.</p> + +<p>"Get water, old man," he interrupted. "Quick! Quick! The Herr Lieutenant +still lives!"</p> + +<p>Hans, laying down the head of his daughter, drew from his pocket a +flask.</p> + +<p>"It is brandy," he said. "They gave it to me for the wounded in Jena."</p> + +<p>The soldier poured some drops down the officer's throat. He ordered Hans +to fling open doors and windows and they made the poor fellow more +comfortable.</p> + +<p>Then they covered the dead with sheets from the sleeping room beds.</p> + +<p>"Ach Himmel!" cried Hans suddenly. "The children!"</p> + +<p>He ran into the garden. Above the noise of the animals sounded the +distant wail of a babe. Following the sound, Hans came upon Bettina, +little Hans, and baby August.</p> + +<p>They had hidden in the forest, Bettina holding the baby wrapped in her +mother's shawl.</p> + +<p>"Grandfather, oh, grandfather," and she burst into sobs, "he cries so, I +can't stop him."</p> + +<p>"Mother, I want mother!" screamed little Hans, while the baby's wails +were incessant.</p> + +<p>Bearing August in his arms, Hans and Bettina at his side, the old man +appeared again in the kitchen of the farmhouse.</p> + +<p>"Gott im Himmel!" cried Frau Schmelze, wringing her hands and weeping. +"I knew it! I knew it! You need not tell me. Conrad, husband! Ulrich! +Come! Quick! It is Anna! Our dear, dear Anna!"</p> + +<p>As for Hans, he went on like a madman, railing at Napoleon and blaming +the French. Only Bettina could quiet him.</p> + +<p>No, he would not stay there with the children. He would return to the +Forest House where he had left the soldier.</p> + +<p>So the farmer went with him, and Ulrich fetched Kaspar's father.</p> + +<p>Hans insisted that he would nurse the wounded Prussian.</p> + +<p>"Let him alone," said the soldier, who announced that he must march on +towards Erfurt. "It will take his mind off his trouble."</p> + +<p>"The children will stay here for the present," insisted Frau Schmelze +when Hans reappeared that evening.</p> + +<p>He nodded.</p> + +<p>"Ja wohl, Lotte," he said, and then he railed so at Napoleon that she +was sure his grief had crazed him.</p> + +<p>She kept her thoughts to herself until that night, when she and her +husband lay under their featherbeds. Then she expressed the opinion she +had been suppressing all day.</p> + +<p>"It's all very well laying everything on Napoleon," she said. "He is a +monster, an upstart, a villain, but Hans should have gone home to poor +Anna. She should have obeyed and gone to Weyland's, you say? That is +just like you, Otto, taking up for Hans Lange because he is a man, but +Anna, poor woman, was not much given to obeying her father; you know +that, husband, as well as I do, nicht? She was Hans, all over, doing +what she pleased and obeying no one." Then the good woman, who truly had +loved her cousin, wet her pillow with tears.</p> + +<p>The farmer grieved, also. Why not? He, too, had liked Anna, and there +were those little children, but he was a man and his thoughts were on +the battle. He had learned at Jena that Napoleon was that evening to +enter Weimar. Who knew what would happen?</p> + +<p>The Duke was the ally of the King of Prussia, and Napoleon was not +likely to forget it.</p> + +<p>"Our poor country," and he sighed, remembering his meadows and how the +soldiers had tramped over them.</p> + +<p>He was sinking to sleep when Ulrich returned from Jena, where he had +gone after supper.</p> + +<p>"Father! Mother!" he called. "Wake up! Wake up! There is news of a +battle at Auerstädt!"</p> + +<p>The farmer pulled back the bed curtains and sprang from his bed.</p> + +<p>"A battle at Auerstädt! Impossible!"</p> + +<p>But Ulrich nodded, having hurried until he was quite breathless.</p> + +<p>"Ja, ja, father," he panted, "the whole Prussian army is annihilated! +They fought at Auerstädt at exactly the same time the battle took place +at Jena."</p> + +<p>"Ach Himmel, Ulrich, I cannot believe it!" cried the farmer, his face +red with excitement.</p> + +<p>"Ja wohl, father," Ulrich insisted. "Davoust led the French, the King of +Prussia the Germans. They fought all day and neither the King nor the +Emperor heard the cannons of the other."</p> + +<p>"There has never been such a thing in the history of the world, Ulrich. +Two battles at once, here in Thuringia. Impossible!"</p> + +<p>But Ulrich knew what he was talking about.</p> + +<p>"Ja wohl, father," he said, "I heard it in Jena. All the generals are +dead or wounded. The King is no one knows where. Horses were twice shot +from under him, and they say he fought like a hero. Napoleon's soldiers +are ordered to capture the Queen, and Davoust is pursuing towards +Erfurt. Down in Jena they say Napoleon will march at once on Berlin."</p> + +<p>Frau Schmelze's voice came from between the bed curtains.</p> + +<p>"War is terrible," she said. "Ach Gott, but it is awful!"</p> + +<p>"Ja wohl, mother," agreed Ulrich. "All is lost, everything, and Napoleon +is our master!" Then he told how the sky was red toward Weimar and how +he had heard the Duchess had refused to fly and had taken scores of +people into the castle.</p> + +<p>Then he lowered his voice, which trembled.</p> + +<p>"Mother," he said, "I have bad news for Hans Lange. Kaspar was among +those who died, to-day, in the hospital in Jena. They brought him in +after Hans had left them."</p> + +<p>And so, behind the white horse of the Emperor, Death marched into +Thuringia.</p> + +<p>Poor Bettina!</p> + +<p>Napoleon had robbed her of her father and mother, and the old Barbarossa +still slept on in his cave, the ravens cawing and circling.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3>THE JOURNEY</h3> + + +<p>The wounded soldier lay unconscious for many days in the Forest House. +Hans nursed him carefully. He took care of Bettina, too, whom he refused +to leave with Frau Schmelze, and Minna Schneiderwint came to milk the +cows and do the cooking. Later they must find a new home, but the Herr +Forester Leo had been glad, for the present, for Hans to keep on with +Kaspar's duties.</p> + +<p>Bettina spent much time by the sick officer. At first, she had been +afraid of him lying there in a stupor, but presently she grew used to +the quiet and liked to sit near his bed while her grandfather was in the +forest, singing away to her doll and never minding the sick man. One day +she was putting her dolly to sleep with a pretty song her godmother had +taught her:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Joseph, lieber Joseph mein,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hilf mir weig'n mein Kindlein.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">Eia!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Joseph, dear Joseph mine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Help me rock my little child,<br /></span> +<span class="i8">Eia!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>she sang. The Germans say that it is the song the Virgin Mary sang when +she rocked the little Jesus in Bethlehem, and so Bettina loved it.</p> + +<p>"My sister sings that," said a voice from the bed, a weak voice like a +child's.</p> + +<p>Bettina gave a great start and then smiled when she saw it was the +soldier.</p> + +<p>"My dolly is named Anna," she said, and she ran to the bed to show him.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus2" id="illus2"></a> +<img src="images/illus2.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<h3>"<i>My dolly is named Anna</i>"</h3> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>"God be praised," said Hans, when he came in and found them talking.</p> + +<p>The soldier would hear the news. Hans told him everything, but not all +at once, for it was not wise for him to have too much excitement.</p> + +<p>Jena was lost. So was Auerstädt. Both great battles had been fought in +one day, neither party hearing the cannon of the other. Retreating, the +armies had crossed each other, and never had Europe seen such turmoil +and confusion. As for the Prussian army, it had vanished. The young +soldier could not believe it. A few weeks before he had marched with +that brilliant army, singing songs, and certain of victory.</p> + +<p>"And the Emperor?" his face flushed with hatred.</p> + +<p>Then Hans told him how, on the day after Jena, Napoleon had marched into +Weimar.</p> + +<p>"Our good Duchess had remained," he said, "all the day of Jena, and the +next morning she opened her doors to Weimar families and any English +strangers. There was nothing to eat, and all Her Highness had was a cake +of chocolate she found hid beneath a cushion. Towards evening of the day +of the battles—I have been told, sir, it was awful!—the French rushed +in, pursuing the Prussians. It was terrible. The soldiers slew each +other in the streets, the pavements ran blood, the French fell on the +wine and beer, and, not knowing what they did, they set fire to the +houses near the castle, and the French officers quartered themselves on +the Duchess. She alone, sir, remained calm. We have heard how she waited +that second evening at the head of the stairs for Napoleon. When he +arrived she advanced to meet him, greeting him with politeness. 'Who are +you?' he cried, like a peasant."</p> + +<p>"The upstart!" muttered the young lieutenant.</p> + +<p>"'I am the Duchess of Weimar,' our lady told him," continued Hans, his +voice thrilling with pride at Her Highness's bravery. "'I pity you,' +said Napoleon, 'for I must crush your husband. Where is he?' 'At his +post of duty,' our Duchess, sir, told him. She is a brave lady, sir, and +it's a pity, a dreadful pity, that many of our soldiers are not like +her. Pardon me, sir, but the doings of our army have been dreadful."</p> + +<p>Then he told all the rest he had been told: how Count Philip de Segur +had come in the dawn to report to Napoleon all the events of the night, +and when he had told him that they had failed in their attempt to +capture the Queen of Prussia, Napoleon had said: "Ah, that would have +been well done, for she has caused the war."</p> + +<p>"That is false," cried the lieutenant, his face flushing. "Our Queen was +in Pyrmont for her illness caused by the death of little Prince +Ferdinand, and it was decided upon before her return. How dare +Napoleon——"</p> + +<p>"The Emperor of the French dares anything," and Hans shrugged his old +shoulders. He had heard, too, but he had no idea how true it was, that +Napoleon had written the Empress Josephine, who was then in Paris, that +it would have pleased him much had he captured Queen Louisa.</p> + +<p>"And why?" asked the soldier, "why should the Emperor hate so gentle a +lady?"</p> + +<p>Hans shook his head.</p> + +<p>"One is good, the other is bad. From the beginning of things, sir, the +pastors tell us in church, there's been war between good and evil, nicht +wahr?"</p> + +<p>The soldier nodded.</p> + +<p>"I suppose so," he said.</p> + +<p>Then he heard the rest about the Duchess of Weimar.</p> + +<p>The Emperor of the French could not praise her enough.</p> + +<p>Next morning he had breakfasted with her. "Madame," he asked, "how could +your husband be so mad as to make war upon me?" "My husband," said the +Duchess, "has been in the service of the King of Prussia for more than +thirty years, and, certainly, it was not at the moment when the King had +so formidable an enemy as your Majesty that the Duke could abandon him."</p> + + +<p>The Emperor was so pleased with her brave answer that his manner changed +at once. His tone became respectful and he made her a bow. "Madame," he +said, "you are the most sensible woman whom I ever have known. You have +saved your husband. I pardon him, but entirely on your account. As for +him, he is a good-for-nothing."</p> + +<p>Then he talked much more with the Duchess, and at her request ordered +all the disorder to be stopped in the town, and everywhere that he went +he praised her conduct.</p> + +<p>"And we have one comfort," Hans told the soldier. "The Duke, our Duke, +Herr Lieutenant, alone remained firm, the Prince of Orange standing with +him. They, sir, made an orderly retreat to Erfurt, but," he shrugged his +broad shoulders, "their bravery counted as nothing."</p> + +<p>Hans was a different man since the death of his daughter. He had but one +thought, and that was hatred of the French and of Napoleon. When he +walked now, his head hung low. He had no longer cheery words for the +people he met with, but a gruff good-day and then no more speaking.</p> + +<p>Only to the soldier was he talkative. There was something about the +pleasant-faced lieutenant which brought back the old Hans; each day the +young fellow grew dearer. Still, even he felt that Hans had his +secrets. He came and went in strange ways, and often after nightfall.</p> + +<p>One morning, when the frost was white on the grass and the leaves of the +low shrubs were touched with silver, the old man started out as usual. +There were still French at Jena, though Napoleon with the army had +marched away towards Berlin. Bettina was with the soldier, who was up +now, and hoped soon to try and join the army.</p> + +<p>He and the little girl were great friends. He had told her how that he +had three sisters, the oldest, very pretty and named Marianne, and the +other two, Ilse and Elsa, were twins, round, jolly and so alike there +was no telling them apart unless they spoke, when you knew Ilse because +of the shape of one tooth. He had three brothers, Wolfgang, Otto, and +little Carl.</p> + +<p>"And our home, dear little Bettina, is called the Stork's Nest," he told +her, "because my father is Professor von Stork, and the real stork has +brought my mother so many babies."</p> + +<p>Bettina was delighted at this and asked many questions about Marianne, +who was so pretty, and read so many books, and Ilse and Elsa, who were +always in mischief, fooling everybody about which was which and trying +to do everything that their brothers did.</p> + +<p>But the one of this family in whom Bettina took the most interest was +little Carl, who had such red cheeks, almost white hair, and blue eyes +like saucers.</p> + +<p>The reason of this was a story the soldier told her.</p> + +<p>One day, he said, his mother was taking her nap after dinner. Before she +shut her door she told little Carl, who then was six, to go and stay +with his big sister, Marianne. But Marianne was reading a famous book by +the great poet, Goethe, called "The Sorrows of Werther," and she told +Carl to run away and let her alone.</p> + +<p>He did run away, and so far that not a soul could find him.</p> + +<p>All the home was in the wildest confusion, Madame von Stork wringing her +hands, scolding Marianne, and telling her that it was all her fault, +because she would read books, write letters and poems; Mademoiselle +Pauline, a young French girl who lived with them, searching everywhere +and assuring his mother that Marianne was perfectly useless since she +had been to Frankfort-on-Main, formed a friendship with Bettina Brentano +and taken to adoring Goethe; the boys racing everywhere; and the good, +calm father trying to quiet everybody.</p> + +<p>At last Ilse and Elsa had screamed that Carl was coming, and in he +walked with the prettiest story you can think of.</p> + +<p>He had run away to the Thiergarten, a great, fine park in Berlin, and +there had found some boys who had asked him to play horse.</p> + +<p>One had reins and quickly harnessed Carl for his steed.</p> + +<p>Then off he had pranced, up and down the avenues, until, with a snap, +pop had gone the reins.</p> + +<p>"A run-away! A run-away!" called the boys, as off had run Carl.</p> + +<p>Faster came the drivers and faster ran the horse until, bump, he landed +with his head right into a lady.</p> + +<p>"You naughty child—you——" began one voice, an old one, when a +second—it belonged to the lady who had been bumped—interrupted:</p> + +<p>"Please, dear friend, be quiet. Let him alone. Boys will be wild," and +she smiled at her companion, a bright-eyed old lady with white hair.</p> + +<p>Then she asked Carl his name, told him she had heard of his father, and +then she patted one round cheek, kissed him on the other, and said, "Run +away, little son, and carry a beautiful greeting to your parents."</p> + +<p>"And who was she?" cried Bettina, when the lieutenant first told her.</p> + +<p>"Guess," said the soldier, smiling mischievously.</p> + +<p>Bettina shook her little head.</p> + +<p>"The Queen," said the Herr Lieutenant, and then roared when he saw how +surprised Bettina was.</p> + +<p>She and her friend, the Countess von Voss, had been walking in the park +like any other ladies, and Carl had run into her.</p> + +<p>Bettina wanted to know everything.</p> + +<p>Was Carl scolded for running off? Was he proud? And how had his mother +liked it?</p> + +<p>His mother certainly had been much pleased at such an honour to Carl, +and, as for the little rascal, he could talk of nothing else, but most +certainly he was scolded.</p> + +<p>"But nothing did him the least good until his sister Marianne had told +him that Pauline would write a little letter in French to Bonaparte, and +if he ran away again the Emperor would come and get him."</p> + +<p>Bettina shuddered. She could quite believe that Carl never had run away +again.</p> + +<p>"He is a great boy now," said the Herr Lieutenant. "This happened two +years ago."</p> + +<p>"I have seen the Queen, too," confided Bettina, and she told him all +about the day at the inn, and about Napoleon, and her mother, whom she +missed so. Night after night she wept herself to sleep under her feather +bed, poor little Bettina.</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear Herr Lieutenant," she said, "why did not the ravens wake the +Kaiser Barbarossa?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps they will some day," he answered, smiling.</p> + +<p>"Do you think, gracious Herr Lieutenant," she asked on the day when Hans +had departed so secretly, "that the wicked Emperor will get the dear, +lovely Queen?"</p> + +<p>The soldier shook his head.</p> + +<p>"No, no, little Bettina, the good God must save her, for she is so good +and kind to everybody."</p> + +<p>Then Bettina came quite close to him, her doll in her arms. Her little +dress was no longer bright red. Frau Schmelze and her grandmother had +made her one of black.</p> + +<p>"Herr Lieutenant," she began.</p> + +<p>"Ja, little Bettina."</p> + +<p>"I saw a raven to-day."</p> + +<p>The young officer laughed.</p> + +<p>"So," he said, "so?"</p> + +<p>"I think, gracious Herr Lieutenant," and Bettina smiled, "I will run out +to the garden, and if I see a raven now, I will give him a message to +Barbarossa. He did not wake for my mother," her lips quivered, "but +then, Herr Lieutenant, there was no time to send him a message. If I see +a raven now, I will call out loud and off he will fly to the cave of +Barbarossa."</p> + +<p>"Put some salt on his tail, Bettina," said the Herr Lieutenant, "then he +will sit quite still and listen until he knows the message."</p> + +<p>Bettina trotted off and begged salt of Minna Schneiderwint. Then she ran +into the frosty garden to watch for the raven.</p> + +<p>At the gate she saw French soldiers. Without a word in they marched and +came forth again with the Herr Lieutenant in the midst of them.</p> + +<p>"Adieu, dear Bettina, adieu," he cried. "I am a prisoner. Tell your +grandfather and thank him for his goodness."</p> + +<p>"Auf wiedersehen," Bettina flew to him, her face all alarm.</p> + +<p>But the soldier shook his head.</p> + +<p>"Adieu, dear Bettina, adieu, I am not likely again to see you or your +grandfather." Then he put his well arm about her and kissed her.</p> + +<p>"Come, come," cried the soldiers, and off they marched into the forest +along the path away from Jena.</p> + +<p>Bettina ran into the house, her little body shaken with sobs.</p> + +<p>Everybody she loved the wicked Emperor took away, her mother, her +father, and now the Herr Lieutenant. Oh, if she only had a wand as in +the fairy tales, she would change him into a great black stone, or some +cruel animal.</p> + +<p>In came Minna Schneiderwint, wringing her hands and sobbing, "The dear, +gracious Herr Lieutenant! What will Herr Lange say when he hears of it? +Ach Gott! Ach Gott! What a monster is Napoleon!"</p> + +<p>Hans, returning, found Bettina still weeping.</p> + +<p>"Liebchen," he said, after he had heard the story, "we, too, are going +on a journey." Then he told her to say nothing to Minna Schneiderwint, +but to help make up a bundle to travel with.</p> + +<p>Not a soul, he said, must know a word of their going.</p> + +<p>Bettina did as he told her, though the tears came to her eyes when she +heard that she was not to say good-bye to Hans, or the baby, or her +godmother, Frau Schmelze, or Wilhelm.</p> + +<p>Her grandfather Weyland she did not mind not seeing, but she would like +to kiss her grandmother.</p> + +<p>"Nein, nein," said old Hans, "it is all a great secret."</p> + +<p>"And when shall we come back, dear grandfather?" Bettina felt, indeed, +as if Napoleon was her enemy, for now she was to lose everybody but her +grandfather.</p> + +<p>"When the Emperor is conquered," said old Hans, and his brow darkened, +"we shall come back to Thuringia."</p> + +<p>Then he took off Bettina's dress, and between the lining and the +material of the waist he placed a letter.</p> + +<p>"Tell no one," he said, "or I shall punish you."</p> + +<p>Then, when Minna Schneiderwint had gone home in the afternoon, he fed +all the animals, locked the door, and wrapped the key in paper.</p> + +<p>"Come, Bettina," he said, and off they started, the old man with his +gloomy face, the bundle on his back, a stick in his hand, Bettina in her +black clothes and carrying some sausage and bread for supper.</p> + +<p>On the road they came upon four boys at play.</p> + +<p>"Walter!" Hans called, "come here."</p> + +<p>One left the game and listened.</p> + +<p>"Take this package for me to Herr Leo," said Hans, "and can you remember +a message?" he looked at the boy sharply.</p> + +<p>"Ja, Herr Lange, naturally," and Walter looked indignant. He was twelve +or thirteen.</p> + +<p>"Tell him, and all who ask you, that I have gone on a journey. Bettina, +here, goes with me. We will come back when the Emperor is conquered. +And, see here, Walter——"</p> + +<p>"Ja, ja, Herr Lange."</p> + +<p>The old man gave him some money.</p> + +<p>"Here is your pay. See that you earn it."</p> + +<p>The boy nodded.</p> + +<p>"And, Walter——"</p> + +<p>"Ja wohl, Herr Lange."</p> + +<p>"I shall not mind if you finish your game before you go to the Herr +Forester."</p> + +<p>The boy laughed.</p> + +<p>"Do you mean it?"</p> + +<p>Hans nodded.</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Herr Lange," and Walter, pocketing the coin, went back to +his game.</p> + +<p>"Auf wiedersehen, Herr Lange, auf wiedersehen, Bettina, and pleasant +travel."</p> + +<p>"Auf wiedersehen," said Hans.</p> + +<p>"Auf wiedersehen," said Bettina.</p> + +<p>Then, breaking away, the little girl ran back, her eyes full of tears.</p> + +<p>"Walter, dear Walter," she cried, "please, will you not take my love to +my little brothers? And, Walter, please, will you not ask my dear +godmother Schmelze in Jena to take a wreath to my dear mother's grave at +Christmas? Please, Walter, please?"</p> + +<p>"Ja wohl, dear Bettina, ja wohl," and the young boy patted her on the +shoulder.</p> + +<p>"And greet Willy Schmidt, and Tante Lottchen Schmelze, and, auf +wiedersehen, dear Walter, and thank you."</p> + +<p>Then she ran after old Hans, waiting impatiently. They started towards +Erfurt, but, as soon as they could, Hans changed their direction.</p> + +<p>"Where are we going, dear grandfather?" asked Bettina, surprised.</p> + +<p>The old man hesitated.</p> + +<p>"Would you like, Liebchen, to see the Queen again?"</p> + +<p>Bettina's eyes glowed.</p> + +<p>"Then say nothing to anybody, and try and keep from being tired, and +perhaps we may help save the Queen from Napoleon."</p> + +<p>"And the Herr Lieutenant, dear grandfather?"</p> + +<p>But Hans shook his head, his face saddening.</p> + +<p>"Nein, nein, dear child," he said, "we will not see our soldier," and he +muttered something against Napoleon.</p> + +<p>Poor little Bettina!</p> + +<p>It would be nice to see the lovely Queen, but she knew the Herr +Lieutenant, and he told her stories. Her lips began to quiver.</p> + +<p>The old man, noticing it, held her hand closer in his.</p> + +<p>"Nein, nein, do not cry, Liebchen," he said, "we may see the Herr +Lieutenant. Who can tell? Soldiers are everywhere."</p> + +<p>Then he taught her a story to tell if any questioned them. She had lost +her parents and her grandfather was taking her to an aunt in Prussia. +Their home had been burned after Jena and they had nothing to live upon. +Of her little brothers, or her grandparents Weyland, she was to say +nothing.</p> + +<p>It was well the old man had been in haste to tell her these things, for +even that evening they were stopped by French soldiers, who searched +Hans's pockets and even his clothes, and questioned both him and +Bettina.</p> + +<p>"Nonsense," said one man when they discovered nothing, "this is not the +man we want. This one speaks true. Look at his eyes. And who burdens +himself with a child when out on such business?"</p> + +<p>The others looked uncertain, one with keen black eyes and firm mouth +biting his nails while he considered.</p> + +<p>"The man answers the description." The first man looked dubious.</p> + +<p>"Use your sense," said a third man. "The child——"</p> + +<p>All eyes turned on Bettina.</p> + +<p>"You have lost your father and mother?" She felt the keen black eyes +reading her through and through.</p> + +<p>At the sound of these names and at the thought that she would never +again see them, her lips quivered and her eyes filled.</p> + +<p>The man stopped quickly.</p> + +<p>"Let them pass," he said with a shrug. "Only a fool would choose such a +messenger," and he glanced with contempt at Hans, who certainly had +answered stupidly, quite like a peasant, saying he knew no French, and +begging them to speak in German.</p> + +<p>"God be praised, child," he cried, when they were safe through the +lines, "you have saved me. The first danger is passed." And he bent down +and kissed her.</p> + +<p>"Shall we save the Queen, grandfather?"</p> + +<p>"Who knows?" answered Hans. Then he charged her that she must never +mention that it was to her they were going. He did not tell Bettina that +had the letter in her dress been found they would have shot him without +discussion, and so she gazed at him in wonder when, "God be praised! God +be praised!" he said over and over.</p> + +<p>A wagon was waiting at an inn where presently they stopped. It was all +very queer and puzzled Bettina, for the driver said, "The Angel," and +her grandfather said, "God bless her," and without more words he lifted +her in and told her to lie down on the straw and go to sleep.</p> + +<p>They drove the whole night and it was morning when her grandfather waked +her and gave her some black bread and sausage. Then they alighted and +trudged all day through the forest paths, keeping off the main roads, +and as they walked Bettina saw the deer in great herds coming to the +open places to feed on the hay which the foresters had tied about the +pine trees for their dinners, and once she saw great, gleaming, yellow +eyes in some bushes.</p> + +<p>It was only a huge black cat, but Bettina was sure that it was +Waterlinde, the mother of all the witches in Germany, and who, on +Walpurgis night, leads the dance on the Brocken Mountain.</p> + +<p>"Wait, grandfather, wait!" she cried. Then she ran back to the cat.</p> + +<p>"Waterlinde! Waterlinde!" she called, "please ride on your broomstick +and get Napoleon!"</p> + +<p>The cat raised its tail, which grew monstrous from its anger.</p> + +<p>"Hiss!" it said, "Hiss!" Then fled into the bushes.</p> + +<p>But Bettina was joyful.</p> + +<p>"It will get the Emperor," she said. "It promised. Oh, grandfather, how +happy I am! Waterlinde will get Napoleon!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>THE DOWNFALL</h3> + + + +<p>Bettina was tired, indeed, when one day before noon they drew near a +great city on the banks of the Elbe, its splendid cathedral rising +against the sky, the snow falling and melting on its strong walls and +fortifications.</p> + +<p>When Hans saw the colour of the flags flying over this city, he cried +out in horror.</p> + +<p>"Gott im Himmel!" he exclaimed, "but the French have taken Magdeburg!"</p> + +<p>In all Prussia there was no stronger fortress. On it had rested the +whole hope of the country.</p> + +<p>For a few moments Hans felt quite stunned. Then, taking Bettina's hand, +he turned into a path leading to a red-roofed farmhouse standing in the +fields some distance from the walls of Magdeburg.</p> + +<p>All along the way they had heard of defeats and misfortunes. Like the +houses of cards children build, all the strongholds and forts of Prussia +had fallen at the mere breath of Napoleon.</p> + +<p>But Magdeburg!</p> + +<p>"Ach Gott," Hans cried, "but I cannot, nien, I cannot believe it."</p> + +<p>As for Bettina, she was so tired that her feet moved without her any +longer feeling them.</p> + +<p>"Poor child!" cried the farmer's wife, when Hans begged for admission. +"Come in! come in!" And she refused to answer a question of Hans until +she had fed Bettina on warm milk and tucked her to rest under a huge +feather bed. Then, giving Hans a chair, she went for her husband.</p> + +<p>He was busy in his barn, hiding all the corn from the French in a hole +he had dug beneath its floor, and covered with fire wood. His wife's +steps startled him, and his keen, money-loving face appeared at the +door.</p> + +<p>"It is I, Herman; Magda," she called, and then told him of Hans and +Bettina.</p> + +<p>"He seems half crazy to me, Herman, the old man. I've put the child to +bed. She's half dead from walking. He says they've come from Jena, where +the mother and father were killed after the battle. It's an awful story. +He's taking the child to an aunt in East Prussia."</p> + +<p>The farmer made no movement to go into the kitchen.</p> + +<p>"He can pay for everything, Herman."</p> + +<p>His face brightened.</p> + +<p>"Ach ja," he said, "but that is different. A moment, dear Magda, and I +shall be with you."</p> + +<p>Following her to the kitchen, he seated himself opposite Hans, pulling a +table between them.</p> + +<p>"Beer, Magda!" he commanded, and she set bottle and glasses on the +table.</p> + +<p>"Ja wohl, friend," he said, "Magdeburg is Napoleon's."</p> + +<p>Then he filled the glasses, and, clinking with Hans, proposed the +downfall of the Emperor.</p> + +<p>"Three times, a thousand times over," said Hans, and he begged for the +news.</p> + +<p>"The King's hope was in Magdeburg. Ja wohl," said the farmer. His voice +was loud and he roared instead of talking. "And why not? What fortress +in Europe is stronger? There were twenty-four thousand soldiers here; +Kleist was in command, and both the King and Queen stopped here in their +flight to implore the garrison to be true to Prussia. And then," his +face darkened, and he paused for a sip of his beer, "the French Marshal +Ney appeared and shot a few projectiles and the Magdeburgers took to +tears and appeared before Kleist, begging him to surrender and spare +them the horrors of a siege."</p> + +<p>"The cowards!" Hans struck the table with his fist.</p> + +<p>The farmer sipped his beer, quite unexcited.</p> + +<p>"Why fight when one must, in the end, be conquered?" He set down his +glass. "They gave up the keys without a breach in the wall, or a single +cannon being taken; twelve thousand troops under arms, six hundred +pieces of cannon, a pontoon complete, immense magazines of all sorts, +and only an equal force without the walls," roared on the farmer.</p> + +<p>"Cowards!" And Hans thumped again.</p> + +<p>"We are conquered, man," said the farmer, "and the good God knows this +war is expensive."</p> + +<p>Then he told Hans that he had heard that the King of Prussia had written +a letter to Napoleon from Sondershausen, where he had fled after the +defeat at Auerstädt.</p> + +<p>"And the answer?" Hans' hand, holding his beer glass, trembled with +eagerness.</p> + +<p>The farmer, shrugging his shoulders, thrust out his under lip in a queer +way he had.</p> + +<p>"There has been none that I know of," he roared. Then he refilled their +glasses, his eyes gleaming as the beer foamed.</p> + +<p>Hans thought that he cared much more for this same beer than for his +country's troubles, since he drank it with such pleasure while roaring +how Napoleon, with a splendid procession, had entered Berlin. He had +heard that the Berliners sat at their windows weeping. Napoleon had +ransacked all the palaces and was stealing and sending to Paris all the +art treasures of the Berliners. Only at Potsdam had he shown reverence. +The Prussians had fled so hastily that they had left the cordon of the +Black Eagle, the scarf and sword of Frederick the Great on the tomb in +the garrison church.</p> + +<p>When Napoleon saw them his eyes fired.</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen," and he turned to the officers who accompanied him, "this +is one of the greatest commanders of whom history has made mention." +Then he traced an "N" on the tomb in the dust.</p> + +<p>"If he were alive now I would not stand here," he said.</p> + +<p>And because of his respect for the great Frederick he saved Potsdam from +all annoyance from the war.</p> + +<p>What else had happened the farmer did not know, only that the brave +Blücher, with tears streaming down his cheeks, had been forced to +surrender Lübeck.</p> + +<p>As for the King, the farmer had heard that he had gone to Custrin; but +he also had heard that Custrin was among the forts which had +surrendered. At all events, the beer being now at an end, he had no more +time to talk, but arose to return to his barn.</p> + +<p>Hans asked him to let Bettina remain until in the afternoon, when he +would return for her. Then off he departed also.</p> + +<p>The farmer's wife touched her head.</p> + +<p>"Grief has crazed him," she said to herself. "It is cruel to drag that +child about this country."</p> + +<p>Bettina ate a nice warm dinner with the farmer and his wife, and then +was put back to bed again.</p> + +<p>"A queer little thing," said the wife to her husband. "Poor little +lamb!" The tears filled her eyes. "She thinks old Frederick Barbarossa +will come from his cave to save us!"</p> + +<p>The farmer laughed and told his wife what to charge Hans, for he might +not see him again.</p> + +<p>It was in the late afternoon when the old man returned.</p> + +<p>"We must be off at once," he announced.</p> + +<p>The farmer's wife protested.</p> + +<p>"The little one," and she set her lips hard, "is too tired."</p> + +<p>But Hans was positive.</p> + +<p>"We must go, my good woman, and at once," he announced again, and most +positively.</p> + +<p>Poor little Bettina did not want to go. The farmer's wife had been as +kind to her as her mother; but her grandfather took no notice.</p> + +<p>"Come, Liebling," he said, "say good-bye and thank the good Frau, and +quickly, for we must be starting."</p> + +<p>"Auf wiedersehen," said Bettina shyly. She hoped that some time she +might see this good Frau Magda again.</p> + +<p>Then Hans paid the bill, and off they went and trudged on their way +until, late that evening, they came to an inn, where Hans announced they +would remain until morning.</p> + +<p>Bettina went to bed, but Hans returned to the big room where the men +sat, and presently, just as Bettina was dreaming a fine dream about +Willy Schmidt and her brothers in Thuringia, he returned with great news +and awoke her.</p> + +<p>The Emperor, he announced, had offered terms of peace to Prussia. All +the troops, not wounded or prisoners, must be drawn up in northeast +Prussia; the great cities of the kingdom, including Dantzic and Breslau, +must be surrendered; all the Russians marching to the aid of Prussia +must be sent back, and the King of Prussia must join with Napoleon in +war on his friend, Alexander of Russia, should Napoleon command it.</p> + +<p>"I am beaten," answered the poor, good King; "my kingdom is taken from +me, but never will I save myself by fighting against a friend. Let the +war go on."</p> + +<p>Hans' face glowed as he told Bettina this answer.</p> + +<p>The little girl was happy to see her grandfather smiling again, but she +was too sleepy to understand what he was talking about, and so, when his +voice ceased, she went back to her dreams and the old man poured over +maps until midnight.</p> + +<p>Next day they marched on, keeping out of the way of the army, eating at +the farmhouses and hiding often in the forests. Soldiers sometimes +stopped them. More than once they searched Hans, but when they +questioned Bettina and saw the tears which always came when she heard of +Jena they let them pass on.</p> + +<p>Once Hans persuaded the driver of a carriage to take them a part of +their journey. The carriage belonged to a great person and the man had a +passport, and Hans and Bettina could pass as servants.</p> + +<p>"For the sake of the child, ja," said the driver. But it may have been +for the sake of Hans' gold, which he readily gave him. It was queer that +a wild-looking old man, wandering about the country, had gold, but in +war times people do not ask too many questions.</p> + +<p>It was when in this carriage that Bettina was sure she saw again the +Herr Lieutenant.</p> + +<p>It was at a place where the driver showed his papers.</p> + +<p>At the window of a house surrounded by soldiers a man was gazing +gloomily from the window.</p> + +<p>Behind him were other faces, and one, Bettina declared, was that of her +dear Herr Lieutenant.</p> + +<p>"And he knew me, dear grandfather; I know that he did, only he could not +dream that his Bettina was here in Prussia, could he?"</p> + +<p>"Indeed, no," said her grandfather, and then went to sleep. It was not +often that he had such a soft bed as the carriage cushions, and he +meant to make the most of it. And so they came to Custrin.</p> + +<p>"Now," said Hans, his face full of joy, "we shall see the King!"</p> + +<p>But, alas!</p> + +<p>Certainly, the King had been there; the Queen, also.</p> + +<p>An old peasant woman outside the walls, whom Hans questioned, knew all +about it.</p> + +<p>The King had come first and gone straight to a house in the Market.</p> + +<p>"It is a sad event that brings me here," he had said. And then, later, +had come the Queen. "They were here some time," said the old woman. "Her +Majesty, wrapped in a travelling cloak, used to walk on the walls and +try to put some courage into the soldiers. Foolish work," she added; +"you might as well try to fill broken bottles; all she put in their +hearts went out at their heels, and Custrin surrendered without +fighting."</p> + +<p>The King and Queen, she said, were at Graudenz, on the Vistula.</p> + +<p>"We will follow," announced Hans.</p> + +<p>Poor little Bettina! Would the journey never end?</p> + +<p>Her grandfather set out at once. Travel now had become very dangerous. +The French were everywhere, and often they must answer questions. They +heard how Napoleon had stolen and sent to Paris the splendid statue of +"Victory," the pride of Berlin; how he had read all the Queen's letters +to the King, which he had found in the palace, and of awful things he +had written of Her Majesty.</p> + +<p>"He seems to hate her, poor lady," said Hans; "but why, no one can say."</p> + +<p>At Graudenz there were the French also. The King and the Queen and the +court had been there, certainly, but one day in had rushed citizens, +crying "The French! the French!" And pell-mell over the bridge had come +Prussians, pursued by French cavalry.</p> + +<p>Bang! Up went the bridge, blown to atoms by the citizens. But the French +were not to be stopped; and on had fled the King, Queen, and the Court +of Prussia.</p> + +<p>So Bettina and her grandfather trudged on to Marienwerder.</p> + +<p>Never had they seen a place so muddy and dirty. The King and Queen had +stayed there ten days. The landlord showed them the room they had lived +in, and Bettina, listening, heard how they had eaten, dressed, and slept +in one room, and that not a fine one.</p> + +<p>"And our poor King," a woman told Hans, "had to take long walks if the +Queen wished to dress, or the servants lay the table."</p> + +<p>The Maids of Honour had been forced to sleep in a tiny, dirty closet, +and the five gentlemen of the flying court in one room, with beds for +two and straw on the floor for the others.</p> + +<p>"And they changed about," said the landlady. "There was an Englishman, +Mr. Jackson, with them, who was pleasant about everything. But our +Queen! She is an angel!"</p> + +<p>"On every hand someone had good to tell of her; how sweet she was, how +patient, how she cheered the whole party and only laughed when she went +up to her knees in mud, and declared that she was not thirsty when they +could get no wine and the water was not fit to be drunk by anybody."</p> + +<p>On one of the windows of the inn the landlady showed Hans some words the +Queen had cut there with a diamond.</p> + +<p>The old man repeated them to Bettina. The great poet, Goethe, had +composed them:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Who never ate his bread in sorrow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who never spent the darksome hours<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Weeping and watching for the morrow,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He knows ye not, ye heavenly powers."<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Bettina looked puzzled.</p> + +<p>"And what does it mean, dear grandfather?"</p> + +<p>The old man took her on his knee.</p> + +<p>He held one little hand in his, and with his other he smoothed her soft +hair.</p> + +<p>"It means, dear child," said he very solemnly, "that we never can know +the dear God well until, when all the world is fast asleep, we weep +because of our own troubles. Then it is that it seems that we know best +the dear God who, in the night, seems to comfort us. Do you understand, +my Bettina?"</p> + +<p>The little girl nodded.</p> + +<p>"I prayed to the good God, dear grandfather, when mother was there," she +shuddered, "and I was with Hans and Baby in the forest. Do you think, +dear grandfather," her lips quivered, "that the poor Queen has such a +trouble? Did that wicked Napoleon kill her dear mother, too?"</p> + +<p>Hans' face twitched, and he drew his arm closer about little Bettina.</p> + +<p>"The Queen's mother, my child, died when her little girl was six, and +she lived all her child life with her grandmother."</p> + +<p>He smoothed Bettina's hair with his hand, but his thoughts were with his +Annchen.</p> + +<p>"Grandfather," Bettina patted his cheek with her hand, "grandfather, +tell me, please, what is the trouble of the Queen? Why is she so +unhappy?"</p> + +<p>Then the old man explained how a Queen is the mother of all the people +in her country, and of how, when a foe comes and with sword and war +slays these people, it is her trouble and she must weep for her +children.</p> + +<p>"Then Queen Louisa, my Bettina, weeps for her poor husband, the King, +who has lost his kingdom, and for her poor children, who are driven from +their home and the palace. And now," he added, "in cold and ice and snow +she has had to fly, as the landlady told you, with not enough to eat and +no fit place to rest in."</p> + +<p>Bettina sighed.</p> + +<p>"Ach ja, dear grandfather."</p> + +<p>Her own feet were very tired and she was certain that she understood +that part of the Queen's trouble.</p> + +<p>"Grandfather," she asked, "please, what is a foe?"</p> + +<p>"Napoleon, child, Napoleon. He comes to do us harm, to work evil. He is +the foe of the good King and Queen, but especially does he hate our +Queen and seek to do her harm."</p> + +<p>Bettina opened her blue eyes.</p> + +<p>"Grandfather," she said, "how can he?"</p> + +<p>The old man shrugged his shoulders and sat absently stroking her hair.</p> + +<p>As for the little girl herself, she was thinking. How anyone could be a +foe of that lovely Queen it was hard to understand. But then, it was so +with all the fairy princesses. There was always an ogre, Bettina +remembered, but it was true, too, that the foes were always conquered by +a knight, or a prince, a dragon, or something.</p> + +<p>She remembered the cave of Kyffhäuser.</p> + +<p>"Grandfather," she said, pulling at one of the buttons of his coat, "why +don't the ravens wake Barbarossa? I told one at our Forest House. I +think, dear grandfather, it is time for him to wake up, don't you?" and +she gazed quite anxiously into his face. As for Hans, he laughed for the +first time in days.</p> + +<p>"It would surprise the Emperor a little, my Bettina," he said, and then +told her that their journey was ended. "The King, dear child, is at +Königsberg, and there we will rest for a long time."</p> + +<p>"God be praised," said little Bettina, in the way the Germans do. "I +shall truly be glad, dear grandfather, to sit down and do a little quiet +knitting."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>ON THE ROAD TO MEMEL</h3> + + + +<p>On a certain day in the January following Jena the snow was falling +fast.</p> + +<p>It clung to the tree limbs and turned the feathery firs to fairy trees. +On the low bushes and oaks the ice glittered and gleamed, and a piercing +blast, sweeping through the branches, crackled the crusted limbs and +filled the air with a mysterious sound of coldness. Now and then a +high-runnered sleigh dashed along the highway, its driver muffled to the +eyes in fur, the breath frozen on his beard or moustaches. From the +Baltic Sea the breath of the frozen North swept over the East Prussian +land and, obedient to its command, life seemed to still its slightest +sound and the whole world freeze into silence.</p> + +<p>Suddenly the voice of a child broke the quiet.</p> + +<p>"Grandfather,"—oh, how tired it sounded,—"truly, dear grandfather, I +can go no farther."</p> + +<p>It was little Bettina, wrapped in a woollen shawl and trudging by the +side of old Hans, whose face was almost hidden in a huge cape of fur.</p> + +<p>They were still on their journey, though Königsberg had been passed two +days before.</p> + +<p>"Ja, ja, Liebchen," the old man paused in the road; "it is cold, indeed. +But have courage, little one; we shall soon reach a village, and then +sausages and bread."</p> + +<p>"God be thanked," said little Bettina, and on she trudged, her poor +feet so cold she could not feel them moving.</p> + +<p>On they went for a time in silence. Then the old man, with a short +laugh, said:</p> + +<p>"God be praised we have left the French behind us."</p> + +<p>Before Bettina could answer, or Hans himself say more, the Baltic sent a +breath sharp with icy edge. It cut the falling snow, it dashed the +flakes in their faces, it beat against their bodies; and, gathering +strength, it drove them apart, tossing and twisting Bettina.</p> + +<p>There was no speaking.</p> + +<p>The wind howled in icy salutation; the snow struck their eyes, drove +itself into their mouths, lodged in the necks of their garments, +whitened their hair and froze on their gloves and chilled them to almost +fainting.</p> + +<p>Then suddenly the wind gave a shriek like a terrified spirit. The snow +began to whirl, and upward went leaves, sticks, and even lumps of the +earth itself.</p> + +<p>Hans caught Bettina in his arms. He drew her to the edge of the road.</p> + +<p>"Down! down!" he cried, and pulled her into a gully. Harmless, the +whirlwind passed above their heads, the ridge of earth protecting their +bodies.</p> + +<p>"Lie close, lie close, my Bettina," cried Hans, and he drew her within +the folds of his great cape with fur lining.</p> + +<p>Winds from the north, east, west, and south fought for mastery, the four +beating and screaming and whirling the innocent snow in their fury, +until, rising, the white confusion became like a veil concealing +everything.</p> + +<p>But wheels were approaching. They reached the road above the travellers, +and then, their horses losing power any longer to struggle, suddenly +stopped short in the road. Even their stamping sounded faint and +exhausted, so great was the fury of the awful war of winds which nature +had excited on that narrow neck of land in East Prussia.</p> + +<p>Then suddenly came a lull. The winds retreated from their battle ground.</p> + +<p>Both Hans and Bettina raised their heads in wonder. In the sudden quiet +they heard a voice, a voice whose sweetness sounded a note quite +familiar and a voice whose owner seemed ill and suffering.</p> + +<p>"I am in a great strait," it said; "let us fall now into the hand of the +Lord, for His mercies are great; and let me not fall into the hand of +man."</p> + +<p>Even while the voice was speaking the whirling snow fell like a curtain +of white wool to the ground, and Hans and Bettina, rising, saw in the +snow of the road a travelling carriage, on whose cushions, covered with +a feather bed, lay a lady, white and pale, whose golden head, for want +of a pillow, rested on the arm of an attendant. With her were ladies and +a physician.</p> + +<p>Hans' face flushed.</p> + +<p>"Curtsey," he whispered to Bettina. "Curtsey, child, it is the Queen!"</p> + +<p>Bettina forgot her own cold. She was no longer tired, no longer hungry, +in her pity for the poor, ill lady, who, when she saw a child, smiled +her a greeting, quite feebly, but as sweet as the one at Jena.</p> + +<p>It was Queen Louisa of Prussia, flying still before her foe, Napoleon.</p> + +<p>He had entered her palace; he had ransacked her private desks; he had +read all her letters to her husband; he had published dreadful things +against her in the French paper in Berlin; he had proclaimed her the +cause of the war; declared her to be vain, foolish, and unworthy of the +love of her people; and loudly had he declared that never would he rest +until he had brought the King and Queen of Prussia so low that they must +beg for their bread.</p> + +<p>He had driven them from place to place, and now was advancing on +Königsberg.</p> + +<p>When Hans and Bettina had arrived in that old city the King had gone, +the court was flying, and so, never heeding the snow, on they had gone, +too, fleeing like the rest, before that dreadful Emperor.</p> + +<p>And here was the poor Queen, who had been ill to death in Königsberg, +journeying in the cold and snow to Memel, with not even a pillow to rest +her head upon!</p> + +<p>When the carriage started again Hans and Bettina walked behind it.</p> + +<p>"It will shelter us," said the old man, for the wind blew little Bettina +almost off her feet.</p> + +<p>Ach, as the Germans say, but it was cold!</p> + +<p>The blasts, sweeping from the Baltic to the Kurischehaff and from the +Kurischehaff to the Baltic, still fought for mastery, and the curtain of +the northern night began to fall about them early in the afternoon, and +on they struggled in the gathering darkness.</p> + +<p>At last, through the snowy gloom, they saw the lights of a village, and, +nearly frozen, they sought lodgings.</p> + +<p>Hans asked a woman whom he saw at a door to shelter them.</p> + +<p>She stoutly refused him.</p> + +<p>She was tall, dark, with sallow complexion and gleaming dark eyes, whose +lids she had a trick of narrowing. Hans pointed to Bettina shivering and +wet to her skin.</p> + +<p>"You cannot refuse us a room," he said.</p> + +<p>The woman shrugged her shoulders and hesitated.</p> + +<p>Truly, Bettina would have moved any heart.</p> + +<p>"Because of the child, poor darling," at last said the woman, "though my +man, if he comes, may not like it." She shrugged expressively.</p> + +<p>She rubbed Bettina's hands and feet with snow and made her dip them in +water, and, undressing her, she wrapped her in a warm bed-gown of her +own and covered her with a feather bed.</p> + +<p>"Drink this," and she held warm milk to her blue little lips, and when +the child was sinking into a doze, she started towards her kitchen. At +the door she paused.</p> + +<p>"I must dry the child's clothes," she said, and coming back gathered up +the damp, draggled garments, Bettina never noticing.</p> + +<p>As she was cleaning them in her kitchen she started violently. Bearing +the dress on her arm she went to her room.</p> + +<p>"I thought so!" she said, and her eyelids narrowed.</p> + +<p>As for Hans, when he had dried himself somewhat and partaken of bread, +cheese, and beer, he was off to the shoemaker's house, where they had +taken the Queen. In its kitchen, with its great stove and its pots of +blooming geraniums, he found some court servants, who, now they were +resting, were glad enough of a gossip.</p> + +<p>Especially was the driver of the carriage fond of talk.</p> + +<p>"Ja," he said, "our good Queen has been ill to death of a nervous +fever."</p> + +<p>Then he told of how she had been with the King; her children, with the +Countess Voss; and first little Princess Alexandrina, and then Prince +Carl had been ill, and the Queen could not reach them.</p> + +<p>At Königsberg little Carl had been near to death, and the Queen from +nursing him took the fever.</p> + +<p>"Ach Himmel," said the driver, gazing from face to face in the hot, +steaming kitchen, "it was terrible, for we thought we should lose her! +Herr Doctor Hufeland arrived from Dantzic. His Excellency found her near +death. Ach, friends, but it was a dreadful night, and all hearts were +anxious, for at sea was a ship, and on board Baron Stein, bearing to +Königsberg the state treasure. He had saved the gold and jewels in +Berlin from that thief Napoleon."</p> + +<p>Then he told how in the night, while the wind howled and blew, there had +come a crash which had startled old Königsberg.</p> + +<p>It was a wing of the old castle which had fallen in the storm.</p> + +<p>"And it brought bad luck," continued the driver, "for a courier arrived +soon after with despatches. 'Fly!' they said, 'fly! the French approach +Königsberg!'"</p> + +<p>And then had come the flight, and he told how, the night before, the +Queen had slept in a room whose windows were so broken the snow had +drifted in all night over her bed and nearly frozen her.</p> + +<p>There was much to talk about, and all were eager to listen. The warmth +from the stove was comfortable, and the shoemaker brought out some beer. +The driver, who certainly was fond of talking, told of the sufferings of +the Royal children; how the old Countess had not been able always to get +them bread, nor find clothes to keep them clean and in order.</p> + +<p>"And they have grown most noisy," he said. "The Queen is an angel. Never +does she complain, but is always sweet and amiable, and the old Countess +is very noble. But our King is gloomy and wrapped in thought and no one +reproves the children."</p> + +<p>The shoemaker asked questions about them.</p> + +<p>"Prince William is the best," said the man; "he looks like his father, +but in disposition he is like our Queen. The old Countess calls him 'A +dear good child,' and that he is always."</p> + +<p>Before he could continue a messenger arrived from Memel with bouillon +from the King for the Queen.</p> + +<p>This arrival brought much excitement, and when again they were quiet +they all fell to talking of the French and how the Emperor coveted the +great fine city of Dantzic and of how its people vowed that he never +should enter its gates while they could prevent him.</p> + +<p>"Where is he now?" asked Hans, hatred burning in his eyes and his cheeks +flushing.</p> + +<p>"They say in Königsberg that he is at Helbsberg. Our army is in that +neighbourhood, also. They report that both are approaching Eylau. +Perhaps they may fight there."</p> + +<p>The shoemaker's wife came into the roomful of men, interrupting a second +time.</p> + +<p>At first she coughed loudly, for they were puffing smoke everywhere. +Then, with a beaming face, she told them how the Queen had just said she +was more comfortable than she had been anywhere on her flight.</p> + +<p>"Our Queen is an angel!" Hans raised high his glass. "Hoch!" he cried, +as the Germans say when they drink to anything or anybody.</p> + +<p>"Hoch!" answered the others, but low, that they might not disturb the +Queen.</p> + +<p>"Long may she live," said the voices.</p> + +<p>Then "Three times hoch!" and they clinked their glasses softly and +drained them.</p> + +<p>Then, it being late, Hans returned to Bettina.</p> + +<p>She was fast asleep, one little hand, thin and pale, lying outside the +feather bed. On a chair by the bedside were her clothes, clean and dry, +and everything quite in order.</p> + +<p>Hans, in terror, felt for the letter.</p> + +<p>It was safe between the lining and the waist material, and, tired +himself, he was soon fast asleep.</p> + +<p>Next day they all started forth, Hans and Bettina walking behind the +carriage, and presently they came to the ferry at Memel.</p> + +<p>In those days Memel was a flourishing little city of about six thousand +people, noted for its cleanliness and its English ways of living. It +lies on water, and into its harbour came Dutch ships and English ones, +giving it a look of activity.</p> + +<p>As the Queen entered Memel a strange thing happened.</p> + +<p>As if Nature, whom she loved with all her heart, wished to welcome her, +the clouds suddenly parted like a curtain and there was the sun, which +no one had seen for days, smiling forth gloriously.</p> + +<p>"God be praised!" cried Hans. "It is a good omen."</p> + +<p>As he and Bettina started into the city they came upon a lady and some +children. She was stout and comfortable looking and wrapped in fine +furs. The oldest of her children was a girl about fifteen, and the +prettiest girl Bettina had ever seen.</p> + +<p>When this lady saw Hans she gave a shriek.</p> + +<p>"My goodness!" she cried. "Why, Hans, how came you here?"</p> + +<p>As for Hans, he was all excitement.</p> + +<p>"Mademoiselle Clara!" he cried. "Ach Gott! that I see you again!"</p> + +<p>When the lady, with many exclamations, heard of Hans' journey, she +raised her hands in horror.</p> + +<p>"Heavens!" she cried, "but you must come home at once with me. I am +married now, Hans, and these are my children."</p> + +<p>Then she turned to the pretty girl.</p> + +<p>"Daughter," she said, "this is Hans, Johannes Lange. He was with your +grandfather when he was Colonel. Come, Hans; come, child," she smiled +kindly at Bettina. "My husband is home and will welcome you kindly. +Come, come!"</p> + +<p>And off she led them into Memel.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3>AMONG FRIENDS</h3> + + +<p>The stout lady, asking Hans question after question, led the way to a +large, roomy house surrounded by a garden, now bare and wintry, the +limbs of fruit trees, birches, and shrubs crackling with ice.</p> + +<p>"This is, naturally, not our own house, Johannes," explained the lady, +who had just finished telling him how she and her family had fled from +Berlin upon the approach of Napoleon. "This is my husband's brother's +home," she continued, leading the way to the door. "In the spring we +shall move to Königsberg, where my husband will become professor in the +University. Come in, Hans, come in. Ja, ja, you are right. It is a +comfortable house, but the cold here in Memel is awful. Carl," she +turned quickly to the small boy who was teasing his sister, "behave +yourself, or I'll send you to Napoleon!"</p> + +<p>It was funny to see him straighten up and become quickly as good as his +sisters.</p> + +<p>"Come in, come in," she closed the door quickly. "Husband! Richard!" she +called very loudly.</p> + +<p>A door at the end of the hall opened in response, and out came a grave, +learned-looking man, who smiled kindly from face to face.</p> + +<p>"Richard! Richard!" the lady's voice screamed with excitement, "who do +you think is here?"</p> + +<p>She drew forward Hans and Bettina.</p> + +<p>"An old soldier of my dear father's regiment," her voice vibrated with +pride, "and one, dear Richard, who was with the great Frederick, and, +oh, such a favourite with father, was it not so, Hans?"</p> + +<p>The old soldier shrugged his shoulders as much as to say, "It is not for +me to agree."</p> + +<p>"Ja, ja, Richard, he was, and a favourite of our dear lost little Erna. +It was such a surprise to see him," and she motioned the group to the +warmth of the sitting room. Then, all crowding around the tall, green +stove, Hans told his story.</p> + +<p>"Heavens, dear Richard!" the stout lady pulled out an embroidered pocket +handkerchief, "but seeing him brings back the past."</p> + +<p>Then she turned to the pretty young girl.</p> + +<p>"Mariechen, take the twins upstairs and see that they are quite dry as +to stockings; go, also, dear child," she smiled at Bettina, who, feeling +shy and strange, followed across the hall and upstairs to the room into +which the young lady entered.</p> + +<p>"The child is tired," she heard the lady saying, "and Hans must see our +King. He has brought messages. They must stay here. Ja, ja, Hans. The +house is big, and our brother Joachim gives me my will."</p> + +<p>Then the door closed and Bettina heard no more.</p> + +<p>In the great room where she found herself sat a dark-haired young lady +embroidering.</p> + +<p>"Pauline, Pauline!" called the children, "Hans has come, and here is +Bettina."</p> + +<p>Then, before the pretty young girl could explain, in came the stout lady +and told the one called Pauline how once this Hans had saved her little +sister's life, and how the family never could forget it, and that +Bettina must be dressed drily in one of the children's bed-gowns and +given warm milk and at once sent to bed and left there.</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you the story presently. The child must not hear it again. It +is dreadful."</p> + +<p>When Bettina was safely in bed, up came Hans and the gentleman.</p> + +<p>"My oldest son, Franz, was at Jena," she heard the latter saying—and +then to her surprise her grandfather called him "Herr Professor."</p> + +<p>Bettina, her eyes sparkling, sat up in bed.</p> + +<p>"Grandfather, dear grandfather!" she called, and when he came close, she +drew down his head and whispered most eagerly.</p> + +<p>"Nein, nein, child," they all heard him reply, and then Bettina insist:</p> + +<p>"But, yes, dear grandfather. Please, please ask him, I know it, dear +grandfather, I know it."</p> + +<p>"What is it, Hans?" and the Herr Professor came close to Bettina, +smiling in his kind, fatherly way.</p> + +<p>"She will have it, sir," answered the old soldier, "that your name must +be 'Von Stork,' and that you are the father of the young Prussian +soldier whom we nursed in the Forest House!"</p> + +<p>"I know it, dear grandfather, I know it," burst out Bettina in high +excitement. "The Herr Lieutenant told me of Carl and Ilse and Elsa and +Mademoiselle Pauline and his big sister, Marianne, and of how our Queen +kissed Carl—and——"</p> + +<p>Bettina could say no more.</p> + +<p>Screaming and crying out, they all crowded round exclaiming that it was +their Franz, their own dear Franz and no other.</p> + +<p>And then they would know everything and all he did and said and just +where he was wounded and how they took him prisoner, and Madame von +Stork fell to weeping, and all the others cried, "Ja, ja," and "Nein, +nein," so loud and so much that poor, tired little Bettina was almost +deafened.</p> + +<p>And then Hans must go all over the whole story for them again, and it +set Bettina to weeping, and the old man to vowing vengeance against +Napoleon.</p> + +<p>Madame von Stork first rejoiced because her boy was alive, and then wept +because he was a prisoner, and she thanked Hans over and over, and told +him that she would care for Bettina so long as they remained in Memel.</p> + +<p>And then they all went from the room and Bettina fell sound asleep, and +did not move until the next morning.</p> + +<p>But, no, she moved once, for her grandfather, coming into the room, +waked her and asked her if she had taken the letter from her dress +lining.</p> + +<p>"Nein, grandfather," she had answered and then had gone off to sleep.</p> + +<p>When next morning she opened her blue eyes, her grandfather was packing +his bundle.</p> + +<p>Her little heart sank and her eyes filled. Was she to go forth in the +ice and the wet and the snow and that awful wind again?</p> + +<p>"Nein, nein, little one," said the old man, patting her cheek very +kindly. "You shall stay here with my good Mademoiselle Clara," for so he +called Madame von Stork, as he had known her when she was as small as +Bettina, and he explained that he was going alone, but would return in a +day or two to Memel.</p> + +<p>Then, sitting on her bed, he asked her question after question.</p> + +<p>Had she told anyone of the letter, had a person touched her dress?</p> + +<p>"Nein, grandfather, nein," she said.</p> + +<p>At first she was quite certain.</p> + +<p>But, presently, she remembered the woman they had lodged with, and how +she must have cleaned her dress and dried it.</p> + +<p>The old man clapped his knee with his hand.</p> + +<p>"Ach Himmel, child!" he cried. "It is she who has stolen it."</p> + +<p>Then he shouldered his bundle, declaring he must fetch it.</p> + +<p>"Auf wiedersehen, my Bettina," he said, and departed from Memel.</p> + +<p>It was only a day's journey to the village, but a week passed and no +Hans. Then another.</p> + +<p>Madame von Stork shook her head.</p> + +<p>"His trouble has crazed him," she said. "We will keep the child, yes?" +and she looked at her husband.</p> + +<p>The Professor nodded.</p> + +<p>"Our Franz loved her," he answered. "She is not noble, it is true, but +she is sweet and good, and our children love her. The Stork's nest, dear +wife," and he smiled at her lovingly, "is always big enough for one +more, it is not, my dear Clara?"</p> + +<p>Madame von Stork nodded.</p> + +<p>Pauline was not their child, but a French refugee whose parents were +nobles who had perished in the Revolution. The Stork's nest had received +her; so why not another?</p> + +<p>"Let her remain," concluded the Professor, "until the old man returns, +or we can make some provision for her."</p> + +<p>So Bettina became one of the "Nest", as the von Storks always called +their home, and with so much love and kindness about her, the little +girl soon forgot much that she had suffered.</p> + +<p>"But I should like to see Willy Schmidt and my little brothers," once +she said to Marianne, who was her favourite.</p> + +<p>The little round-faced, tow-headed twins flew to her sides, each taking +a hand and pressing it against her chubby cheek.</p> + +<p>"When Barbarossa, that you told us of, Bettina, comes out of the cave, +our father will take us all to Thuringia," promised Ilse.</p> + +<p>"What nonsense, you geese," and Carl laughed scornfully. "There isn't a +Barbarossa. Otto says so, and he's fifteen and knows everything. +Anyway," he looked very proud of his knowledge, "nobody can conqueror +the Emperor!"</p> + +<p>But when he heard that Bettina had really seen the awful Napoleon, he +listened with wideopen blue eyes and was not so important.</p> + +<p>Perhaps, after all, Bettina did know something.</p> + +<p>"And you saw him," he asked, "saw Napoleon?"</p> + +<p>"Ja wohl," answered Bettina, glad to have the young hero listen +respectfully.</p> + +<p>"And he didn't run away with you?" Carl looked eager.</p> + +<p>Bettina shook her golden head.</p> + +<p>"Nein, nein, or I should not be here." The twins roared. As for Carl, he +laughed very rudely and snapped his fingers at Marianne.</p> + +<p>"You just hear, Mariechen," he said, "Bettina's seen Napoleon and he +didn't do a thing to her."</p> + +<p>At that was the whole Stork's Nest most sorrowful, for now they knew +that Carl would never behave, since Napoleon was the only thing he was +afraid of.</p> + +<p>While they were talking, Elsa and Ilse cried out to come quickly and see +who was passing, and they all crowded to the windows, breathing on the +frost that they might see out more clearly.</p> + +<p>What they saw was a tall, handsome gentleman with a kind, but very sad +face, a lovely lady leaning on his arm, and two little boys, one tall +and handsome, the other, delicate-faced with soft curly hair, clinging +to the hand of the lady.</p> + +<p>It was the King and Queen of Prussia, with the Crown Prince and little +Prince William.</p> + +<p>"God be praised," said Madame von Stork. "Our dear, dear Queen has +recovered." She stood behind the group and watched, having entered the +room while they were talking.</p> + +<p>As for little Bettina, a great happiness filled her.</p> + +<p>Her lovely Queen lived here in Memel and she walked out like other +people.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps," she said to Ilse, "one day we shall meet her."</p> + +<p>But Ilse did not answer.</p> + +<p>"Look, Bettina," she cried, "our King is talking to father."</p> + +<p>Sure enough there was the Professor standing with their Majesties, first +looking cheerful, then becoming grave and attentive.</p> + +<p>As soon as he entered the house he called to his wife. They talked for a +long time in private, and after that day everybody in the house was +very, very kind to Bettina. Sometimes Madame von Stork's eyes would fill +when they gazed at her, and once, when the little girl told her that she +was making a nice pair of stockings for her grandfather, the lady began +to weep.</p> + +<p>Bettina thought her tears were for the Herr Lieutenant, and sat very +quiet. Only she could not help wondering why no one ever said a word +about her grandfather.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3>THE STORK'S NEST</h3> + + +<p>As Madame von Stork had told Hans, her family had taken refuge in Memel +when the news came that Napoleon, having conquered the King at Jena, +would advance upon Berlin.</p> + +<p>Old Major Joachim von Stork had welcomed his brother's family into his +great empty house in Memel, and in the safety of a new nest the Mother +Stork had gathered beneath her wings all her startled, frightened brood, +but two sons who had gone against Napoleon.</p> + +<p>Bettina nearly laughed aloud when she saw the old Major. He was stout, +and red-faced, and wore a stock as high as three inches. On each side of +his head were four curls, frizzled and powdered, as they once wore hair +in the army, and his pig-tail boasted a huge cockade.</p> + +<p>Bettina heard him talking one day with his housekeeper about his stocks:</p> + +<p>"They must be exactly three inches high," he ordered, "exactly, my dear +Frau, and as to my cockade, are you quite certain that it is large +enough?"</p> + +<p>And he looked very anxiously at his housekeeper, who held up her hands.</p> + +<p>"Gracious, Herr Major," she said, "it is immense."</p> + +<p>But the Major, puffing a little, looked offended.</p> + +<p>"Immense, my dear woman, what on earth are you talking of? Why Captain +von Schallenfels of my regiment had always seventy or eighty ells of +ribbons on his queue. Fact, I assure you," added the indignant old +gentleman. "It trailed so on the ground that he was forced to tuck it +into his coat pocket when on parade. True, my dear woman, true, I assure +you."</p> + +<p>The old Major, however, was kindness itself, though he went his way just +the same as if his house was still empty. And this way was to have his +meals to himself and, at four o'clock each day, to depart to the house +of one Monsieur von Schrotter, and, with six other Memel gentlemen, +drink beer, smoke, and discuss the army, Prussia, or Napoleon, until +bedtime.</p> + +<p>His wife, Bettina learned, had died many years before and he had but one +son.</p> + +<p>"Our cousin, Rudolph," Carl told her. "He is with my brother Wolf in the +army."</p> + +<p>In the evening all the family gathered in the sitting-room and there +Bettina saw everybody.</p> + +<p>First, there was the Professor, tall, kind-looking and very fond of his +wife and children. He still wore his hair in a pig-tail and not brushed +forward like the King, and he liked silver buckles on his shoes, and a +stock, but not high like that of his brother.</p> + +<p>"And our father knows, oh, everything," the twins told Bettina, "so much +that our Queen used to send for him in Berlin to talk to her. He has +read, oh, all the books in the world."</p> + +<p>Madame von Stork was as kind-looking as her husband, but she was stout, +and her skin was pink and white like a girl's, and she wore her hair +very high, and on top of its rolls one of the huge turbans then the +fashion. Sometimes she seemed quite like a large hen, clucking about her +children, her feathers ruffling if a thing went wrong with any one of +them.</p> + +<p>Especially was she troubled about her pretty daughter Marianne.</p> + +<p>"And no wonder," Bettina heard her telling the Major's housekeeper, Frau +Winkel. "She is a girl, and yet is the one most like her dear father. +She must always be at her books, and I cannot make her care for her +embroidery, her tent stitch, nor the cooking. And what good is a German +girl who cares for none of these things? Who will marry her, my dear +Frau Winkel? She is fourteen, and most girls are married at fifteen or +sixteen. Pauline, now, is entirely different. When there are clothes to +be mended, her fingers assist me. When the children are noisy, she can +quiet even Carl. It is she who makes the puddings, and if she has a +spare moment she is busy over her embroidery; a true house-wife by +nature, and French, too," added Madame von Stork, as if the two things +were impossible. Perhaps it was Pauline's troubles which had subdued +her. Before the flight from Berlin, Marianne had known nothing but joy +and petting, but Pauline had a history as sad as Bettina.</p> + +<p>One day, many years before the days of Memel, an old Frenchman had +appeared at the "Stork's Nest" in Berlin.</p> + +<p>Though his hair was white, his shoulders bowed with trouble, and his +clothes worn and poor, the Professor recognised him as a once very +elegant-looking servant of a French nobleman whom he had known well in +Paris. He led by the hand a little girl of eight or nine.</p> + +<p>"My master and mistress lost their heads in the Revolution," the man +explained, "but I escaped to Berlin with Mademoiselle Pauline."</p> + +<p>Then he told of his dangers and all they had endured.</p> + +<p>"Monsieur," he said, "I am old, poor, and alone. What shall I do with a +fine young lady?"</p> + +<p>Madame von Stork's quick eye had been studying the child. The sadness of +the pale little face, the neatness of the black dress, the daintiness of +the Marie Antoinette kerchief warmed her heart to the homeless little +girl.</p> + +<p>She looked at her husband, a question in her kind grey eyes.</p> + +<p>He nodded, and so Pauline came to the shelter of the "Nest," which so +kindly welcomed Bettina also.</p> + +<p>And now Pauline was like Madame von Stork's own child, and, since she +was noble and hated the French Republic, and loved her poor King, she, +too, had no good for Napoleon and, like the Prussians, hoped to see him +conquered.</p> + +<p>"And what I should do without Pauline, Heaven only knows," Madame von +Stork was often saying, "my own Marianne being so useless."</p> + +<p>Marianne might be useless, but Bettina thought her almost as pretty as +the Queen, in her short-waisted dress, her puffed sleeves, her long +mitts and her lovely curling hair tied in place with a snood of blue +ribbon.</p> + +<p>When they all came to the sitting-room in the evening Bettina would +arrange her stool quite near the "gracious Fräulein Mariechen," and, +while she knitted away, she used to gaze up shyly at her pretty +neighbour and make up stories about the Prince who would one day come +and marry her.</p> + +<p>"Pauline's worth ten of her," Otto was always saying. He was nearly +sixteen and was always wanting someone to do things for him, and, +"Marianne," he said, "is so stupid. Pauline can mend a fellow's things +in a minute."</p> + +<p>But Elsa and Ilse, the twins, who were so alike only their mother seemed +always to know which was which, and Carl preferred Marianne.</p> + +<p>"She can tell you stories," they told Bettina.</p> + +<p>As for Marianne herself, sometimes she was quite unhappy. She wanted to +be useful, but she did so love to read, and then she forgot. And house +work and cooking were not amusing.</p> + +<p>Madame von Stork had little good for idleness.</p> + +<p>"It is German," she always said, "to work. Even our good Queen is never +idle. I have seen a handkerchief she herself embroidered, Marianne, with +beautiful flower designs and a crown in gold placed in one corner."</p> + +<p>Settling herself with a huge bundle of mending, she with her keen eyes +would inspect the family group each evening.</p> + +<p>"Come, now, Marianne, no reading," she would say. "You do not know what +to do? Nonsense. There is your tent stitch. Pauline? Yes, yes, you of +course are busy. Ilse, Elsa? Bettina? Knitting, that's good. Carl? You +are a boy? What foolishness. Get your pencils and drawing book. You +don't like that? Very well then. Let Otto bring you the silhouettes that +Mademoiselle von Appen began in Berlin, and you can cut others. But, +Otto, first fix the lamp. There, where the light can fall on your +father's book. There, that is good."</p> + +<p>Her eyes travelled from needle to scissors, from pencil to work.</p> + +<p>"There, there," she said, her face beaming, "we are a busy German +family. Begin now, dear husband, we are all quite ready to hear your +book."</p> + +<p>The father of the family often read aloud to them in the evenings. But +the books he read were not such as children would even look at to-day.</p> + +<p>Bettina and Marianne, the twins, Carl and the others all listened, on +those long, cold Memel evenings, to grown-up histories, to romances, or +sometimes to plays or poems, very long and very serious.</p> + +<p>Now and then the Professor would talk, not read, and then Bettina loved +it. He told of the new Republic across the sea, America, which had +fought a great war and was now free and independent, and there were +stories of the great men called Washington and Franklin, and of all the +excitement when they had signed a treaty of peace in Paris.</p> + +<p>"I was young then," said the Professor, "and in Helsingör, and there was +much talk of a new life beginning for the world with the Declaration of +Independence,—you must read it, Otto,—and the ships and the harbour +were gaily decorated and cannon were fired and we all drank to the +health of this new Republic at a fine party given to celebrate the birth +of Liberty. And they raised the American flag and lit bonfires, and +heavens, children, but there was hurrahing!"</p> + +<p>And he told of a great Englishman, named Nelson, who had conquered +Napoleon at Trafalgar, and of the Revolution in France, and all that in +his day had happened. But often he read, and sometimes Bettina's little +head fell to nodding. One night she was almost asleep when the +Professor's voice stopped suddenly.</p> + +<p>"Richard," interrupted his wife, and her tone was furious, "see our +Marianne."</p> + +<p>Bettina dropped her knitting and stared. So did the twins, and Carl +stopped cutting. What had Marianne done? Her cheeks were quite crimson +and one hand held something under the table cover.</p> + +<p>"My Heavens, Richard, think of it! Let me see it, Marianne. Obey me."</p> + +<p>Never had Madame von Stork spoken so severely. The twins nearly fell +from their chairs. Carl opened his mouth, and his eyes stared at +Marianne. Pauline never looked up once from her embroidery. Bettina's +knitting needles shook in her hands.</p> + +<p>"She's been reading under the table cover," announced Otto with the +superior air boys wore in those days with their sisters. "It's the +'Sorrow of Werther.' I see the cover."</p> + +<p>Such a thing had never happened in the "Stork's Nest."</p> + +<p>The father's face grew stern, and anger made even his neck red to the +roots of his queue.</p> + +<p>"Marianne," he began, when the maid opening the door announced:</p> + +<p>"His Excellency, Herr Doctor Hufeland, and the gracious Herr Brandt."</p> + +<p>A great cry of "Ludwig!" "Cousin Ludwig!" welcomed the entrance of a +tall, handsome man of perhaps thirty-five, with a serious face and +English features. He was dressed in one of the long-tailed coats then +the fashion, coming down to the top of his high, spurred boots. His hair +was brushed forward, and within the high collars of his coat appeared a +soft lawn stock. The other gentleman Bettina at once recognised as the +physician who had been with the Queen on the road from Memel.</p> + +<p>"We call him 'Cousin Ludwig,'" whispered Elsa. "He was betrothed to our +Aunt Erna who died."</p> + +<p>"He won't speak French," whispered Isle; "he says Germans should not +imitate the French people as upper-class people do, but should speak +their own language."</p> + +<p>Bettina was glad of this, for often she had to sit for hours without +understanding a word, unless the twins explained things.</p> + +<p>There was much to talk about.</p> + +<p>Madame von Stork bustled from the room to give orders for refreshments, +and while she was gone, Herr Brandt, who had settled himself near +Pauline, explained that he had come over from Königsberg.</p> + +<p>"I was with Baron von Stein," he added. "We escaped from Berlin with the +royal treasure and arrived in Königsberg at Christmas time. Since then I +have been at Dantzic."</p> + +<p>Bettina opened her little ears. Dantzic was a great, free city of +Germany, around which was the army of Napoleon. Its people were holding +out bravely and it was hoped that Napoleon would withdraw.</p> + +<p>"But the city is bound to fall," said Ludwig. "All who can are +escaping."</p> + +<p>That dreadful Emperor! Bettina seemed to see him on his white horse +before the gate of the brave old city.</p> + +<p>When Madame von Stork returned, the maid followed her with cake and +wine.</p> + +<p>"God be thanked, gentlemen," she said, "our brother Joachim has a full +cellar and as yet we have something to offer our visitors."</p> + +<p>Pauline and Marianne served the guests, one, dark and handsome in a red +dress trimmed with bands of fur, her arms and neck like ivory, her dark +hair arranged in curls tied back with ribbon, the other, golden-haired +and pink-cheeked, in a gown of blue, her curls tied back also with +ribbon, the ends of her narrow sash floating about as she moved in her +quick, merry way. As they ate and drank, Dr. Hufeland told his old +friends all the sad things which had happened to the Queen because of +Napoleon. He described her flight from Jena, relating how she rode +through the lovely Harz Mountains to Brunswick and from there went to +Magdeberg.</p> + +<p>"And all the time, dear Madame," the doctor turned to Madame von Stork, +"our poor lady had no idea of how the battle had gone, nor did she hear +a word of the fate of the King. The Countess von Voss tells me that for +courage she has never seen her equal. The Queen held fast her hand and +all through that dreadful flight, with the fear of Napoleon behind her, +she repeated over and over texts which had words to sustain her."</p> + +<p>"What were they, dear Doctor?"</p> + +<p>"From the eighth chapter of Romans, dear Madame," said the Doctor, +consulting a little note book.</p> + +<p>"Marianne," commanded her father, "fetch the Bible. Let us hear what +words gave comfort to our Queen."</p> + +<p>Marianne tripped across the room and returned in a moment with a Bible +which she laid before her father.</p> + +<p>All listening, he found the place and read aloud:</p> + +<p>"The Spirit helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray +for.</p> + +<p>"We know that all things work together for good to them that love God.</p> + +<p>"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or +distress, or persecution, or famine, or peril, or sword?</p> + +<p>"Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate +us from the love of God, which is in Jesus Christ our Lord."</p> + +<p>"Our good Angel," murmured Madame von Stork, wiping her eyes.</p> + +<p>"Ach, ja," said the Doctor, "she had much to endure, poor lady."</p> + +<p>Then he related how, tired to death herself, she had tried to encourage +the soldiers at Magdeburg, and of how in dread and trembling she had +driven across the flat country towards Berlin, and at last had entered +the old city of Brandenburg.</p> + +<p>"It was by the old stone, Roland," continued the Doctor, "that a courier +stopped her with the news. 'Majesty,' he said, 'all is lost! +Everything!' Then the Queen, seizing the papers from his hands, read the +awful news, her figure trembling like a leaf! 'The battle was lost at +Jena. The King has been defeated at Auerstädt. Napoleon is making on +Berlin. Your Majesty must fly with the Royal children.'"</p> + +<p>Bettina's tears fell as the Doctor's voice faltered. The Mother of the +Nest wiped her eyes on her embroidered handkerchief and the gentlemen +and Otto blew their noses. Marianne sobbed.</p> + +<p>"And our Queen," went on the Doctor, "turned like a child to the old +Countess. She has been to her like a mother, you know. 'Voss, dear +Voss,' she said, 'my poor, poor husband.' Then she forced back her +tears. 'Dear Voss,' and she clung to her hand. 'I must go at once to my +children.'"</p> + +<p>Then the Doctor told of how her carriage had dashed into Berlin to find +the city a scene of wild confusion. The people, deceived by early news +of a victory, were now driven into panic by the disaster at Jena. When +the Queen entered they were pouring through the city gates in flight.</p> + +<p>"Napoleon is coming! Napoleon! Napoleon!" was the cry which everywhere +met her ear.</p> + +<p>"It was terrible," put in the Professor. "I had to pay a fortune for the +travelling carriages which brought us to Memel."</p> + +<p>"But the Queen," the Doctor continued, "found only disappointment at the +palace. Springing to the ground, she cried: 'My children!' to the +attendant."</p> + +<p>"But they were gone," interrupted Otto, "they left before we did. Their +tutor took them to Swert-on-Oder."</p> + +<p>The Doctor nodded, while the Professor frowned at Otto for his rudeness.</p> + +<p>"Her Majesty," resumed the Doctor, "sent at once for me. When I saw her +I started in amazement. Her dress was travel-stained and crumpled, her +hair in wild disorder, her face wet with tears. Never had I before seen +her any way than very neat and smiling. She held out her hands. Oh, dear +Madame, it brought tears to my eyes. 'I must fly to my children,' she +cried, 'and you must go with me.' Then, just as fast as we could, we +proceeded to Swert, leaving things just as they were in the palace."</p> + +<p>"A great pity, too," put in Herr Brandt, whose ways were most orderly. +"For Napoleon, as we all know, found the Queen's letters to her husband, +read what he pleased, and published all that might injure her."</p> + +<p>"The monster!" cried Madame von Stork, motioning Marianne to fill the +Doctor's glass and pass the cake to Herr Brandt.</p> + +<p>"Thank you, many thanks," and the visitor smiled at Marianne and went on +with his talk.</p> + +<p>"The meeting, dear friends, between our dear Queen and her children was +most heartrending. The poor little things had been torn from their play +in the palace, hurried into the travelling carriage and borne away with +very little idea of what had happened. When they heard that their +mother, whom they adore, had arrived, they rushed with cries of joy to +meet her. Even the baby Alexandrina, holding the hand of little Prince +William. But when they saw their mother, her face all wet with tears, +her dress so tumbled and with such a wild look in her eyes, the poor +little things started back in fright. The baby set up a wail, and even +the Crown Prince looked frightened."</p> + +<p>"Poor things," murmured Madame von Stork, her handkerchief again to her +eyes.</p> + +<p>"'My poor children! my poor children!' cried the Queen. Truly," and the +Doctor gazed from the faces of Elsa, Ilse, and Bettina to the grown +ones, "it was a pitiful thing to see the frightened little faces. Our +Queen, ashamed that she had frightened them, put her own feelings +entirely aside and thought only of them! 'Come with me, my darlings,' +she said, and taking the baby she led the way to her room. When she had +removed her wraps, she gathered them all around her. 'Fritz, Willy,' she +said to the two older boys, 'stand before me. Charlotte, Carl, sit one +on each side. I will hold the baby. Listen now, and I will tell you why +your mother comes to you thus in tears. My dear, dear children,' I have +written down every one of her words in my diary," explained the Doctor, +reading from his little book, "'We have suffered a great and terrible +defeat. Your poor, unhappy father and all the soldiers of Frederick the +Great, your famous uncle, have been defeated in two terrible battles, +one fought at Jena, the other at the same moment at Auerstädt.'"</p> + +<p>Then the Doctor told how she related the news of that dreadful October, +and told of her journey and the flight to Berlin. And she spoke so +simply that even little Carl had an idea of all the trouble.</p> + +<p>"My darlings," and she gathered Carl and Charlotte in her arms, "you see +me in tears. I weep for the destruction of our army, for the death of +relatives and of many faithful friends."</p> + +<p>The older boys wiped their eyes, and Carl began to sob, for his lively +Cousin Louis Ferdinand, who always brought him toys and had a joke +ready, was dead, too, his mother had told him.</p> + +<p>"Fritz, Willy," the Queen turned to them, speaking only to them, "my +dear, dear sons, you see an edifice which two great men built up in a +century, destroyed in a day; there is now no Prussian army, no Prussian +empire, no national pride: all has vanished like the smoke which hid our +misery on the fields of Jena and Auerstädt. Oh, my sons, my dear little +children, you are already of an age when you can understand these +unhappy things. In a future age when your mother is no more, recall this +unhappy hour. Weep again in your memories my tears, remember how I in +this dreadful moment wept for the downfall of my Fatherland."</p> + +<p>Then she described to them the glorious death of their cousin, Prince +Louis Ferdinand, and again addressed the little princes especially.</p> + +<p>"But do not be content, little sons, with tears. Bring out, develop your +own powers, grow great in them, Fritz, Willy. Perhaps the guardian angel +of Prussia gazes on you now. Free, then, your people from this humiliation +which overpowers it. Seek to shake off France as your grandfather, the +Great Elector, did Sweden. Do not forget, my sons, these times. Be men +and heroes worthy of the names of Princes and grandsons of Frederick the +Great, and for Prussia's sake be willing to confront death as Louis +Ferdinand encountered it."</p> + +<p>The fire which thrilled her voice caught the souls of the two boys and +their eyes glowed with excitement.</p> + +<p>"We promise, dear mother," said the Crown Prince, and both boys kissed +her. "We promise," said little William.</p> + +<p>Then the Queen being so tired sent the children from her, and attendants +appeared from Berlin, couriers arrived with despatches, and Count +Hardenburg, the Prime Minister, waited on Queen Louise with news of the +King.</p> + +<p>His Majesty, he assured her, was safe and sent word that the Queen and +the children must go at once to Stettin.</p> + +<p>On the twentieth they arrived in that strong town, and the Queen said +good-bye to her children.</p> + +<p>"Go, darlings," she told them, "with our Voss to Dantzic. Mother will +join father at Custrin."</p> + +<p>Then she held them a moment one by one in her arms and begged them to be +good and to pray always for their country.</p> + +<p>"Auf wiedersehen, darlings, as soon as possible you will see both your +dear father and your mother."</p> + +<p>Then they had separated, the Countess Voss and the children going +towards the Baltic, the Queen joining her husband in the strong old +fortified town where he was then in hiding.</p> + +<p>But something very annoying happened to the Queen at Stettin.</p> + +<p>There she had been promised fresh horses. She waited and waited and none +were brought forth. At last it was discovered that all the horses had +been turned into the field after her arrival, and that she must go on to +the King with her tired one.</p> + +<p>"It was the work of that villain, Napoleon. All believe that +everywhere," put in Ludwig.</p> + +<p>When Dr. Hufeland had finished his story, Ludwig Brandt told of the +entrance of Napoleon into Berlin; how he came in a splendid procession +with flags flying and trumpets sounding.</p> + +<p>"But the Berliners, watching him from the windows, wept," he added, his +face glowing.</p> + +<p>Then he related how Napoleon had said all manner of things against the +Queen, and of how surprised he was when he first beheld her portrait at +Potsdam. "I had no idea that she looked like that," he said, and began +to ask questions about her and listened attentively to all the praise +which on every side was given her.</p> + +<p>But, however much he was interested, it did not prevent his accusing her +of having caused the war, before an assembly of Berliners he called to +discuss matters. Only one of these Prussians had courage to defend the +Queen. He was an old clergyman named Erman.</p> + +<p>Up he stood and looked Napoleon straight in the eye.</p> + +<p>"Sire," he said, "that is not true."</p> + +<p>Not a soul believed that he would escape with his life, but he did.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps," said the Professor, "Napoleon respected one brave man among +such a group of cowards."</p> + +<p>Before the Doctor could reply, a thundering knock at the door made all +stop and look at each other in consternation.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3>FRESH TROUBLES</h3> + + +<p>It was the Major, who never could wait a minute.</p> + +<p>His face was red and the powder from his curls had been shaken off in +his hurry. He greeted no one.</p> + +<p>"Richard, Richard," he cried, "there is news of a battle at Eylau!"</p> + +<p>The gentlemen sprang from their chairs, Madame von Stork turned pale. +Her Wolfgang was with the army.</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes," cried the Major, speaking French very rapidly, "there has +been a battle, a dreadful one, something terrible. There is no news yet +that is certain. Some say, victory, others, defeat, but the whole town +is in wild excitement. I have heard that the suffering of the soldiers +was awful."</p> + +<p>"Naturally," said Herr Brandt in German—not a word of French would he +speak, "with all this ice, snow, and freezing."</p> + +<p>"I have but one boy," said the Major, "and he is with the army. Here, +Clarchen, some wine. Ah, many thanks, Mademoiselle Pauline." In spite of +his worry he made a gallant bow, the cockade on his queue bobbing.</p> + +<p>"My Rudolph," he said, "is a soldier, and perhaps at Eylau. But he can +be nothing better than his father was, now can he?" He settled his +double chin over his high stock and gazed from his blue eyes at the +gentlemen.</p> + +<p>The Professor motioned them all to seats.</p> + +<p>"Clarchen," he said to his wife, "it is bedtime for the children." His +voice was trembling.</p> + +<p>The children all bowed and curtsied, and, kissing their mother's hand +and wishing pleasant dreams for everybody, departed; Marianne, Pauline, +and Otto, also.</p> + +<p>The gentlemen, for Madame von Stork in a moment followed to give orders +to her servant, sat with filled glasses and discussed Napoleon and their +country.</p> + +<p>Presently the Professor left the room to order another bottle of wine +and some sandwiches.</p> + +<p>"That older girl, Mademoiselle Pauline, is an excellent maiden," +remarked Dr. Hufeland, in tones of admiration. Herr Brandt nodded, his +face growing serious.</p> + +<p>"Did you notice how calm she kept amid all the excitement?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes," said the Major, "she is excellent, always ready to arrange +my stock or tie the ribbon on my queue. Very different from my niece, +Marianne," he added, "very different, I assure you."</p> + +<p>Herr Brandt raised his eyebrows.</p> + +<p>"Richard has spoiled that girl," he remarked; "see here." He picked up +"The Sorrows of Werther," which lay under Marianne's chair.</p> + +<p>Then he read aloud high-flown passages marked by Marianne's pencil.</p> + +<p>"How her parents expect any sensible German man to marry her I cannot +form an idea. A German man desires a wife who can cook, sew, and keep +his house in order."</p> + +<p>The Doctor raised his hand, for the Professor was entering with the +bottle.</p> + +<p>Almost immediately his wife followed.</p> + +<p>Her eyes at once fell on "The Sorrows of Werther," and her face +darkened.</p> + +<p>"See, Richard, see," she cried, "we quite forgot to scold Marianne."</p> + +<p>"Come, come, Clarchen," the Professor's voice was kind and soothing, +"let the girl be. We have far more serious things now to worry over."</p> + +<p>Then he lifted the book from the table.</p> + +<p>"Ah, Goethe," he cried, and, in a moment, the battle of Eylau and all +else was forgotten, while his eager eye conned the familiar pages. +Madame von Stork turned to the others, who burst into laughter as they +watched her husband.</p> + +<p>"Just see him!" cried the poor lady, her turban bobbing as she shook her +head with violence.</p> + +<p>Startled, the Professor looked up from his book, his mild, learned face +full of wonder.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" he asked, "is it supper time?"</p> + +<p>"Nein, nein, Richard," and Herr Brandt slapped his shoulder with +sarcastic affection. "It is nothing, you know, only the cannon of +Napoleon."</p> + +<p>He, himself, had not the least good for Goethe, who had remained quietly +at his dinner in his garden in Weimar when the cannon were thundering at +Jena, and who sang no songs of patriotism, had nothing to cry out +against Napoleon.</p> + +<p>"But, Richard," his wife laid her hands on his arm, "you must pay heed +to Marianne." The gentlemen nodded. "She is more trouble to me than all +my other children. Even the twins and Carl are more useful. Reading, +talking, dreaming, that is Marianne. She is good for nothing else. It is +Bettina Brentano who has ruined her. I have never approved of that +friendship. But, O Heavens, why worry over anything when my Franz is a +prisoner, and my Wolfgang, I know not where!" and she burst into tearful +sobbing. Herr Brandt and Dr. Hufeland arose in haste, and, kissing her +hand and saying good-night to the Professor and Major, they fled.</p> + +<p>There was little sleep for anyone that night, for dreadful pictures of +Wolfgang, or Rudolph, frozen, or dead in the snow, arose before every +eye, and drove away all slumbers.</p> + +<p>On the morning, when the courier brought the truth to Memel, Marianne +was writing a letter to her friend Brentano.</p> + +<p>She had met this famous friend of Goethe when she was a year younger, +and on a visit to her aunt in Frankfort-on-Main.</p> + +<p>Never had Marianne seen anyone who had seemed to her so clever.</p> + +<p>Both of them adored the poet Goethe, it being the fashion in those days +for young girls to worship some poet.</p> + +<p>Bettina Brentano knew Goethe's mother, a fine old lady whom everyone +called "Frau Rat," and often she and Marianne went to see her.</p> + +<p>When Marianne returned to Berlin she was changed entirely.</p> + +<p>From a merry, jolly, little girl she had become a mournful maiden who +convulsed her family with the most melancholy speeches. She spoke of the +gloom of living, of the joy of dying while one was still beautiful, and +if anyone talked of Goethe, or even so much as mentioned his name, +Marianne clasped her hands and rolled her eyes and behaved, her brother +said, "like an idiot."</p> + +<p>The Professor only laughed.</p> + +<p>"She has the Goethe fever, Clarchen," he told his wife. "It has spread +at times all over Germany."</p> + +<p>But on the day when Carl had been lost and the Queen had kissed him, the +fault of the whole affair was to be laid on the shoulders of Marianne.</p> + +<p>Then the Professor had at last listened to his wife and heard how +Marianne would do nothing but read books, keep a foolish, sentimental +journal, and write letters to Bettina Brentano.</p> + +<p>"And, dear husband," his wife had added, "our Marianne talks of love and +hopeless sorrow, our Marianne, who used to be so merry. Her thoughts are +never with the coffee-cake, never with her sewing. And tell me, please, +how is a girl to get a husband with this nonsense? Her wedding chest, +which every German girl, as you know, must have ready, has not a thing +to boast of, and Pauline's is entirely ready. She will not stitch, knit, +or embroider, only read, read, read."</p> + +<p>"It is the Goethe fever, I tell you, dear wife," said the Professor. "It +will vanish."</p> + +<p>"But, Richard," pleaded the Mother Stork, "consider the candles."</p> + +<p>"Candles?"</p> + +<p>Ah, that was a different matter.</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes, dear husband, the candles. Do not think for an instant that I +permit all this nonsense to go on in the daytime. If I see Marianne with +a book, I take it away and provide needlework. And what does she do but +burn candles!"</p> + +<p>"Ah," said the Professor, "that will never do. I will see to the +matter."</p> + +<p>Now, at that moment Marianne was safe, she thought, in her room, her +pretty hair floating over her blue dressing jacket, her paper on her +desk, her pen in her hand.</p> + +<p>"Ah, my chosen friend, my Bettina," she wrote in the high-flown style of +that day, "who but thou understands thy Marianne? On every side I meet +with derisive laughter when I would speak of him whose name I am not +worthy to mention, our Master, thine and mine, our Goethe! Oh, to be +again with thee, to sit with thee beneath the free, open Heaven, gazing +upward at the celestial orbs whose silver beams thrill into thought, +mysterious wonder of that law-ruled world of Nature which none but poets +truly know. Oh, Bettina, how worthless is life when spent amid the +trivialities of nothingness. Oh, to wander with thee, my heart's true +friend, chosen of my spirit, to wander on the wings of thy imagination +into the realms of infinite calm, and there to prepare our souls to be a +sacrifice to him who——"</p> + +<p>A knock at the door had interrupted this flight of sentimental fancy.</p> + +<p>In had come her father.</p> + +<p>With a laugh he had shut the writing-desk.</p> + +<p>"Liebchen," he said, "it is time for bed. Do your writing by daylight."</p> + +<p>Then he kissed her cheeks and patted her hair, and told her he could +have no such wasting of candles.</p> + +<p>"To bed in five minutes," he had commanded, and that ended the burning +of candles. But nothing yet had cured her of her thoughtlessness, and it +was still Pauline who did everything to assist the mother.</p> + +<p>On the day that the news came of Eylau, Madame von Stork and Pauline +were busy making coffee-cake, Bettina, Ilse, and Elsa helping stem +currants and stone raisins.</p> + +<p>In her room Marianne was telling Bettina Brentano all about their life +in Memel. She was not sure that she could send a letter, but it was +amusing at all events to write it. It was stupid to make coffee-cake.</p> + +<p>"It is pleasant, dear Bettina," she wrote, "that our dear Queen and King +are in Memel. Often, now, father is sent for to talk with the Queen, and +one day mother took me to pay our respects to the Countess von Voss, who +is a friend of my dear grandmother. She is a very lively and beautiful +old lady, Mistress of the Court, and like a mother to our Queen. She is +very clever, and the gentlemen greatly admire her. She is so stately, +and will not forgive a lack of ceremony. I was in the greatest terror, +as you may imagine. We were shown into her room where she was engaged at +her toilette, some gentlemen, among them a Mr. Jackson, an Englishman, +laughing and talking as her maid did her hair.</p> + +<p>"I made my curtsey and saluted her hand.</p> + +<p>"'And this is your daughter,' she said very kindly to mother. 'Dear +Clara, the child has a look of poor Erna.'</p> + +<p>"That was my aunt, my Bettina, who died when she was a girl, and who was +engaged to Ludwig Brandt.</p> + +<p>"Then the Countess asked us to be seated, and when at last her hair +received its crown of a turban, she gave us some fine tea from England, +which Mr. Jackson had given here.</p> + +<p>"It was most kind in her, but I prefer our coffee.</p> + +<p>"She told us story after story about our Queen, for it is of her that +she best likes to talk; and, also, she spoke of dear little Prince +William, and of how he had entered the army.</p> + +<p>"It happened on New Year's Day, because the coming of the French made +the King fear that he could not present him with the honour on his +birthday.</p> + +<p>"When the Royal children appeared before our King, he greeted them for +the New Year, and then turned to little Prince William, and, oh, he is +the dearest little fellow, my Bettina! so sensible-looking and so, in +face, like our King. 'To-day,' said our King, 'something very important +is to happen. William,' and he turned directly to him, 'I have nominated +you to a commission in the army. We can no longer stay here in +Königsberg, because of the approach of the enemy, and we must go to +Memel at once. I might not be able to give you the appointment on your +birthday, as I had intended to do, so I give it to you now.' Then, +indeed, as you may imagine, little William was happy.</p> + +<p>"The Countess told us how they arrayed him in a blue coat, with a red +collar and narrow, dark trowsers and high boots to his knees. Exactly +like the Guard, you remember.</p> + +<p>"Then, suddenly, everybody began to cry 'Ah Heaven!' and lift up hands +in horror. It is a rule that the Guard must wear queues, and Prince +William's hair was too short for a pig-tail. 'And there they were,' said +the Countess, 'acting as foolishly as they are doing about this war, +when I simply sent out for a false queue and tied it on the child's +hair, and ended the trouble.' Then they gave him a little cane, and +behold, a fine soldier!</p> + +<p>"He is my favourite, and sometimes I think that the Countess likes him +better than the Crown Prince, who certainly knows that he is clever, but +he is very handsome. Then the Countess told us of how dreadful it was at +Königsberg, where our dear Queen was so ill, and how, when they told her +that the French were at hand, she begged to be allowed to travel. She +had a great horror of that monster, Napoleon, who has vowed to capture +her, and so she told them it was better to fall into the hands of the +good God, than into the hands of man.</p> + +<p>"Mother asked the Countess why Napoleon so hated the Queen. Before she +could answer her parrot suddenly called out in the funniest way: +'Napoleon is a monster! Our Queen is an angel! Down with the French!' +You can guess how startled we were, but...."</p> + +<p>Before Marianne could end her sentence she heard Otto calling: +"Marianne! Marianne!"</p> + +<p>She flew downstairs and into the great kitchen.</p> + +<p>There were Pauline, her mother, the children, and her father all +listening to her uncle.</p> + +<p>"The courier has come!" cried Otto. "Uncle will tell us the news!"</p> + +<p>Both Russians and French claimed the victory, but such sufferings had +never been known in the world's history.</p> + +<p>Amid the ice and snow, all had waited for days, the Russians occupying a +church and graveyard, the camp fires lighting snowy fields and trees +and bushes which crackled.</p> + +<p>"The courier, dear Richard," the old major addressed his brother, "says +thousands are sleeping a sleep from which even the love of their +families never can wake them."</p> + +<p>He blew his nose with great violence.</p> + +<p>"The snow is red with the blood of thousands," he continued, "the +Russians, God be thanked, kept their ground. They are not conquerors, it +is true, but they have checked Napoleon!"</p> + +<p>The Major's face flushed crimson.</p> + +<p>"God be praised!" cried all the company, and the kitchen rang with +rejoicings.</p> + +<p>But they had not heard all the good news.</p> + +<p>"It is said," concluded the Major, "that the Emperor of the French will +now propose peace."</p> + +<p>"And Wolfgang? Rudolph?"</p> + +<p>The Major shook his head, his cockade bobbing.</p> + +<p>"No news yet, dear sister, we can trust only in God, but I have no +reason to believe they were at Eylau."</p> + +<p>Bettina had listened eagerly.</p> + +<p>She was very much afraid of the Major. He was so red-faced and +important looking, and had not much good for people below him, and so +she waited until at last he left the room. Then she crept quietly to +Marianne.</p> + +<p>"Please, dear gracious Fräulein," she whispered, "was my grandfather in +the battle?"</p> + +<p>Marianne was opening her lips to speak, when Otto interrupted:</p> + +<p>"Nein, Bettina, nein. Your grandfather...."</p> + +<p>"Otto!"</p> + +<p>Pauline quickly stopped him, her hand across his mouth.</p> + +<p>"No, little Bettina," she said very kindly, "your grandfather was not +with the army."</p> + +<p>"Will he come, gracious Fräulein, come soon?" Bettina's eyes looked up +eagerly.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps, child, perhaps." Pauline turned away and picked up some cups +from a table.</p> + +<p>"Run away, children," she said, "and play until dinner."</p> + +<p>Bettina went slowly. It was very strange that her grandfather never came +back to fetch her. They were kind to her and she loved them, but she +wanted her grandfather. Would she never see Thuringia again, nor Willy, +nor her godmother, nor her brothers? The tears filled her eyes and the +sobs came.</p> + +<p>Poor little Bettina!</p> + +<p>She lived in sad, cruel times, and she was to be a woman before she ever +again met even one of them, or walked in the forest paths of Thuringia, +or saw the spire of St. Michael's rising high above the red roofs of +Jena.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h3>THE MOTHER OF HER PEOPLE</h3> + + +<p>One morning, soon after the news of Eylau, the Major told the children +that an English ship had arrived in the harbour.</p> + +<p>"Mother, mother," they cried, "may we go and see it?"</p> + +<p>Poor Madame von Stork, who was almost ill from worry over Franz and +Wolfgang, rejoiced at the thought of a morning free from noise and +questions.</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes," she agreed very quickly. "Put on your wraps and furs, and +Pauline and Marianne shall take you."</p> + +<p>In a few moments the whole party set forth, Pauline and Marianne in dark +red dresses, fur hoods, and great baggy white muffs, the children +wrapped to the tips of their noses, Otto and Carl in huge cloaks and fur +caps.</p> + +<p>Reaching the bridge, whom should they come upon but the Queen and her +party, who, also, were there to see the great ship. The Crown Prince was +there, handsome, clever-looking, clinging to the arm of his mother, to +whom he seemed entirely devoted, little William with such a clear good +look in his face that it was impossible not to love him, and beautiful +little Princess Charlotte keeping shyly at the side of the Countess +Voss, who was guarding with watchful eyes the merry Maids of Honour.</p> + +<p>When the Princes saw Otto and Carl, their faces lighted, and they +whispered to their mother, who at once begged the Countess to have them +sent for.</p> + +<p>"My little boys, the Crown Prince and Prince William, would like to know +you," she said, and then she sent the four to the side of the bridge +that they might talk without grown people listening.</p> + +<p>Princess Charlotte at once flew to her mother's side, the joy in her +face proving that she had not the cold nature that seemed to show in her +face.</p> + +<p>Then the Queen, with one of her bright smiles, asked Pauline and +Marianne if they could not come and assist in making lint for the +soldiers. The ladies of the court, she said, worked busily in her rooms. +Then she turned away, and, with Charlotte, joined the boys, whose +laughter soon rang as if they were enjoying themselves. At once the +Maids of Honour began to amuse themselves with Marianne, and, some of +the gentlemen soon joining them, they turned the talk to Goethe, and +then laughed behind their hands when Marianne rolled her eyes and +clasped her hands and spoke of Frau Rat, and vowed she would never marry +because there was but one man in Germany, and that one, Goethe!</p> + +<p>The Countess von Voss did not like this conduct.</p> + +<p>"I beseech you, dear ladies," she said with great dignity to the Maids, +"let Mademoiselle von Stork alone. Young girls are better unnoticed." +But the Maids of Honour tossed their heads and would not stop their +nonsense.</p> + +<p>"Do you not pity us, Mr. Jackson," they cried to a handsome young +Englishman, "that we have but one man in Germany?"</p> + +<p>But Mr. Jackson, being very devoted to the old Countess, only remarked:</p> + +<p>"Oh, greatly, ladies," and began conversing about the ship with his +favourite, and the Maids of Honour were left to Marianne.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Bettina and the twins had been amusing themselves.</p> + +<p>Bettina was so happy that her eyes did nothing but gaze at the face of +her dear, beautiful Queen.</p> + +<p>Never was anyone so lovely, so patient. With a kind word for all she put +aside her troubles and showed the boys how the ship was manned, told +them what this meant and that, and now and then patted Charlotte's hand, +that she might not feel neglected. Never for a moment did she seem to +think of herself or her own pleasure. She smiled at the twins, asked +their names, and then tried to tell them apart, and laughed quite like a +girl when she called "Ilse," "Elsa."</p> + +<p>Suddenly she gazed at Bettina as if puzzled.</p> + +<p>"Dear Voss," she touched the arm of the Countess, "do we not know this +child? Where have we seen her?"</p> + +<p>The Countess called Marianne.</p> + +<p>"It's a sad story," said the girl, glancing at Bettina, whose eyes were +fixed on the Queen.</p> + +<p>Then the Countess commanded Bettina to run away with the twins and watch +the sailors, and taking Marianne to the Queen, told her to relate the +child's history.</p> + +<p>More than once, as Marianne told the story, the Queen's eyes filled with +tears.</p> + +<p>"Poor child," she said, "poor little Bettina!"</p> + +<p>When she had heard it all, she had Marianne bring Bettina back again.</p> + +<p>"Dear child," she said, "surely I have seen you before. Is it not true?"</p> + +<p>And she smiled at the little girl most enchantingly.</p> + +<p>Now, nobody had ever told Bettina that a little girl must be afraid of a +Queen, so she smiled back at her with the eager, bright look which made +her so pretty.</p> + +<p>"Ja, ja, dear Queen," she said, for no one had told her to say +"Majesty," and then she told of the inn on the road from Jena.</p> + +<p>A look of pain banished the brightness from Queen Louisa's face. Very +gravely she asked Bettina question after question, and she heard of the +cruel journey, and of how Bettina's grandfather had left her.</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes," she nodded to the Countess, "I remember the old man. It was +of him that we spoke to the Professor, your father," and she glanced at +Marianne with a look of warning.</p> + +<p>"But, dear Queen," said little Bettina, nodding her head in her bright, +fairy way, "my dear grandfather will come back soon, and we will go to +Thuringia when the Kaiser Barbarossa comes from the cave and with his +great sword kills the Emperor!"</p> + +<p>The Queen did not laugh.</p> + +<p>"God grant it, dear child. God grant it," she said. "Let us pray that +the ravens will wake him, the old Red-Beard."</p> + +<p>When Bettina had danced away to the twins, she turned with a saddened +face to the old Countess.</p> + +<p>"Dear Voss," she said, and her voice was low and troubled, "these poor, +poor children whom this cruel war has orphaned! Each day I hear a fresh +story of their suffering. Alas, that I, the Queen, can do nothing for +want of money. But something must be done, and I, the Queen, must do it. +Such a lovely child, so trusting and, alas, so desolate."</p> + +<p>Then, her whole mood changed, she walked back to her house in Memel, her +heart heavy with the troubles of the Fatherland.</p> + +<p>That very day Ludwig Brandt appeared. Why he travelled to and fro over +the country no one knew, unless it was the Professor. It was something +to do with the war, of that all were certain.</p> + +<p>He reported that fifty thousand French and Russians lay dead in the snow +of Eylau, and that Napoleon was to send General Bertrand to Memel to +propose peace to King Frederick William.</p> + +<p>In a day or two this general came—"A most disagreeable-faced +Frenchman," the old Countess called him, "and with dreadful +manners,"—and the story of his visit was soon known about Memel.</p> + +<p>He had submitted an offer of peace from Napoleon, who agreed to restore +his kingdom to the King of Prussia if he would break off his friendship +with the Czar of Russia.</p> + +<p>To the Queen he brought most agreeable and flattering messages from +Napoleon. He sent her word that he had been deceived in her character. +He wished now to be friends.</p> + +<p>The Queen was polite, but that was all. She had no belief in the +promises of the French Emperor. Napoleon had made a cruel war on a poor, +helpless woman, driving her across the country, reading her letters, +publishing wicked things against her, having horrid pictures drawn of +her for his newspapers, and declaring her to have caused the war and all +the misery to Prussia.</p> + +<p>It was impossible to believe that he had truly repented because he had +halfway lost a battle.</p> + +<p>As for the good King, he refused to break his word to his friend to save +his kingdom, merely because Napoleon commanded him.</p> + +<p>"Let the war go on," he said, and suffering Prussia, its houses burned +to the ground, without food, with the cruel French everywhere, cried:</p> + +<p>"Hoch to our King! He is a good man, and true, and we will shed our last +drop of blood in his service!"</p> + +<p>And so General Bertrand left Memel, and the war went on.</p> + +<p>But everywhere there was much suffering. Even the King and the Queen had +little to eat and no money to buy anything, for the French had burned +the farmhouses, the farmers were in the army, and this poor land must +feed not only its own people, but all the enemy. Sometimes seven +villages could be seen burning at once, and behind Napoleon's white +horse stalked two dreadful figures. One, called Death, commanded +executions in every town and slew thousands on the battlefield, and +refused to spare hungry little children. Gaze where the poor Prussians +would, the shadow of his great scythe was over them. The other, Famine, +breathed on the poor down-trodden fields, and nothing flourished; with +her fierce hands she gathered up all the wine in the cellars, the +potatoes saved for winter, the meat, the fruit, all there was to eat +everywhere.</p> + +<p>The poor Prussians between them were desolate.</p> + +<p>In those cruel days there came to the King's house in Memel two simple +people of a sect of which there are some now in America, the Mennonites. +Their name was Nicholls, and they asked to see the King and the Queen.</p> + +<p>When they came before their Majesties, Abraham, the husband, holding in +his hand a bag, addressed the unhappy, worried-looked King:</p> + +<p>"Majesty," he said, "I bring you from my people, who send me as their +deputy, two thousand gold Fredericks. We have collected them among +ourselves, and offer them as a token of love and respect to our +sovereign."</p> + +<p>Then he laid the heavy bag in the hand of the King.</p> + +<p>"We, thy faithful subjects," he continued, "of the sect of the +Mennonites, having heard of the great misfortunes which it has pleased +God to permit, have gladly contributed this little sum which we beg our +beloved King and ruler to accept, and we desire to assure him that the +prayers of his faithful Mennonites shall not fail for him and his."</p> + +<p>The wife then placed a basket in the hands of Queen Louisa.</p> + +<p>"I have heard," said this kind woman, "that our good Queen likes good +fresh butter very much, and that the little Princes and Princesses eat +bread and butter very heartily, so I have made some myself, which is +very fresh and good, and that is very rare just now, so I thought it +might be acceptable. My gracious Queen will not despise this humble +gift. This I see already in thy true and friendly features. Oh, how glad +I am to have seen thee once so near and, face to face, have spoken with +thee!"</p> + +<p>Queen Louisa took the basket, with tears in her lovely eyes.</p> + +<p>"Dear Frau Nicholls," she cried, her face all warm with gratitude, "I +thank you many, many times, and over and over."</p> + +<p>Then she took off the handsome shawl she wore and threw it about the +shoulders of the Mennonite woman.</p> + +<p>"Dear Frau Nicholls," she said, "keep this in remembrance of me."</p> + +<p>For answer the good woman burst out into speeches of pity for the +misfortunes of the poor King.</p> + +<p>But his Majesty, interrupting her with a kind smile, lifted his hand to +check her.</p> + +<p>"No, no, Frau Nicholls," he said, "I am not a poor King. I am a rich +King, blessed with such subjects."</p> + +<p>Then he and the Queen sent many messages to the poor Mennonites, and, +when the two had gone, promised each other that when good times again +would come they would not fail to reward them, and the King did not +forget it.</p> + +<p>To Memel, too, came Prince William, the King's brother, and his wife the +Princess Marianne. They had fled from Dantzic, and their only little +daughter, the tiny Princess Amelia, had died of cold on the way.</p> + +<p>Sometimes the children of the "Stork's Nest" saw this poor lady walking +with the Queen, and they all gazed at her with great interest because +her name was the same as Marianne's.</p> + +<p>Ludwig Brandt remained, too, in Memel, and was much with the Englishmen +and went almost every day to the reception room of the old Countess von +Voss, where the talk was the hottest against Napoleon.</p> + +<p>"The Prussians," he told the Professor, "may be conquered, but never +will they forgive Napoleon's treatment of the Queen. There he went too +far."</p> + +<p>He further told the Professor, but this was a secret, that the students +of Königsberg were forming plans by which they hoped to defeat Napoleon. +He was concerned in this affair and hoped to do more that way than by +joining the army.</p> + +<p>And so the days passed at Memel. Often the children saw the Queen +walking, or taking the air in one of the high-runner sleighs. Carl and +Otto and the Princes were often together, and Marianne and Pauline +assisted with the lint. There was no stiffness as about a court. They +all had become friends in the time of trouble.</p> + +<p>Then, presently, the Professor went to Königsberg to fulfil his duties +as Professor.</p> + +<p>"But remain here with Joachim, dear wife," he said. "Who knows that the +French will not advance upon Königsberg? You know now that Wolf and +Rudolph are safe, so you can rest here and not worry."</p> + +<p>The Queen also went to Königsberg to visit her sister, Frederika, who +had married the Prince of Solms and lived in that city.</p> + +<p>But the Professor was right.</p> + +<p>After a brave siege the fine city of Dantzic fell. Again Napoleon was +conqueror, and back in haste came the Professor and back came the poor +Queen, flying again to Memel, whose cold winds so disagreed with her. +With them came news so dreadful that Marianne felt that never in her +life could she be happy again. Napoleon had won the bloody victory of +Friedland. Not a French cannon had missed its aim. Like ninepins, the +enemy had fallen. Fleeing, the Russians, weighed down by their arms and +heavy uniforms, had rushed into the nearby river and the waves had been +as cruel to them as Napoleon's guns.</p> + +<p>With the dead was Wolfgang, curly-haired, merry Wolf, the one ever ready +with a laugh, ever making jokes, playing tunes on his fiddle, waiting on +his mother, teasing the twins, laughing at Marianne, Wolf who had been +the favourite of all the family.</p> + +<p>"Ach Gott, ach Gott, ach Gott!" wept poor Madame von Stork, and she beat +the wings of her love and refused to be comforted.</p> + +<p>When the Queen heard that the Professor had lost a fine young son and +that his wife was so overcome with her sorrow, she went like a friend to +see her and to comfort her.</p> + +<p>Madame von Stork felt the honour of the visit, but not even a visit from +a Queen could make her cease weeping.</p> + +<p>With gentle words her Majesty tried to comfort her. She told her of the +bravery of Countess Dohna von Finkenstein, whom she had seen in +Königsberg. Four sons had she sent to battle, and when they returned +wounded, she had sent them forth again.</p> + +<p>"We must trust in God, dear Madame von Stork," the Queen's eyes glowed. +"I know that He will not desert us, no, not even after this dreadful +battle of Friedland. Dear Madame, think what it means to me. Napoleon is +in Königsberg now, and I can return no more, and we must perhaps quit +our kingdom and fly for safety to Riga in Russia. But in spite of this, +as I have written my dear father, I beg you in the name of God, to +believe that we are in the hands of God. It is my firm belief that He +will send us nothing beyond what we are able to bear. All power, dear +Madame, comes from on high. My faith shall not waver, though after this +dreadful misfortune I can no longer hope. To live or die in the path of +duty—to live on bread and salt if it must be so—would never bring +supreme unhappiness to me. Let us trust then, dear Madame, in the God +who sends us good and permits the evil that in all things we may be +drawn nearer to Him and His love."</p> + +<p>Though the Queen's sweet voice trembled, though her eyes said, "I sorrow +with you," Madame von Stork would not be comforted.</p> + +<p>"Majesty," she said, thinking only of her own grief, "have you lost a +son?"</p> + +<p>The Queen's eyes filled, her lips trembled like a child's.</p> + +<p>"I have lost one son," she said, "and a dear little daughter."</p> + +<p>Then Madame von Stork remembered, and forgot her grief for the first +time.</p> + +<p>The Queen's face changed. She looked as if the whole sorrow of Prussia +had crushed her.</p> + +<p>"But, dear Madame," she said, her figure drooping, "I am the Queen, and +I have lost your son and every Prussian woman's son, also. Am I not the +Mother of my People? You have lost one son. I, the Queen, have lost +thousands. Each mother's grief is mine and, oh, my God, how am I to bear +it? Was not your Wolfgang mine, also?"</p> + +<p>She touched her heart beating quickly beneath her dress.</p> + +<p>"Dear Madame, pity your Queen and believe her. Here is a wound which +nothing can heal. It has ached day and night since the battle of Jena. I +am Rachel, indeed, weeping for my children."</p> + +<p>When the Professor met his wife an hour later, a new look shone in her +eyes.</p> + +<p>"I was forgetting you, dear Richard," she said, "Wolfgang is gone, Franz +is gone, but I have you and the children."</p> + +<p>Then she laid her hand on his arm.</p> + +<p>"Our Queen has been here, dear husband, and she is an angel."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<h3>OTTO</h3> + + +<p>In the winter Marianne had gone often to court. There was much need of +lint and the ladies were always occupying themselves with making it.</p> + +<p>The old Countess, who had known Marianne's grandmother well in her +youth, made a pet of the pretty girl, and the ladies and gentlemen found +her bright talk very amusing as they worked away in the rooms of the +Mistress of Court Ceremonies, or in those of the Queen.</p> + +<p>But Wolfgang's death changed everything.</p> + +<p>"I shall never be gay again," wept poor Marianne.</p> + +<p>At first she was for staying in her room and writing out her sorrow, but +one day the Queen, whom she adored, had a talk with her.</p> + +<p>What she said no one knew, but from that day Marianne began to think of +others. And certainly there was need of patience in the "Stork's Nest." +So much trouble made them all nervous, and the children, not having +Madame von Stork's eye upon them, grew cross and very restless.</p> + +<p>And the affairs of Prussia were in as bad a way as possible. After the +disaster at Friedland on the 14th of June, Marshal Soult entered +Königsberg, the King and the Czar fled to Tilsit, and the country waited +to see now what would happen. Talk of peace began to be heard in all +quarters.</p> + +<p>"But let us not despair," said Ludwig Brandt to the Professor. "Prussia +is conquered, but all through our land a spirit is rising against +Napoleon. Stein and our best generals, our orators, our poets declare +that the tyrant must be overcome and their burning words are stirring +the people. Blücher, for instance, Richard, has declared that when a +whole people are resolved to emancipate themselves from foreign +domination they will never fail to succeed. I foresee that fortune will +not always favour the Emperor," he said, "the time may come when Europe +in a body, humiliated by his exactions, exhausted by his depredations, +will rise up in arms against him. Then," Ludwig's face changed, "there +is the enthusiasm in our Universities."</p> + +<p>The Professor nodded.</p> + +<p>Before, however, he could answer, in came poor Madame von Stork, her +face full of fresh trouble.</p> + +<p>"Richard," she said, "Ludwig, have either of you seen Otto?"</p> + +<p>Both shook their heads and went on with their talk.</p> + +<p>"Bettina!" called the lady.</p> + +<p>In tripped the little girl, her face eager and interested.</p> + +<p>"Dear child," asked Madame von Stork, "have you seen Otto?"</p> + +<p>Bettina thought that he had gone to Frau Argelander's to see the Crown +Prince, who had a room there.</p> + +<p>"No, no," said Pauline, who came in at the moment, "Carl went alone. The +Royal children wished to roast potatoes and Otto said that was too +childish."</p> + +<p>Dusk came, and no Otto.</p> + +<p>"Carl, Carl," his mother cried when at last he returned with the +servant, "where is your brother Otto?"</p> + +<p>Carl's face flushed.</p> + +<p>"He told me not to tell until bedtime."</p> + +<p>"You must," cried his mother.</p> + +<p>Carl brought a dirty little note from his pocket and handed it to his +father.</p> + +<p>When the Professor read it he grew white to the lips.</p> + +<p>"The foolish, foolish boy," he said, "why could he not have asked me?"</p> + +<p>The frightened family cried out for news of what had happened.</p> + +<p>When Madame von Stork heard it she was distracted.</p> + +<p>Otto had run away. He was sixteen now, and he had gone to fight against +Napoleon. So he wrote his father.</p> + +<p>"I did not tell you or mother," he said, "because you would have +prevented me. But my country needs me. Ask Cousin Ludwig."</p> + +<p>The Professor tried to comfort his wife. He told her that peace must be +made in a month, that Otto could do nothing, but still she wept on.</p> + +<p>By morning she was so ill that the Professor brought a doctor.</p> + +<p>"Nervous fever," he said, "brought on by this climate and worry."</p> + +<p>"I will nurse mother," cried Marianne, her heart all full of a new +desire to be helpful.</p> + +<p>"Nonsense," said her father. "Pauline is much more reliable. No, no, +Mariechen, I couldn't trust you," and he left the room.</p> + +<p>"It is my mother. I love her. It is my right!" burst our Marianne, her +cheeks crimson.</p> + +<p>But Madame von Stork decided it.</p> + +<p>"I should go crazy with you, Marianne," she said. "You would be reading +when I needed my medicine. I am sorry, dear child," she smiled to soften +the lesson, "but I am nervous, very nervous, and I must have a +thoughtful person. Pauline, you know, remembers."</p> + +<p>Marianne rushed to her room. In a flood of bitter tears she flung +herself on her couch. There in rows on their shelves stood her books. +How she hated them!</p> + +<p>Seizing one, she flew to the kitchen, her cheeks blazing. In a rage she +opened the door of the stove. She thrust in "The Sorrows of Werther." +With a blaze it ascended on the air of Memel in smoke, the maid staring +in wonder. Marianne tore back to her room. She flung herself face +downward on her couch.</p> + +<p>"It is <i>my</i> mother, not Pauline's," she sobbed, and she wept for an +hour.</p> + +<p>Worn out at last, she rose to bathe her face in cold water.</p> + +<p>On her chest of drawers stood a little picture that a lady of the court +had given to her.</p> + +<p>Marianne started. A flush dyed her face as she gazed into the blue eyes +of the Queen. She who loved books above all things, put them aside +without a word if the King, if the Royal children, if the ladies wanted +her. She was never well, but was always helping others, always +forgetting what she wanted, what pleased her, that she might do her +duty.</p> + +<p>"Dear Marianne," again the girl heard her voice as it had soothed her +after the death of her brother Wolfgang, "there is no trouble in which +the dear God will not help us."</p> + +<p>All the demons of self and anger and dislike of Pauline ceased to +struggle in Marianne, as she remembered. She would be good, she had +promised Queen Louisa. She hesitated a moment, then she bowed her head +and whispered a little prayer that the dear God would help her and make +her good like the Queen who so loved Him.</p> + +<p>Then she went below, all worn out with her battle, but quiet and humble +and wishing to help her mother.</p> + +<p>And certainly there was need of her.</p> + +<p>Carl and Ilse and Elsa were quarrelling violently, Bettina with +frightened face struggling to quiet them. She had on her little apron +and had brought dishes to try and set the table for supper. Marianne's +face flushed. Pauline was above, nursing her mother, Bettina below, +trying to quiet the children and get supper for the Professor, and she, +the daughter of the "Stork's Nest," had been in her room in a temper. +She took the dishes from Bettina and she separated Carl and the twins. +For an hour she sat with them telling them stories. Then her eye fell on +a volume of Goethe lying on a table where her father had left it.</p> + +<p>A half hour later the Professor opened the door. His face darkened.</p> + +<p>"Marianne," he said, "I expected better things of you."</p> + +<p>With a start the girl laid down her book. Carl and Ilse were squabbling +over the last piece of cake on the table, Elsa was looking at a valuable +book with sticky fingers, the clock had stopped for want of winding, and +Bettina had vanished into the garden.</p> + +<p>Marianne flushed hotly.</p> + +<p>"I am trying, father," she said, "very——"</p> + +<p>Without a word he left the room, his face stern with displeasure.</p> + +<p>Putting the book aside, Marianne wound the clock, she sent the children +to bed, and sought Bettina in the garden.</p> + +<p>"I will do better," she promised herself, and next day she remembered +much better.</p> + +<p>But it was hard to keep the children quiet in the evening. She told all +the stories she could think of, and they only clamoured for more.</p> + +<p>One evening a bright thought struck her.</p> + +<p>She ran to her room and came back with a fat, red book whose brass clasp +she unlocked with a tiny key.</p> + +<p>"Now, Ilse and Elsa," she said, "get your tent-stitch. Bettina, I would +not knit. Work on that strip for a bed-spread. Carlchen, draw some +pictures and I will read you a lovely book about our Queen."</p> + +<p>Then she told them that their Aunt Erna, who had died when she was +sixteen, had written it and it would give them a story of how happy the +Queen was before Napoleon came into Prussia.</p> + +<p>Then she arranged the candles, and all settled to listen.</p> + +<p>The Professor, passing through the room, this time smiled on Marianne.</p> + +<p>"Where are the children, Richard? What are they doing?" cried nervous +Madame von Stork as he opened the door of her room.</p> + +<p>When he told her, the worry faded from her poor ill face.</p> + +<p>"God be praised, dear husband," she said, "that our Marianne is +improving. It was hard to refuse her the nursing, but I hoped the +lesson might rouse her, and I was right."</p> + +<p>Then, smiling at her husband, she sank back on her pillow and soon was +enjoying her first restful sleep.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<h3>THE JOURNAL</h3> + + +<p>Marianne had first heard of her Aunt Erna's journal in Berlin.</p> + +<p>It had been on the night when Ludwig Brandt had come in with the news +that the French had made the French Consul, Napoleon, Emperor.</p> + +<p>When he had told his news the children with glowing faces informed him +that their Carl had been kissed that very day by the Queen.</p> + +<p>Ludwig, who was always serious, called the little fellow to his knee. +Marianne never forgot how solemn it all was.</p> + +<p>"Listen, my little Carl," he said, and waited until the laughter had all +died from the chubby dimpled face, "a great and noble woman has kissed +you. All your life think of it as a kiss of baptism. The call of war +will come to you as to all Germans. Let the kiss of the Queen make of +you a brave, a true, a patriotic soldier!"</p> + +<p>How Ludwig's voice had rung through the room and how Pauline had gazed +in admiration! And then Ludwig had taken little Carl on his knee and +told him a nice little story of Queen Louisa, of when she had gone with +her husband on his Huldigung, the journey German sovereigns take to +receive the oaths of allegiance in their provinces and cities.</p> + +<p>In the village of Stargard, in Pomerania, Ludwig related, the good +people who had arranged the welcome had dressed little girls in white +that they might strew flowers before the new young Queen, and the quick +eye of the Queen noticed that, as there were nineteen, one must walk +alone.</p> + +<p>She turned to the grown people.</p> + +<p>"Where is the twentieth?" she demanded, and her face grew crimson with +anger when she heard their answer.</p> + +<p>"Majesty," they said, "the child was so ugly that we sent her home."</p> + +<p>"Poor child!" cried the Queen, "poor child! Send for her, and at once!" +she commanded.</p> + +<p>And when the poor little thing appeared, her plain, pale face all wet +with tears, Queen Louisa held out her arms as she would to one of her +own Royal children.</p> + +<p>"Come, Liebchen," she said, "come at once to me. Tell me your trouble, +every bit of it."</p> + +<p>And then she petted her and praised her and drove away all the little +thing's shame and tearfulness and told her stories of the Crown Prince, +and the little girl forgot all about her ugliness and the people's +cruelty. But to the grown people Queen Louisa was very stern, as she +could be when it was necessary.</p> + +<p>"Was my coming," and she looked at them until they blushed, "to be made +a cause of sad memories to a dear little girl only because of her +ugliness?"</p> + +<p>"Our Queen is an angel," said Madame von Stork as Ludwig ended.</p> + +<p>Then Marianne told stories, also, of things she had heard of the Queen +at Frau Rat Goethe's.</p> + +<p>"Bettina Brentano," she began, "is a friend of the mother of our +Goethe!"</p> + +<p>"My goodness, Marianne!" cried Franz, who was home in those days, "don't +pronounce that name as if it were sacred!"</p> + +<p>But Marianne paid no heed to him.</p> + +<p>"Frau Rat," she continued, with a toss of her head, "loves our Queen +with all her heart. She has known her since she was as old as Carl. +Once, when she and her sister, the Princess Frederika, were little +girls, they came to Frankfort to the coronation of the Emperor Leopold."</p> + +<p>Then, while Carl crowded to her knee and even her father stopped his +reading to listen, Marianne told how, one day, the two princesses came +to visit Frau Rat with their Swiss governess, Fräulein de Gélieu, and of +how in Frau Rat's garden was a pump which at once attracted the +princesses.</p> + +<p>Little Louisa, who loved the old lady, and was not a bit afraid of her +in spite of the great turban she wore, whispered in her ear how much she +would enjoy pumping like a common child.</p> + +<p>The mother of Goethe nodded. She had no taste for prim etiquette and saw +no real reason why the little princesses should not enjoy themselves.</p> + +<p>"Come, dear Fräulein de Gélieu," said she to the governess. "Come into +my saal. I will show you my beautiful snuffbox with the picture of my +famous son upon it."</p> + +<p>Then, leading the lady, she softly locked the door and Louisa and +Frederika, running to the pump, clung to the handle, and pumped and +pumped until the water ran in streams and splashed their stockings and +elastic strap slippers, and made them for once enjoy themselves quite as +if they had not been princesses.</p> + +<p>When time for good-byes came the two happy little girls threw loving +arms around the neck of this kind Frau Rat and grateful little lips +whispered thanks for her kindness, telling her that never, never, never +would they forget their joy in being permitted to play like other +children. "Never, dear Frau Rat, never!" they cried.</p> + +<p>Nor did Louisa, at any rate.</p> + +<p>"Frau Rat," concluded Marianne, "showed me one day the most beautiful +gold ornaments she had only a few months before received as a present +from our Queen, who really loves her."</p> + +<p>A second time Louisa visited Frankfort-on-Main. It was two years later +when, Leopold being dead, Francis, the last Emperor of the Holy Roman +Empire, came to receive the crown which, in 1806, just before the battle +of Jena, he resigned forever.</p> + +<p>At that time the Princess and her brother Carl came to supper with Frau +Rat Goethe.</p> + +<p>There was omelette, very light and delicious, and famous bacon salad, a +dish much loved in that day throughout Germany.</p> + +<p>"Oh, how fine!" cried Carl and the princess, and when they stopped +eating there was not even so much as a half leaf left on either plate!</p> + +<p>All her life Frau Rat loved to tell about this, and Marianne related how +she joked when she told the story.</p> + +<p>"And, mother," said Marianne, "Frau Rat told me that our Queen, though +she was then a princess, made her own satin shoes for the coronation."</p> + +<p>Madam von Stork beamed approval.</p> + +<p>She opened her lips to impress the importance of sewing upon Marianne, +but the young girl was too quick for her.</p> + +<p>"Frau Rat, father, says that our Queen reads both Goethe and Schiller +always."</p> + +<p>Before Madame von Stork could answer, the maid appeared with wine and +cake, and, when all were settled, Marianne had told more stories about +Goethe's mother and what a fine old lady she was, but so amusing in her +great turban, with its red, white and blue feathers, or great decoration +of sunflowers, with her hair all arranged and plaited with ribbons, her +face rouged, her embroidered kid gloves, her rings, and her famous +speech:</p> + +<p>"I am the mother of Goethe!"</p> + +<p>When Marianne told all this she altered her voice and put on what her +brothers called her "Goethe manner," and, turning to Herr Brandt, she +exclaimed:</p> + +<p>"Oh, Uncle Ludwig, the Frau Rat showed me her son's playthings and the +dresses he wore as a child. Oh, think of my touching, my handling what +his noble hands have rested upon! Oh, how it thrilled, how it +over-powered me!"</p> + +<p>The boys burst into a roar, but her father with a glance quieted them.</p> + +<p>"And what is Frau Rat like, Marianne?" he asked.</p> + +<p>Delighted to talk on her favorite topic, Marianne told how, when the +Frau Rat announced, "I am the mother of Goethe," her voice rang out like +a trumpet.</p> + +<p>Ludwig pushed back his glass.</p> + +<p>"The trumpet we should hear," he said, "is the voice of her son singing +songs of patriotism. Never mind, Mariechen," for Marianne was beginning +to cry out, "your idol is not entirely perfect. Now, when at last we +have a literature in Germany, why will not our poets rouse our people? +The imitation of France is on us like a curse. All must be French. We +must speak French, we must read French, we must despise all things +German. I tell you, Richard, it is now the calm before the storm. Over +Prussia is gathering a cloud and the day will come when the sun shall +shine no more for us."</p> + +<p>He arose and paced up and down the floor.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Ludwig," cried Madame von Stork, "come, come, sit down and enjoy +your doughnuts."</p> + +<p>But Ludwig Brandt was not to be soothed with cake.</p> + +<p>"Good-night, Clara," he said suddenly, and bending, kissed Madame von +Stork's hand.</p> + +<p>With an "Auf wiedersehen," he departed.</p> + +<p>"My goodness," cried Madame von Stork, "but Ludwig is uncomfortable. +Here we were enjoying a quiet, happy evening, and in he comes and upsets +everything. See, Marianne, see, there he has spilt wine on the +tablecloth. It is the English in him which makes him so solemn. Perhaps +if dear Erna had lived she might have made him gayer. And speaking of +Erna, Marianne, you are old enough to read your dear aunt's journal. It +is really a history of our dear Queen the child kept to please Ludwig. +To-morrow, when you visit your grandmother, you must ask her to lend it +to you."</p> + +<p>It was this same journal which Marianne brought forth in the sitting +room.</p> + +<p>Before she could begin reading Elsa and Ilse crowded to her side.</p> + +<p>"Sister," they said, "tell Bettina what happened when you took us to +grandmother's and she gave you the book, won't you?"</p> + +<p>Marianne laughed.</p> + +<p>"We had cherry compote for supper," she said, "and we all had some, and +Otto whispered to Wolf that he could keep more stones in his mouth than +Wolf could, and all the others heard and in whispers they all dared each +other, and they kept on eating and eating until their cheeks were quite +puffy."</p> + +<p>Bettina laughed gaily.</p> + +<p>"And there was company," put in Elsa.</p> + +<p>"And grandmother asked Otto a question," said Ilse.</p> + +<p>"And then——" Carl shouted.</p> + +<p>"Otto couldn't keep his in——"</p> + +<p>"And Wolf laughed——"</p> + +<p>"And, oh, Bettina, it was awful! Stones shot everywhere out of +everybody's mouth and oh, grandmother!" She held up her hands.</p> + +<p>Bettina thought this very funny and they all laughed and would have made +a great noise had not Marianne put the tiny key in the brass lock of the +red book.</p> + +<p>"Come, now, be quiet," she said, "and I will begin the journal of our +Aunt Erna."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<h3>PRINCESS LOUISA</h3> + + +<p>"First," said Marianne with an air of great importance, "I will tell you +about the family of our Queen."</p> + +<p>All the children looked up with eagerness.</p> + +<p>"Her name," continued Marianne, "is Louisa Augusta Wilhelmina Amelia. +Her father is the Duke Carl of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Her mother, who +died when she was six years old, was a Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt."</p> + +<p>Here Marianne paused.</p> + +<p>"It is important, children, that you should know these things of our +Queen," she informed them, looking very wise and grown up. "Her name, +the mother's, I mean, was Frederika Caroline Louisa. Now our Queen—I +learned this to tell you—was born in the old castle of Hanover, March +10, 1776. Her father was the governor there for his brother-in-law, who +is king of—where, Ilse?"</p> + +<p>Both twins shook their heads.</p> + +<p>"Carl?"</p> + +<p>"Go on, Mariechen," said he, "don't be a teacher."</p> + +<p>But Marianne had her plans.</p> + +<p>"Bettina?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, England," said the little girl, who had learned this from something +she had heard Mr. Jackson say.</p> + +<p>"Go on, Mariechen," urged Carl.</p> + +<p>Marianne nodded.</p> + +<p>"When our Queen was six," she said, "her father married her aunt, but +she died, too, and our Queen lived with her grandmother, who took her +to Holland, and Strasburg, and everywhere she travelled. One day she +took her to the Rhine and she met the Crown Prince, who now is our King. +Now, listen to what our dear Aunt Erna has written."</p> + +<p>Marianne opened the red book.</p> + +<p>On the first page was her aunt's name.</p> + +<p>"Erna Hedwig Anna Marie von Bergman, her journal."</p> + +<p>On the next was the date, "Dec. 22, 1793."</p> + +<p>"To-day," read Marianne, "we went to see the entrance of our Crown +Princess into Berlin. While we walked to Unter den Linden, where my +Ludwig—I am betrothed now to Ludwig—had obtained for us very fine +seats, he entertained us with stories of this lovely princess, who came +to-day to our prince. He said everybody loved her, and he told me so +much of her beauty that I was all eagerness to see her enter.</p> + +<p>"Ludwig said that even when she was a child she gained love everywhere. +Once, at Darmstadt, the great poet, Schiller, was reading aloud from his +'Don Carlos,' and he felt a pair of eyes on him. He looked up, and saw +the loveliest little girl, who seemed to understand every word of his +poetry. It was the little Princess Louisa, and Schiller smiled on her. +To be smiled upon by a genius seems to me to be better than to be Crown +Princess."</p> + +<p>Marianne's face glowed as she read this.</p> + +<p>"She would have understood me, my Aunt Erma," she thought.</p> + +<p>"Go on, please, go on," said Carl.</p> + +<p>"I said this to Ludwig," read Marianne, "but he told me that to be a +good house-wife was better than either."</p> + +<p>"Exactly like him," she muttered, and then went straight on with the +journal.</p> + +<p>"Our Princess, who came to-day, met our Prince at Frankfort-on-Main. Our +King invited her with her grandmother and sister, Frederika, and the +very instant that our Crown Prince saw Princess Louisa he said: 'She or +never another.' A great love was at once in his heart.</p> + +<p>"Every day they were together. Every evening in the theatre, and now, +to-morrow, they marry. Our Prince Louis marries Princess Louisa's +sister, Frederika. I find that lovely.</p> + +<p>"They were betrothed at Darmstadt. Our King, who is such a jolly, joking +man, gave them their rings. 'God bless you, children,' he said, and all +the people said: 'Amen.'</p> + +<p>"We thought there would be no marriage for a long time, for the King +would not have it because of the war with France. But something changed +his mind, and so to-day Berlin was decorated for the entry of the +Princess.</p> + +<p>"It was so fine I can hardly write about it. The whole of +Berlin was decorated with flags. There were flags of Prussia, of +Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and of the Holy Roman Empire. They were +everywhere, on the Rathaus, across buildings, in windows. There were +evergreens, too, and in all my life I have never seen such a Christmas +Markt. The open place was all full of booths with fir trees in the +centre. We started early enough for me to buy a few things for our +Christmas tree.</p> + +<p>"It was hard to choose. I wanted laces and I wanted Swiss carvings, and +I wanted French bonbons, but at last at one booth I bought honey cakes, +at another, the dearest gingerbread images of the Prince and Princess, +at another, a chocolate group of the four royalties, and some lace and +toys for the tree.</p> + +<p>"The streets were so full we could hardly push our way through the +throng of hunters in green, Berliners and peasants all in their Sunday +costumes and gold ornaments.</p> + +<p>"People were in all the windows, hanging over balconies and pushing and +pressing in the streets. We reached our places just as the 'Berliner +Citizens' Brigade' formed in lines up Leipzigerstrasse to the corner of +Wilhelmstrasse.</p> + +<p>"We were quite near the big arch where the Princesses were to be +welcomed.</p> + +<p>"It was splendid. There were three divisions in the arch, all decorated +with flowers and statues and pictures and words of welcome.</p> + +<p>"One figure was Hymen, who is the god of marriage, and there were two +bridal wreaths, because of the double wedding.</p> + +<p>"'Look, Erma,' said mother, and there, among the little French boys in +green suits sitting on the arch, was François de Ballore, and among the +lovely little German girls in white with pink sashes and wreaths of +roses, I saw Hedwig Rückert, Elise Stege, and Annchen Romeike.</p> + +<p>"'One of them,' explained Ludwig, 'is to recite a poem of welcome.'</p> + +<p>"It was dreadfully tiresome standing in that great crowd, but at last +came the procession.</p> + +<p>"There was a sound of horns, and six splendid horses walking with the +greatest stateliness entered Unter den Linden. On them were the Royal +Post Secretaries. Then came postilions in splendid uniforms, and after +them the carriers in blue. The postilions, there were forty of them, +Ludwig said, were all blowing horns, and I felt sorry, indeed, for the +carriers. I liked the next thing very much. It was the Hunters' Guild, +and they wore green costumes with peach-blossom facings. But the next +after the hunters was splendid. It was dozens of young Berliners dressed +as knights of the Middle Ages.</p> + +<p>"The people cried out: 'Enchanting!' 'Wonderful!' and I said to Ludwig +that I wished men dressed that way now and not in ugly every-day knee +breeches and ruffled coats.</p> + +<p>"But Ludwig only told me that armour would be inconvenient, and made +fun. But I think so, just the same. What is there romantic about a +queue, or slipper buckles, and knee breeches? Nothing at all.</p> + +<p>"It was fun to see how important the Brewers and Distillers looked in +blue. The merchants and their sons wore red, and after them came +Frederick the Great's fine Royal Guard, and they all arranged themselves +in two lines for the carriages to enter.</p> + +<p>"The Berliners refused to have Royal Chamberlains about the carriages.</p> + +<p>"'We want to see the Princesses, not Chamberlains,' they said.</p> + +<p>"Ludwig named the people to me.</p> + +<p>"The handsome, white-haired lady with bright, sparkling eyes, was the +Countess von Voss, the Mistress of Court Ceremonies, who had gone to +Potsdam to meet the Princess. There was the Duke, and the grandmother, +and the brother of the Princesses, and the Maids of Honour, the two +Ladies Vieregg, and Master of Court Ceremonies von Schulden.</p> + +<p>"We could hardly see them for the crowd, and there was a woman near me +who talked so much I could hardly hear Ludwig. She said that her husband +was a member of the Guild of Butchers and he had marched to Potsdam, +which was splendidly decorated, in a brown suit with gold shoulder-bands +and a gold-figured vest and splendid red galoon hat with lace trimming. +They gave the first welcome to the Princesses and, goodness knows, the +butcher's wife was proud of it.</p> + +<p>"But at last she was still, for in a splendid gold coach drawn by eight +horses came the two brides.</p> + +<p>"They are so beautiful I cannot describe them.</p> + +<p>"They are both slender and very graceful, and they both have blue eyes +and golden hair, but if you once see Princess Louisa, you can never look +again at Princess Frederika.</p> + +<p>"The people were enchanted.</p> + +<p>"'Never have we seen such eyes, never,' was all we heard, for the +Princess turned as she stepped on the platform and smiled right at us.</p> + +<p>"They were blue and true, and oh, they are so different from other +people's that I do not know how to tell it. They seem to say: 'I love +you, I love you.'</p> + +<p>"The sweetest thing happened.</p> + +<p>"The prettiest little baby girl in white and pink, with a wreath of +roses on her curls, came out on the platform to welcome the Princess. +She was like a round-cheeked cherub, and she carried a bouquet of roses +almost as big as herself. It was a poem she said of great big grown-up +words, and her mouth was so tiny that it made everybody smile just to +see her.</p> + +<p>"'When thou appearest,' she began, and kept ducking her little head and +then smiling at the Princess and looking out of the corners of her eyes.</p> + +<p>"I have never seen anything half so pretty.</p> + +<p>"And when she was through, what did she do but just stand and look at +the Princess and smile, as much as to say: 'And how, dear Princess, do +you like it?'</p> + +<p>"And then what did our new Princess do but spring forward, catch the +little round-cheeked thing in her arms and hug and kiss her as if not a +soul was looking.</p> + +<p>"'You darling!' she said.</p> + +<p>"The people were just wild.</p> + +<p>"'She will not only be our Queen,' said the woman who talked so much, +'she will be a mother to her people.'</p> + +<p>"But the Mistress of Court Ceremonies was shocked.</p> + +<p>"We could hear what she said, quite distinctly.</p> + +<p>"'My heavens!' she cried, and her voice was so full of horror that even +Ludwig laughed, 'what has Your Highness done? That is against all +etiquette.'</p> + +<p>"Then our Princess turned just like a girl.</p> + +<p>"'What!' she cried, and I never heard a voice so sweet and like a silver +bell, 'may I not do such things any more?'</p> + +<p>"'She is adorable," said Monsieur de Paillot, who was standing quite +near mother.</p> + +<p>"'She is an angel,' said the woman who talked so much."</p> + +<p>"Why, Mariechen," interrupted Elsa, "that's what everybody now calls +her."</p> + +<p>Marianne nodded.</p> + +<p>"Go on," commanded Carl, whose blue eyes were quite eager with +listening.</p> + +<p>"After that," went on the journal, "the Princesses went to the palace, +where the Princes were waiting. We had to wait for the crowd to thin, +and Monsieur de Paillot and Ludwig fell to talking. He is a French +refugee, I think. Berlin is full of them.</p> + +<p>"'Monsieur,' he said to Ludwig, 'this parade to-day recalls another that +I saw when a Princess came, also, to my kingdom.'</p> + +<p>"We all listened politely.</p> + +<p>"'She came, my friends,' he said, 'from Vienna, that Princess. Her +bridegroom was the Dauphin of France. She, also, was beautiful.'</p> + +<p>"He looked so solemn he took all the pleasure from our procession.</p> + +<p>"A queer wrinkle came in his forehead and he looked almost like a +revolutionist.</p> + +<p>"'Many things have come to pass,' he said, 'since I first saw that Queen +of France.'</p> + +<p>"It was Marie Antoinette, I knew it, then. Poor lady, the wicked French +have beheaded her.</p> + +<p>"Monsieur de Paillot looked at me sternly.</p> + +<p>"'These are troubled times,' he said. 'Old things are passing, new +things are being born. Ours is a day of revolutions, of changes. There +has been a struggle for liberty in America. I had the honour, as you +know, of fighting with the noble Lafayette in the Colonies. I have seen +Washington. I have talked with Thomas Jefferson, with the learned +Franklin. You, here in Prussia, still have serfs, no constitution, and +no patriotism. In America, the women went in homespun, the men starved +at Valley Forge, and all for the rights of man. But here, pardon me, +Madame, but is it not true that you borrow your language, your customs, +everything from France? I fear that lovely young Princess may suffer.'</p> + +<p>"Mother was furious. So was I. But Ludwig nodded.</p> + +<p>"'You are right, Monsieur, quite right,' he said, and I think that +horrid in him, even if he will be my husband.</p> + +<p>"'Monsieur,' I said, 'was the Queen of France as beautiful as our +Princess?'</p> + +<p>"Then he made me a grand bow that made me think he was not quite so +horrid.</p> + +<p>"'Mademoiselle,' he said, 'I have never seen so lovely a woman as this +Princess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, never.'"</p> + +<p>When Marianne read this the children stopped her.</p> + +<p>"Was that our Queen?" asked Carl.</p> + +<p>"Of course," said Ilsa, "first she was Crown Princess, then our Queen."</p> + +<p>At that moment the maid brought in the supper.</p> + +<p>"To-morrow night," said Marianne, "I will read you the next things that +happened. Come, now, Bettina, you may pass the bread, and Ilse, you and +Elsa sit here one on each side of me, and Carl, you may be father."</p> + +<p>"It is nice, Mariechen," said Ilse, "to have you take care of us."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Elsa.</p> + +<p>"I love you, Mariechen," and Carl hugged her until she was nearly +strangled.</p> + +<p>Marianne, her eyes dancing, was glad that she was trying to be better. +It made her happier, she found, than even "The Sorrows of Werther."</p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2> + +<h3>THE MARRIAGE</h3> + + +<p>"Now," said Marianne, next evening, "I will read again in the journal. +Are you ready, children?"</p> + +<p>And she glanced around the little group.</p> + +<p>There were the twins with their tent stitch, Carl with his pencil and +drawing book, Bettina with her knitting.</p> + +<p>Marianne smiled and settled herself most importantly.</p> + +<p>"Carl," she said, "bring another candle. Elsa, will you please draw +closer the window curtain, and Bettina, child, sit nearer the light. +Now, ready?"</p> + +<p>"Our Princess," began the journal, "was married last night, Christmas +Eve, in this year of 1793. When mother lit our tree and my sister +Clarechen's children, Franz and Wolfgang, were clapping their little +hands in joy, Ludwig lifted his hand.</p> + +<p>"'Our Crown Prince has a wife now,' he said, and glanced at the clock.</p> + +<p>"Baron von Sternberg, an old friend of my father's, came to-day to see +mother and told us all that happened last night, for he was at the +wedding.</p> + +<p>"He said that our new Crown Princess was most beautiful in white with a +crown of sparkling diamonds that the Queen herself had placed on her +lovely golden head. Before she was married, the widow of the Great +Frederick gave her a blessing, the blessing of an old woman, she said. +Then came the wedding in the Ritter Saal. The altar was beneath a +baldachin of purple velvet embroidered in crowns of gold, and hundreds +of candles made a splendid light. Oh, how I should love to have seen all +the velvets and jewels and the fine ladies with powdered hair and the +men with their clothes of fine velvet!</p> + +<p>"I long for the Court, and because of my father's fine position, I could +go there, but my mother will not have it.</p> + +<p>"No, she says, it is wicked there. Our King is too gay, and she told me +a sad story of the Countess von Voss, the lady I saw in the procession, +and who, it seems, is mother's old friend from girlhood. This lady went +to Court very young and the King's brother fell in love with her, and it +was all so unfortunate, for he must marry a Princess, and the Countess, +her cousin.</p> + +<p>"But the wedding.</p> + +<p>"Ober-Consistorial Rath Sack performed the ceremony, for he had both +baptised and confirmed our Crown Prince. The Berliners wished a fine +illumination, but the Crown Prince would not have it.</p> + +<p>"'Nay, nay, good Berliners,' he said, 'give the money to the widows and +orphans of the soldiers killed in the war with France.'</p> + +<p>"Ludwig says that he is much worried over the debts of his father, the +King, who is jolly and beloved of the people, but who spends everything +he can lay his hands on.</p> + +<p>"After the wedding came the polonaise. It is an old custom and takes +place at the marriage of every Prussian Crown Prince.</p> + +<p>"The pages first bring in torches and present them to eighteen +ministers of state. Then trumpets sound, the royal family rise from the +semi-circle in which they sit under a baldachin, the Lord Chamberlain +gives a signal, and the dance begins, all in the light of the torches +the performers bear with them.</p> + +<p>"The Baron said that it was most enchanting. The King danced with our +new Crown Princess, the Crown Prince with the Queen and the widow of +Frederick the Great. Round they marched to the pretty polonaise step at +the corner of the room, dividing and changing partners, the torches +blazing, and oh, the lords and ladies so fine and grand!</p> + +<p>"To-day is Christmas, and I was in the old Cathedral, and who should +come in but the Crown Prince and Princess? They seem so in love with +each other that it is beautiful to see. And they are most religious.</p> + +<p>"As we were coming home from church we met Monsieur de Paillot. He told +us something which filled me with the greatest joy.</p> + +<p>"Our King was not quite pleased with the wedding.</p> + +<p>"'There were too many embroidered coats,' he said, 'at the second we +will have a few commoners.'</p> + +<p>"And so the Berliners can go to the wedding of Prince Ludwig and +Princess Frederika, and my Ludwig will take me. Oh, what happiness, for +I shall see our Crown Princess in her robes and her diamonds.</p> + +<p>"The dress I wore to the wedding was most beautiful. A young French girl +designed it with the taste and skill of her nation. It was made for a +great ball at which I am to be introduced to society, but mother bade me +wear it to Court.</p> + +<p>"It was of white tissue, and above the hem of my flowing skirt was +embroidered a border of fleur-de-lys in purple and gold. My kerchief was +fine as a web and edged with rare lace, and for the first time my hair +was raised high and powdered. Mother finished my joy by clasping about +my throat a necklace of purple stones.</p> + +<p>"'Your dear father gave them to me when I was a bride,' she said with a +sigh, for it is but two years since we lost him.</p> + +<p>"'Lovely!' cried my sister Clarechen when she saw me, but Ludwig +frowned.</p> + +<p>"'Why French flowers?' he asked, his eyes on the fleur-de-lys. Ludwig +sees all things. 'Why not something German and blue?' he asked with +great discontent.</p> + +<p>"Ludwig is very strange in some ways. For one thing, he will not speak +French, like all well-bred people.</p> + +<p>"'I am a German,' he will say, 'why not speak my own language?'</p> + +<p>"And he calls mother 'Frau,' and not 'Madame,' and me 'Fräulein,' and +all my notes to him must be written in German, and German is so hard, +not beautiful, like French, and he scolds me when I make more than a +dozen mistakes in my articles: <i>die, der, das</i>.</p> + +<p>"But my dress, my lovely, lovely dress!</p> + +<p>"It might have been blue, or red, or any colour, for all that it +mattered. The crowd was so great no one looked at poor little Erna von +Bergman, and next day she spent hours darning a great rent in her skirt.</p> + +<p>"But I have seen our Crown Princess, and she smiled right at me, so what +else matters? No one could behead her as the French did Marie +Antoinette; no, not even for liberty.</p> + +<p>"She was in white and wore a crown of sparkling diamonds. The Crown +Prince looked at her as if he adored her. He is very earnest and grave, +she, very bright and gay. There is great love between them, I can see +that, because of my own love for my Ludwig.</p> + +<p>"I saw our King at the wedding, and he was most amusing. Of late years +he has grown very stout, and because of his increased size he found it +difficult indeed to pass through the room with his arm laden with the +widow of Frederick the Great, our Queen Dowager.</p> + +<p>"The crowd could not help punching him with their elbows.</p> + +<p>"Think of it! Even Ludwig nudged our King!</p> + +<p>"But he was not the least angry.</p> + +<p>"He winked, actually winked, and then called out in his merry, jolly +way:</p> + +<p>"'Don't be shy, my children. The wedding father can have no more room +to-day than the guests.'</p> + +<p>"The Berliners were delighted.</p> + +<p>"Our King is a great favourite because of his jokes and his calling the +people 'Children.'</p> + +<p>"But Ludwig does not admire him. He says one should weep to think of +such a man wearing the crown of the Great Elector, or Frederick the +Great, that he is like Charles II of England. He believes much in +spirits and has mediums and such people always about him. But he is very +benevolent and gives to the poor.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it was fine at the wedding! I saw all the great people of the +Court, and how I longed to be one of them and live in such splendour! +But with torn dress and tired feet I came home to our humble dwelling. +At least, it isn't so humble—mother would frown at such a word—but one +says that when one goes to Court, where all is the grandest....</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>"I have decided to always put down what I hear of our Crown Princess, +how the King loves her, and how our Crown Prince forgets his sad nature +when he is with one so happy and gay, and all that the Berliners talk +about."</p> + +<p>Here Marianne paused and turned over some pages.</p> + +<p>"I will skip," she announced, "because all on these pages is about other +things. To-day I have read it all and have marked only that which will +interest you."</p> + +<p>"There are many things we hear of our Crown Princess," she then read. +"She and the Crown Prince play many pranks upon the Countess von Voss, +who loves etiquette and ceremony above all things. But that is on the +surface; in her heart she adores the Crown Prince and the Princess +Louisa, who is now like her daughter. As for them, they are full of +mischief.</p> + +<p>"All Berlin just now is talking of how our Crown Prince and Princess say +'thou' and not 'you' to each other, according to our sweet German custom +of making a difference between friends and strangers.</p> + +<p>"The Court, when this report spread, cried out in horror. It was not +according to French etiquette.</p> + +<p>"The King commanded his son before him.</p> + +<p>"'What is this I hear?' he demanded, 'that you call the Crown Princess +"thou"?'</p> + +<p>"'You hear it upon good grounds,' answered our Crown Prince, with his +slow, good-humoured smile, 'when a man says "<i>du</i>" (<i>thou</i>) the person +to whom he speaks knows whom is being spoken to, but when I say "<i>sie</i>" +(in German written "<i>Sie</i>" for "<i>you</i>,"—"<i>sie</i>" for "<i>they</i>") who can +know whether I say it with a capital letter, or not?'</p> + +<p>"From the beginning our Crown Prince had objected to the formal +etiquette which Frederick the Great imposed upon our Prussian Court. He +longs always to have his home life free from formality.</p> + +<p>"'I desire with all my heart,' said he, 'to live as a plain person and +not as a royal one.'</p> + +<p>"One evening the Crown Princess returned from a feast, and ridding +herself of her finery, ran like a girl to her husband.</p> + +<p>"Clasping her hands, he gazed in her wonderful eyes.</p> + +<p>"'Thank God,' he said, 'thou art again my wife.'</p> + +<p>"The Crown Princess' silvery laugh rang through the room.</p> + +<p>"'What?' she cried, 'am I not that always?'</p> + +<p>"The Crown Prince shook his head with an air of sad discontent.</p> + +<p>"'No,' he said, 'thou must so often be Crown Princess.'</p> + +<p>"The Countess von Voss thought it her duty to bring this lively pair to +order.</p> + +<p>"'You do not please me,' she said one day to the Crown Prince. 'French +etiquette rules all Europe, and I, as Court Mistress of Ceremonies, must +lecture your Royal Highness for seeking the Crown Princess without +announcement.'</p> + +<p>"The Prince made a face and looked as if he were going to be +stubborn.—I heard all this from Baron von Sternberg.—Then suddenly +inspired by a secret thought, he laughed.</p> + +<p>"'Good!' he cried like a penitent boy, 'dear Voss, I will reform. So +have the kindness to announce me to my wife and ask if I may have the +honour of speaking with her Royal Highness, the Crown Princess, and +express my hope that she will graciously grant it.'</p> + +<p>"The good Countess beamed her approval.</p> + +<p>"Now, indeed, was the wayward young man behaving as he should.</p> + +<p>"With dignified steps she sought the apartment of the Princess, and was +beginning the announcement when a laugh interrupted her.</p> + +<p>"The Crown Prince, laughing as hard as he could, sat on the couch with +his arm around his wife.</p> + +<p>"Jumping up, he seated the Countess between them. Then he took her hand +and spoke quite decidedly.</p> + +<p>"'See, dear Voss,' said he, 'I hurried in another way to show you that +my wife and I see each other unannounced and quite as often as we will. +That, in my opinion, is the only Christian fashion for married people, +Royal or commoners. You are our charming Court Mistress,' the Crown +Princess gave her one of her enchanting smiles, 'but Louisa and I have +made up a name for you. You are now to be Dame Etiquette.' And all +Berlin now calls her that.</p> + +<p>"Dame Etiquette arranged a drive for the Crown Prince, the Princess, and +herself, only last week, the Baron says. She insisted on a grand +carriage, with bodyguard in costume. Above all the Royal pair hated +this, but Dame Etiquette firmly commanded the equipage and arrayed in +state she seats herself, at the Royal command, to await the others.</p> + +<p>"The Crown Prince, coming out, gave a low order to the coachman, and off +drove Dame Etiquette alone in the splendid state carriage, and behind +her the naughty laughing Prince and Princess in a plain two-horse affair +like commoners. All eyes were fixed on her, and Louisa and Fritz had as +good a time as if they were not Royal.</p> + +<p>"It seems strange to me how we long to be grand like princes and all +they want is to be like us.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>"Yesterday was our Crown Princess' birthday. All Berlin has made much of +it, but in the palace it was grandly celebrated with a fine masquerade +ball.</p> + +<p>"All Berlin talks of what happened in the palace. When Princess Louisa +came to the King for her birthday kiss he embraced her like a real +father and said: 'You are the Princess of Princesses, my Louisa.'</p> + +<p>"Then a company of Court ladies and gentlemen appeared before her, all +arrayed as citizens of Oranienburg. One made a fine speech and presented +her with a key.</p> + +<p>"'Of our castle,' they said. 'You are to be its mistress.'</p> + +<p>"Then, amid the excitement, the King explained that he gave her the gift +of this castle for a summer residence.</p> + +<p>"Ludwig told me that the wife of the Great Elector, another Louisa, +lived there, and so it is very fitting that our Crown Princess have it +because of her name.</p> + +<p>"The King gave our Crown Princess another gift.</p> + +<p>"At the ball he said quite suddenly to her:</p> + +<p>"'Princess of Princesses, if you had a handful of gold, what wish would +you grant yourself?'</p> + +<p>"'I should make happy the poor of Berlin,' answered the birthday child.</p> + +<p>"'How large, then, must the handful be, Princess of Princesses?' asked +the King with a smile.</p> + +<p>"'As big as the heart of the best king in the world,' answered our Crown +Princess, her eyes dancing.</p> + +<p>"And now we hear that because of this clever answer Berlin is to have a +fine new charity.</p> + +<p>"Ludwig says it would be much better if our King paid his debts, but I +like our King, and so do the people."</p> + +<p>Marianne skipped a little.</p> + +<p>"Our Crown Prince has gone to Poland. We hear much of a brave man called +Kosciusko, but Prussia rejoices that at last we have defeated him.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>"To-day seventy-two guns sounding from the palace informed us that our +dear Crown Princess has a son. We are glad, indeed, for she lost her +first little daughter, who never lived a day.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>"For godparents our new Prince has the Queen, the widow of Frederick the +Great, the Prince and Princess Henry, Prince and Princess Ferdinand, and +the Crown Princess' father. His name is Frederick William, for the King, +who held him during the ceremony, when the same clergyman who baptised +his father gave him his name.</p> + +<p>"Our Crown Princess is more beloved than ever and now all Berlin +rejoices over her son.</p> + +<p>"As for me, Ludwig will have it that we marry in a year. I will then be +sixteen and two years older than mother was when she was a bride. There +is much to do. I must fill my wedding chest with linen and all things +for my house."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>"Our Crown Prince has bought a country home at Paretz. He and our Crown +Princess long for a simple life. We hear much talk of what happens +there, how they ramble in the woods, seek wild flowers, have supper +under the trees and spend their days very happily.</p> + +<p>"Our Crown Princess calls herself 'Gnädige Frau von Paretz (the Gracious +Lady of Paretz), and takes part in all the village festivities. One +evening all the villagers came in costume and announced that they would +have a dance on the green. Our Crown Princess led the whole Court to +take part. The village fiddler played, the peasants danced, and all was +as merry as possible.</p> + +<p>"But suddenly the Crown Princess had an idea.</p> + +<p>"She ordered the castle thrown open, the Court musicians summoned, and +all went in to dance on the fine polished floors.</p> + +<p>"When Monsieur de Paillot heard this he shook his head.</p> + +<p>"'Marie Antoinette played at being dairymaid, n'est-ce-pas?' and he +looked as if we intended to turn revolutionists and cut off the head of +our dear Crown Princess just for pleasure.</p> + +<p>"Old General Röckeritz, the friend of the Crown Prince, is much at +Paretz, and Berlin tells a story of him also.</p> + +<p>"He had a way of leaving the table the moment the meal was at an end.</p> + +<p>"No one could imagine what he did with himself, and it worried the +Gnädige Frau von Paretz to have him leave her.</p> + +<p>"'Let him alone,' said her husband, 'he is old and wants his comfort.'</p> + +<p>"But our Crown Princess was not satisfied.</p> + +<p>"Next day at the end of dinner she appeared with a tray on which were +cigars and a lighted taper. The whole company gazed at her in surprise, +the general, as usual, trying to escape.</p> + +<p>"With a smile the Crown Princess detained him, presenting her tray.</p> + +<p>"'No, no, dear Röckeritz,' she said, 'do not go away. To-day you must +have your dessert with us.'</p> + +<p>"The old general was enchanted. Now he need not sit alone to enjoy his +cigar."</p> + +<p>Marianne, pausing, began to turn over pages.</p> + +<p>"There is so much, children, I can't read it all. Besides, it is sad. +The Princess Frederika loses her husband, the widow of Frederick the +Great dies, and so does the King. Then the Queen has a second little +son. His name is Frederick William Louis, but you know who he is, our +Prince William. He was the tiniest little babe, it says here. But you +must hear how good our Queen is. 'I am Queen,' she wrote to her +grandmother, 'and what rejoices me most is that I need no longer +economise in my charities.'</p> + +<p>"The citizens of Berlin at once, when she became Queen, waited upon +her," read Marianne. "The Queen made them welcome and said: 'It gives me +great pleasure to know you. The good will of my Prussian subjects and of +you will never be forgotten. It shall be my aim to hold that love, for +the love of his subjects is the best crown of a King. With joy I embrace +this opportunity to know my citizens better.'</p> + +<p>"To Röckeritz the King said:</p> + +<p>"'My blessed uncle, Frederick the Great, has said that a treasure is the +basis and prop of the Prussian states. We have now nothing but debts. I +shall be as economical as possible.'</p> + +<p>"Then did he propose to continue, as King, to live upon the income he +had made suffice as Crown Prince?</p> + +<p>"'The debts of my father,' said he very earnestly, 'must be paid by +industry, discipline and economy.'</p> + +<p>"Ludwig," wrote Erna, "is much pleased with all this, but he hopes the +King will not forget that France is not yet at the end of her troubles. +There is talk of a young man named Napoleon Bonaparte, who is the hope +now of France. They say he will right everything.</p> + +<p>"There are many stories told about our new King and his hatred of +ceremony. I will write them to amuse myself. My wedding will not be +quite so soon. I am not well and it is best for me now not to work. I do +not know what is my trouble, but I cough and do not sleep well at nights +and all are very, very kind to me.</p> + +<p>"Now for the stories of the King.</p> + +<p>"Immediately after the death of the late King, the Chamberlain threw +open both folding doors for the entrance of Frederick William. One had +been enough for him when he was Crown Prince.</p> + +<p>"'Am I,' he asked in his whimsical way, 'in a moment grown so much that +one door will not do for me?'</p> + +<p>"When the chef added two more dishes to the bill of fare, with a smile +he remarked to his wife: 'It is easy to see that they believe that since +yesterday I have received a larger stomach.'</p> + +<p>"According to a custom established by Frederick the Great, two +Lieutenant-Generals always stood at the Royal table, and, with the Court +Marshal, waited until the King first should drink.</p> + +<p>"When Frederick William saw them standing like posts at his board he +waved his hand toward chairs, inviting them to be seated.</p> + +<p>"'We cannot be seated, your Majesty,' they answered with great dignity.</p> + +<p>"'Why not?'</p> + +<p>"'Your Majesty must first drink.'</p> + +<p>"'And what must I drink?' inquired William, smiling and gazing at the +glasses.</p> + +<p>"'It is not stated, your Majesty.'</p> + +<p>"The King seized a glass of water and drank it standing.</p> + +<p>"'Now sit,' cried he in relief, as if he thought it all foolishness.</p> + +<p>"Soon after the Crown Princess became Queen she went with her husband on +a journey through his realm. It was the first time that a King of +Prussia had taken his Queen with him so far from Berlin, and Ludwig says +the people were delighted.</p> + +<p>"Baron von Sternberg comes in now and then to see mother, and he is +always full of court gossip. At Stargard, in Pomerania, he says, the +King reviewed the troops and then the Queen started towards Custrin. At +one of the villages the people surrounded the royal carriage and begged +our Queen to alight and have some refreshment they had prepared.</p> + +<p>"At once she left the carriage and went right into their houses, seeing +their children and talking with the villagers.</p> + +<p>"They were delighted, the Baron said.</p> + +<p>"At Dantzic there were great ceremonies, and the amber workers gave the +Queen a most lovely necklace. We hear that she wore it all the time she +was in that city. As the Queen loves the country, she made many +excursions. One was to Karlsberg, and now they will always call the spot +where she stood 'Louisa's Grove.'</p> + +<p>"It would take too long to tell everything, how the Queen stayed a week +in the old palace at Königsberg, and the people, to please her Majesty, +who always loves to do good, gave a great dinner to the poor, and +everywhere she stepped flowers were strewn before her. So in love with +our Queen were the people of Königsberg, that a large body of citizens +insisted on going with her to Warsaw. As they were going down a steep +hill, because of the carelessness of the coachman, our Queen's carriage +was overturned. The Countess von Voss, declaring him to be drunk, +reproved him very sharply. But our Queen can never stand seeing people +unhappy. She touched the Countess on the arm. 'Thank God, we are not +hurt,' she said, 'let it pass over quietly, for the accident has +frightened our people much more than it has us; let us not add to their +troubles.'</p> + +<p>"But how delighted Berlin is over the Queen's reception in Warsaw I +cannot write. Ludwig has explained to me that the Poles do not love +Prussia, who has conquered them, but they forgot all their hatred and +received our King and Queen with cheers, flags, and much waving of +handkerchiefs. And fifty Polish girls in white, with wreaths on their +heads and baskets in their hands, walked before their Majesties, +strewing flowers. And at a village sixteen Polish girls greeted her with +a song. Everywhere there were processions. For myself, I should tire of +so many, but the Baron says that our dear Queen loves gaiety and she +loves her people and smiles are always on her face and kind greetings on +her lips.</p> + +<p>"As she talks she waves a little fan, fast if she is merry, slow if she +is thoughtful or sad. Ludwig brought me one of the fans now the fashion +in Berlin. They are small and all young ladies have them. There is a +picture of the King and Queen on them, and 'Long live Frederick William +and Louisa,' as an inscription.</p> + +<p>"Mine is blue and the pictures have gold frames about them."</p> + +<p>"But I must not forget the Queen's journey. At Breslau there was a great +procession of market gardeners and butchers, and there came a young girl +with a poem in her hand to welcome our Queen. But, alas, she could not +speak for bashfulness. And what did our good Queen do but smile on her +and hold out her Royal hand to encourage her?"</p> + +<p>"And such presents as our Queen received!"</p> + +<p>"There is now a new Princess. Her name is Charlotte, and the people of +Breslau gave her all her clothes, most beautifully embroidered."</p> + +<p>"As the Queen's carriage passed through the country it had to have fresh +horses, and the villagers dressed up their manes with ribbons, put red +nets over their ears and adorned their heads with flowers and gold and +silver paper, this being the custom among the peasants, and it amused +the Queen greatly."</p> + +<p>"In June our Queen came home, and now we often see her in the +Thiergarten, arm in arm with the King, walking quite simply like +every-day people."</p> + +<p>"Mother went last week to pay a visit to the Countess von Voss, and she +told her something I shall write here.</p> + +<p>"The first Queen of Prussia lived in the palace at Charlottenburg, and +her portrait hangs there with many others. One is that of the wife of +our Great Elector. Her name was Louisa, like our Queen, who feels a +great love for her.</p> + +<p>"'Her face,' she told the Countess, 'seems to greet me with a heavenly +smile.' The Countess wrote it in the journal she keeps and writes in +each morning. 'I look upon it until I feel that there must be a living +bond of sympathy between us.'</p> + +<p>"This Louisa, history tells us, had much trouble, and once with her +children was forced to flee before an enemy. All that our Queen +discussed with the Countess.</p> + +<p>"'But oh!' she exclaimed—I can shut my eyes and picture her as she said +it—'what must have been her happiness in finding that she could help +and comfort her husband in the hours of his heavy trial!'</p> + +<p>"But our Queen is not to flee before an enemy, for our King alone in +Europe keeps the peace."</p> + +<p>"But she did, Mariechen," interrupted Ilse.</p> + +<p>"I met her in the snow," said Bettina, her blue eyes filling.</p> + +<p>Marianne nodded.</p> + +<p>"Our Aunt Erna could not know that," she said, and continued the +reading.</p> + +<p>"Our Queen has three children now, and all Berlin says what a good +mother she is, very often in her nursery. Every morning she and the King +go in and kiss each child, and as they grow old enough our King sends a +basket of fruit to each one every morning. And now they begin to give +parties for the Crown Prince."</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed," interrupted Marianne, "when we lived in Berlin the Royal +children had many entertainments. Once the little daughter of the +famous Madame de Staël was there. She is a writer, children, and she has +written a fine book about us Germans. Her little girl is not so good as +her books," laughed Marianne, "but very spoilt and very rude, and what +do you think she did at the Royal party?"</p> + +<p>The children shook their heads.</p> + +<p>"She boxed the Crown Prince's ears."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" Carl's eyes grew round in horror.</p> + +<p>"Ja," said Marianne, "she did, and the Crown Prince ran to the Queen and +buried his face in her dress, but nothing anyone could say would make +little Mademoiselle de Staël apologise. But she was never asked again to +even one of the masquerades, balls or plays. At Christmas they had +always a tree and our dear Queen decorated and dressed it herself, and +there were dances and jugglers, and once at Paretz they had a lottery +for all the children. I was there with our father and when a child did +not draw a prize, our Queen, with one of her lovely smiles, gave a +present herself."</p> + +<p>Then she returned to the journal.</p> + +<p>"At Paretz, our Queen's country home, all ceremony is laid aside. The +King will be called 'Schulze' (magistrate) and they join in all the +sports and dances of the people who live there.</p> + +<p>"But our Queen loves to be grand, also, and there was once in Berlin a +fine masquerade in her honour, a play where girls represented cocoons, +and at her approach untwisted themselves from their wrappings and danced +out butterflies. And once there was a fine play representing the +marriage of Queen Mary of England and Philip of Spain. Our Queen was +Mary and many people think it a bad omen, for this Queen was so unhappy +and lost Calais to the English. The Duke of Sussex was Philip. But there +are people who do not love our Queen. Colonel York is one. He came +yesterday to pay his respects to mother and he said horrid things, that +our Queen's hands are too big and her feet not well made. Ludwig says +this is because she has influence over the King and because she will +have a well-behaved Court. Colonel York says she does not treat the +military with proper respect.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>"It is again May, and our Queen has gone on another journey. To-day we +visited Peacock Island, where she lives so happily in the château built +like a ruined Roman villa. I saw the very rooms of our Queen, and the +menagerie, and heard from Ludwig and the Baron, who was with us, how +happy our King is when he can throw off affairs of state and come 'home' +to Peacock Island."</p> + +<p>"Yes," interrupted Marianne, "we used to hear a great deal about Peacock +Island when we lived in Berlin before this awful war. Once Bishop Eylert +was sitting beneath the trees with our King and Queen and her Majesty +inquired of a servant where the children were.</p> + +<p>"'Playing in a meadow, Majesty,' said the attendant.</p> + +<p>"Our Queen jumped up in the way she does and cried out that she would go +to them and surprise them.</p> + +<p>"Our King agreed, and they all three got into a boat and the King rowed +them up the Havel, which, you know, makes the Island.</p> + +<p>"Suddenly the boat appeared before the children. 'Where did you come +from, papa?' cried our Crown Prince in surprise.</p> + +<p>"'Through the reeds and rushes,' answered our King.</p> + +<p>"'Amongst reeds is good whistle cutting,' said our Crown Prince quick as +a flash.</p> + +<p>"And then our King asked him what that proverb means, and he answered +that it means that a wise man knows how to take advantage of +circumstances. Then our King wanted to know if he were in the rushes, +what whistle he would cut, and the Crown Prince said he wished they +could all have tea together there on the meadow."</p> + +<p>"And did they?" inquired Carl, who was very fond of picnics.</p> + +<p>"Ja," answered Marianne, "and it was lovely, with our Queen helping them +and laughing, and their father teasing and telling stories."</p> + +<p>"I know a story, too," said Carl. "Mr. Jackson told me."</p> + +<p>"Tell it," begged the twins. "Go on, Carlchen."</p> + +<p>"Two Englishmen went to Peacock Island," said</p> + +<p>Carl, puffing out his words in his eager importance. "They had no right +to go and they went. An officer ran them away. But they met a lady and a +gentleman. It was our King and Queen. They made them stay and they +showed them everything, and the Englishmen did not know that it was our +King and Queen. My story is best, ja, Mariechen; isn't it, Bettina?"</p> + +<p>Marianne nodded.</p> + +<p>"But now, let us read," she said.</p> + +<p>"Peacock Island has also a palm house, and there are many peacocks and +doves and pigeons, of which our Queen is so fond.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>"Our Queen is so good to all children.</p> + +<p>"'The children's world is my world,' she says, and she is always being +kind to some child, and when she and the King drive out she will salute +the people with smiles long after he is tired and stops it.</p> + +<p>"Often I think of what our poets have said of her. She is one of four +sisters. One is our Princess Louisa; another, Theresa, is the Princess +of Thurn and Taxis; and the third, Charlotte, is the Duchess of +Sachsen-Hildburghausen. Our great poet, Jean Paul Richter, called them +'the four noble and beautiful sisters on the throne.' And famous Wieland +said of our Louisa, 'Were I the King of Fate, she should be Queen of +Europe.' And Goethe," Marianne rolled her voice and the twins giggled, +"who was with the Duke of Weimar in camp and saw our Queen and her +sister, Frederika, when, as princesses, they came to visit their +betrothed with their grandmother, from his tent, wrote in his journal +that they were visions of loveliness which should never fade from his +memory. And she has set the Berlin young girls a fine example in dress. +Ludwig is delighted. She wears very simple muslins, and, indeed, why +should she waste her time over silks and brocades when white so suits +her?"</p> + +<p>Marianne here stopped in her reading.</p> + +<p>"Go on, Mariechen," said Carl, the other three looking up in surprise.</p> + +<p>"That is all, children. Our dear Aunt Erna died the month before she was +to marry Cousin Ludwig. But there are stories I can tell you, which have +happened since our dear Aunt Erna died.</p> + +<p>"Once on a journey she arrived at the place where they were to eat, a +long time before her husband. They entreated her to eat, as the meal was +ready, but, 'No, I will not eat until my husband comes,' she said. 'It +is the duty of every wife to wait for her husband.'</p> + +<p>"And once, children, our dear Queen, when she was gay and happy, and not +sad as now, came to Memel on a visit, and the Czar was here and they had +oh! such feasts. Uncle Joachim has told me about it, and when the next +baby came she was called Alexandrina, because of her mother and father's +great friendship for Alexander. Uncle told me another story. Once the +treasurer told our Queen that she gave too much money to the poor, and +said that he must speak to the King.</p> + +<p>"'Do so,' said our Queen; 'he will not be angry.' And she was right, for +when she opened her writing case she found her purse full of gold, and +the King laughed and told her that a fairy had placed it there.</p> + +<p>"And once, when the Countess von Voss was angry with a poor woman for +making a mistake and sitting in the Royal pew, our dear Queen sent for +her and told her how sorry she was. Oh, children, I could talk all night +of her, she is so good and so kind to everybody. Once she made a grand +lord wait until she could talk with a poor shoemaker who had come first, +because, she said, the shoemaker's time was valuable and the lord's was +not.</p> + +<p>"Once our King came to breakfast with our Queen and saw a new cap lying +on the table.</p> + +<p>"'What does that cost?' he asked the Queen.</p> + +<p>"'It is not good for men to ask the cost of ladies' things,' answered +the Queen, with a laugh.</p> + +<p>"'But I should like to know,' insisted the King.</p> + +<p>"'Only four thalers.'</p> + +<p>"'Only! For that thing?'</p> + +<p>"Then the King ran to the window and called in an old invalid soldier +who was taking his air.</p> + +<p>"'The lady who sits on that sofa has much gold,' he said, and pointed to +our Queen. 'What do you think, old comrade, she gave for that thing on +the table?'</p> + +<p>"'Perhaps, sire, a groschen.'</p> + +<p>"'You hear that?' asked our King. 'She has paid four thalers. Now, go +ask her to give you twice as much!'</p> + +<p>"With a smile the Queen paid the money, and then said: 'Now, see that +gentleman who stands by the window? He has four times as much gold as I +have. All that I have he gives me, and it is much. Go to him, then, and +ask for double eight thalers.' So, you see, children," laughed Marianne, +"our King got the worst of it.</p> + +<p>"I could tell you many other stories, but it is bedtime. I have let you +sit up late, very late, and I can only tell one more, and then to bed. +Franz, Wolfgang, and I were once in the Christmas Markt. We were +choosing our gifts, when the crowd moved back for a gentleman with a +lady on his arm. It was our King and Queen, and they came straight to +one booth where a poor woman was buying her gifts. At once she tried to +get out of the way. But our Queen stopped her with a smile. 'Remain, my +good woman,' she cried; 'what shall this merchant say if we drive away +his customers?' Then she asked the poor woman all about her family, and +when she heard that she had a boy just the age of the Crown Prince she +bought a lovely toy for her boy to send to the poor one. Now, wasn't +that good in her? And is it not fine that she is here in Memel and we +can know her? As for Napoleon, he is wicked to cause her such trouble."</p> + +<p>"I hate him," said little Carl, his cheeks puffing and his face becoming +quite red.</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes," cried the twins; "we hate him."</p> + +<p>But Bettina looked eagerly at Marianne.</p> + +<p>"Gracious, Fräulein," she said, "when will Frederick Barbarossa awake? I +am always telling the ravens."</p> + +<p>Before Marianne could reply Carl jumped from his seat, the twins started +up in fright.</p> + +<p>A sharp knock had sounded on the window.</p> + +<p>"What is it, sister?" And the twins ran to Marianne.</p> + +<p>At that moment the Professor came in at the door.</p> + +<p>"Nonsense," he said; "who could be at our window?"</p> + +<p>But the children insisted.</p> + +<p>"We heard it, father," they said.</p> + +<p>The Professor, crossing the room, opened the sash, the children +following.</p> + +<p>On the window lay a piece of folded paper.</p> + +<p>His face full of amazement, the Professor brought it to the candles.</p> + +<p>The writing was in German, and the letters like those of a person who +wrote very seldom.</p> + +<blockquote><p>"Your son, the Herr Lieutenant, has escaped and is in hiding. +Put money and food on the window to-night and it will be +fetched to him. It is not safe to say more.</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">One You Know.</span>"</p></blockquote> + +<p>"One you know," repeated the Professor. Then his eyes scanned the +writing and he shook his head.</p> + +<p>"Grandfather writes that way," said Bettina, her eyes all afire.</p> + +<p>Before anyone could stop her Elsa cried out in surprise:</p> + +<p>"Why, Bettina," she said, "your grandfather can't write. A soldier +brought news to the King that he is dead."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2> + +<h3>WHAT HAPPENED TO HANS</h3> + + +<p>When Hans left Memel he went at once to the house where he had stayed +the night with Bettina. The woman who had cleaned the dress was standing +in the doorway.</p> + +<p>"It's a cold day," she said in French to a man who had paused with a +bundle to ask her a question.</p> + +<p>Hans started.</p> + +<p>"Ach Himmel," he said, for the look of her face, the way she pronounced +her words told the old man that she was no Prussian.</p> + +<p>He turned in at the next house and begged a lodging.</p> + +<p>The woman took him very willingly.</p> + +<p>"Money is scarce," she said, "and my man will be glad to have me help a +little."</p> + +<p>She was a large, honest-faced woman, not clever looking, but one Hans +felt safe to talk with.</p> + +<p>Ja, ja, her neighbour was French. She and her husband had come there a +month after Jena. He pretended to be a peddler who was prevented from +travel by the war.</p> + +<p>"We do not believe a word of it," said the woman, lowering her voice. +"Too many strangers come there who do not speak honest German. My man," +she shrugged her shoulders, "has his own opinion of what they are here +for."</p> + +<p>Hans looked at her inquiringly and waited.</p> + +<p>"It's Napoleon," said the woman, and she brought Hans his black bread +and cheese.</p> + +<p>The old man reflected as he drank.</p> + +<p>He remembered that a little fellow who looked foreign had sent him to +the house that day when they had entered the village with the Queen's +party. He knew that all along his way the French had been warned against +a messenger bearing a secret letter about the Secretary Lombard, who +was suspected of treachery and dealings with the French. There were +other matters in the letter, matters the King should have knowledge of, +but how to get possession of it again the old man had no idea.</p> + +<p>"I shall watch here, however," he concluded. "I may find out things just +as useful as the letter."</p> + +<p>For three days nothing happened.</p> + +<p>On the night of the fourth he could not sleep because of the rattling of +his window.</p> + +<p>Rising to stop it with paper he was astonished to see a long ray of +light across the snow in the garden.</p> + +<p>"Himmel," said Hans, "it comes from next door. It must be after +midnight. She has visitors."</p> + +<p>He threw on his clothes and crept to the garden.</p> + +<p>Ja, he was right. The light came from the kitchen of the next house.</p> + +<p>"I shall wait," said Hans, "and see what happens."</p> + +<p>It was bitterly cold. The wind cut like a knife, the trees and bushes +cracked their icy dress; but Hans had a fur cap, and he drew it well +over his ears.</p> + +<p>He had been in the cold for a half hour when a sound made him start.</p> + +<p>It was the creaking of the kitchen door of the next house. The light +vanished, and with careful steps a dark figure moved across the snow.</p> + +<p>Hans nodded.</p> + +<p>"You go, I follow," he thought.</p> + +<p>He was a spy himself. The man in the snow, he knew, was another.</p> + +<p>The man left the garden. Hans left his.</p> + +<p>On he went through the snow, Hans always a good pace behind him, +stopping if he stopped, running if he ran, and, two men moving as one, +they came to the open country.</p> + +<p>Pausing, the man gave a low call.</p> + +<p>It was answered with cautious care.</p> + +<p>Then a sleigh with high runners and a driver in a fur cap glided from +the distant darkness. A figure, not the driver, leaned from the fur +rugs.</p> + +<p>"You have it?" was asked in French.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the man; "the woman told the truth. It is the one we are in +search of."</p> + +<p>The man in the sleigh uttered a sound as of congratulation.</p> + +<p>"Lombard, you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes. The woman has had it three days. Here."</p> + +<p>Something white was held in the air—his letter. Hans recognised it.</p> + +<p>The man moved to spring into the sleigh, but a quick hand caught him, a +foot tripped him up, and snow flew everywhere as two bodies rolled in +the whiteness.</p> + +<p>It was all over in a second.</p> + +<p>Paper flew on the wind, torn fiercely in pieces, and then Hans found +himself bound fast with handkerchiefs and woollen scarfs, flat in the +bottom of the sleigh, four feet upon him.</p> + +<p>What matter?</p> + +<p>He had seized the letter in the scuffle and only the swift wind of the +Baltic knew where were the pieces.</p> + +<p>The Prussian King would never know if Lombard were guilty, but the +French would not possess a drawing of certain frontier fortresses.</p> + +<p>The Frenchmen were furious. They vowed Hans should be shot that night +like a dog.</p> + +<p>The driver brought them a piece or two of the letter, but one was half +blank and the other was the address to His Majesty.</p> + +<p>"Dantzic!" ordered the man, when the driver declared further search was +useless.</p> + +<p>Then off they dashed.</p> + +<p>After some talk in low tones they changed their direction, but to what +place they decided to go Hans could not discover.</p> + +<p>One of the men addressed him in French.</p> + +<p>"For safety's sake," he muttered to his neighbour.</p> + +<p>Hans feigned ignorance.</p> + +<p>"I do not understand, monsieur," he said stupidly, in German.</p> + +<p>With relief the two raised their voices and talked steadily as they flew +over the snow.</p> + +<p>Dantzic must fall. It grew daily weaker.</p> + +<p>"The Emperor," said one, "will wipe Prussia out of existence."</p> + +<p>Then he told how it was believed that Napoleon meant to make a new +kingdom.</p> + +<p>"His brother, Jerome, has nothing yet," he said, and he laughed at the +Prussians and called them pigs and cowards, and made jokes about the +generals, and said things that Napoleon had invented about the Queen.</p> + +<p>It was hard for Hans to lie still and say nothing, but the first thing +in life is to know when to hold one's tongue, and Hans knew it was +useful to listen.</p> + +<p>Early in the morning they came to a town, through whose gate they +entered. The sleigh drew up before a great building. A French soldier +came quickly to greet the travellers, one of whom sprang out and entered +the house with him.</p> + +<p>"Coffee," ordered the other. "We are freezing."</p> + +<p>In a few moments several soldiers appeared. They ordered Hans from the +sleigh; handcuffs were locked on his wrists, and he was marched away, +the second traveller and driver following.</p> + +<p>Hans asked the soldier near him in what town he was.</p> + +<p>The man laughed mockingly.</p> + +<p>"Where you are," said he in bad German, "is none of your business, old +man. What you are, you and I know."</p> + +<p>He thrust out his under lip and shrugged his shoulders.</p> + +<p>"Old man, what you are I can tell you—a spy of the King of Prussia and +a prisoner of the Emperor Napoleon!"</p> + +<p>Then he held up his hands to imitate a gun, and half closing his eye +pretended to take aim at the prisoner.</p> + +<p>"To-morrow? Next day? Who knows?" and he led Hans to a cold bare room, +when, locking the door, he left him.</p> + +<p>"What matter?" muttered Hans. "I am old, and the French will never read +the letter."</p> + +<p>Very likely he would be shot, and soon. In Magdeburg they had shot down +Prussians by dozens. The day he had stopped at the farmhouse he had +heard how they had chained a father and son together, marched them +through the town and shot them.</p> + +<p>"It is war," said Hans; "I took my chances. The good Mademoiselle Clara +will take good care of my Bettina."</p> + +<p>The next day came, and the next; a week passed and nothing happened.</p> + +<p>The truth was, the victory at Eylau was uncertain. Napoleon was checked +and all things were waiting. There was hope of peace, and an order came +to march all prisoners to another city.</p> + +<p>It was the good God, Hans believed, who directed his eye to a field as +he was marched to his new prison, a castle the French then were using. +The field itself was white and crusted with snow, but Hans' eye noted a +large spot where the whiteness had been melted and then had frozen, as +if water had flowed upon it. It was near spring now and there were +thaws, then more snow, and then fresh melting and freezing.</p> + +<p>The spot Hans noticed had nothing to do with this. It was as if a large +stream of water had a habit of pouring out there. Yes, he was right, for +he saw that the snow was broken and frozen towards a ditch on the +boundary of the field.</p> + +<p>"It must be a sewer," said Hans, and thought no more about it.</p> + +<p>Life in the castle was easy and pleasant. The place was so strong there +was no danger of escape, so the commander, being easy-going, permitted +the prisoners much liberty, allowing them to walk about for air in the +paved courtyard.</p> + +<p>Hans enjoyed this, being used to the air and freedom of his Thuringian +forest.</p> + +<p>His room in the castle had a window, and that also made him happy. One +day, gazing out, he discovered that the field he had noticed lay quite +near the wall of his prison.</p> + +<p>"Ach Himmel!" cried Hans, with a start. "It is the sewer pipe of this +castle!"</p> + +<p>A thought struck him. He was old, yes, and he had said he did not mind +dying; but his heart beat wildly at the thought of escaping from certain +death by shooting. Day after day he thought on the sewer. Where was the +exit, he wondered, from the castle! He would find it, yes, if it were +possible.</p> + +<p>To get air he went to the courtyard. New prisoners had arrived in the +night. They, too, were walking.</p> + +<p>"Ach Himmel! God be praised!" cried Hans, for he came face to face with +the Herr Lieutenant.</p> + +<p>But what a change!</p> + +<p>He was thin, gaunt, and pale, and his face and figure looked wretched +and hopeless.</p> + +<p>"Hans Lange!" he cried, and then there was much to talk of.</p> + +<p>To his ear Hans confided the idea of the sewer, and hope at once began +to change the expression of the prisoner.</p> + +<p>After the great victory of Friedland there was a truce to discuss peace, +so Hans still remained a prisoner; and one day he was ordered to work in +the garden of the castle.</p> + +<p>"Food is scarce, prisoners are many and idle. We may have some +vegetables; why not?" asked the commandant.</p> + +<p>"The good God again," thought Hans, for he had his own idea about that +sewer. The garden must be drained. The pipe, certainly, must do the +labour, and, the good God helping him, he might again see his Bettina.</p> + +<p>And one day in the garden he came upon the iron lid of a manhole, +overgrown with grass and very rusty.</p> + +<p>"The sewer!" thought Hans, with joy. "It is big enough for a man to slip +through."</p> + +<p>He bent over. He pulled on the bars. Then he glanced up to see if he +were observed. The eye of a sentinel seemed on him, so, seizing a weed, +he pulled hard, tugged, and then rising with the thing in his hand, +flung it aside. Satisfied, the sentinel showed no more curiosity.</p> + +<p>Again and again he tried to loosen the lid, but no effort could move it; +but though he went about his work, he returned now and then to his +prize, and suddenly, while he was in a different part of the garden, an +idea struck him. The bar on which the lid was swung was eaten with rust. +Could he break it, the lid could be lifted at will.</p> + +<p>He returned and examined closely. Yes, he was right; the rust was of +ages. Lifting his spade, he pressed with all his might. God be praised! +It was easier than he had thought. More pressure and it broke like wood. +The other side was more difficult and it occupied days, but at last it +was free.</p> + +<p>"Now the Herr Lieutenant!" thought Hans in glee.</p> + +<p>"The thing for me," cried Franz, his face alight with new hope, "is to +feign illness, entreat for some labour and beg to be allowed to help in +the garden."</p> + +<p>Hans did not believe this would be possible.</p> + +<p>"You, an officer!" he said, and shook his old head.</p> + +<p>"I can try," said Franz, and presented himself before the proper person.</p> + +<p>"Inaction is killing me," he announced. And, indeed, he looked most +dreadful, pale, bloodless, and a ghost of the brave young officer of +Jena.</p> + +<p>The French were always good-natured with the German prisoners until the +time came to shoot them, and that, after all, was Napoleon's affair, not +theirs, and so the Herr Lieutenant was permitted to dig.</p> + +<p>"A strange occupation for an officer," and the commandant shrugged his +shoulders. But the Germans, at best, he thought, were only pigs, so if +this one wanted to root, let him. The walls of the castle were high. +Escape was impossible.</p> + +<p>"Now," said Hans, "now, may the good God help us with the rest!"</p> + +<p>"Amen," said the Herr Lieutenant.</p> + +<p>And it seemed that He did, for on the second day of Franz's digging a +quick, pelting June rain hid them entirely from the view of the castle.</p> + +<p>The rain came down in sheets; all were safe in the castle, not a soul +could see them. The rain changed suddenly into hail. All the better, and +the good God be thanked!</p> + +<p>"Now," cried Hans; "now or never!"</p> + +<p>He jerked the lid off the hole.</p> + +<p>Down went the Herr Lieutenant, his feet landing in the sewer, his head +still in view.</p> + +<p>"Good," he said, "good! There is space enough below."</p> + +<p>Then down he went, and Hans saw him no more.</p> + +<p>The old man had kept for himself the hard task. He must cover the drain +after him with the lid. Down he went, holding the cover in his hand +above him, for the drain was too narrow for him to lift his arm once in.</p> + +<p>"Ach Himmel," he thought, "the rain is ceasing."</p> + +<p>Then he lowered the lid, balanced on his palm, and as he struggled into +the sewer proper it fell into its place with a crash.</p> + +<p>"Ach Himmel," said the old soldier, for he was sure the noise would tell +the story. But he pushed forward eagerly.</p> + +<p>Only the thought of liberty could make such an awful journey possible.</p> + +<p>The Herr Lieutenant, being ahead, kept out the air from one end, and +water came pouring in at the other. But fortunately the way was short, +and the Herr Lieutenant was soon in the field, and the water coming +suddenly with a rush bore Hans like a straw, landing him almost drowned +in the ditch near the Herr Lieutenant.</p> + +<p>For a few moments he could not breathe, but the voice of the Herr +Lieutenant recalled him.</p> + +<p>"Come," said the young man, "come!"</p> + +<p>"Ja, ja," and off they started.</p> + +<p>For an hour they crawled in the ditch, which seemed to be interminable. +Once or twice they heard guns, but who shot them they had no idea, and +then presently the ditch ended.</p> + +<p>"Come; we are safe now," said the Herr Lieutenant, and he raised himself +up from the bushes, Hans following his example.</p> + +<p>"Gott im Himmel!" he cried.</p> + +<p>On the road before them came soldiers in French uniform.</p> + +<p>"Back!" cried the old man, "back; lie flat, or they will see you!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2> + +<h3>AT TILSIT</h3> + + +<p>It was while the children were in charge of Marianne that something very +important happened at the town of Tilsit, on the river Niemen.</p> + +<p>On that twenty-fifth day of June, in the dreadful year of 1807, all the +people of the place were gathered on the river banks in high +excitement. Actually their faces looked joyful, a thing which had not +happened since Napoleon had entered Prussia.</p> + +<p>"Now we shall have peace. Congratulations!" they exclaimed one to the +other, gazing at a raft gay with flags, anchored midway between the +shores of the river.</p> + +<p>"They have bought every bright rag in Tilsit," said a fat, jolly-faced +merchant, nodding in congratulation.</p> + +<p>"Ach ja," returned a friend, "God be praised! It is many a day since +there has been selling in Prussia."</p> + +<p>Then, "Look! look! Napoleon! Napoleon!" as a man, heavy now to fatness, +stepped into a boat most gorgeously decorated.</p> + +<p>"The monster! the upstart!" muttered the people. But that was of no +concern to the conqueror, whose eyes wandered restlessly from shore to +shore and whose mouth pressed its lips to cruel firmness. Behind him +followed marshals and generals, gay in scarlet, gold, and white, and +blue.</p> + +<p>A boat decorated with the colours of France awaited their coming.</p> + +<p>"The Czar!" cried the people, as a second cavalcade approached. "Our +ally, Alexander!"</p> + +<p>There was no handsomer man in Europe. Tall, majestic in appearance, in +every way a contrast to Napoleon, the ruler of Russia approached a +second boat, opposite Napoleon's, and brilliant with yellow and black. +The monarch was followed by his brother, Grand Duke Constantine, by his +generals and many Russian lords.</p> + +<p>At a signal and amid the cries of the people, off pushed the boats.</p> + +<p>The first to arrive was Napoleon, who sprang to the raft, and with his +own hands opened the door of the pavilion and turned to welcome his +guest.</p> + +<p>Cannon announced the arrival of the Czar, and the two monarchs stood +hand in hand in full view of the allied and French armies, lined up on +both banks, and of the people of Tilsit, who stared at each other in +surprise.</p> + +<p>"Where is our King?" they asked. "Is he to have no voice in the making +of peace?" And their eyes searched everywhere.</p> + +<p>Alone, on his horse, his face troubled and anxious, they saw the one +they sought. There was no boat to bear him to the raft. Prussia's +colours appeared nowhere. The two emperors were to settle the affairs of +Europe. The King of Prussia was conquered and not wanted. Joy faded from +the East Prussian faces.</p> + +<p>"Our King is a good man," they said. "We do not find it good that he is +so neglected."</p> + +<p>The King himself looked neither to the left nor the right. He rode +forward, his splendid figure outlined now against the sky, now hid by +the soldiers. At a certain point he turned. Back he rode, and then +turned again.</p> + +<p>"Our poor King!" said the people, and while cannon roared and soldiers +cheered, their hearts began to beat fiercely against both Alexander and +Bonaparte.</p> + +<p>For an hour the two emperors conferred, the generals waiting in their +boats, Frederick William pacing back and forth on his horse.</p> + +<p>Then presently it began to rain, at first lightly, and then suddenly in +torrents, as if Heaven itself was weeping over blood-stained Europe.</p> + +<p>The King of Prussia rode to and fro, not minding the downfall, but +thinking only of the cruelty of the man who had shut him out of the +conference.</p> + +<p>Everything was against him; he had lost his kingdom, his friend the Czar +was deserting him, and yet, as his wife the Queen wrote her father, he +was "the best man in the world," a King who lived only to help his +subjects; a King who loved right and hated wrong, who believed in good +and tried to do it.</p> + +<p>But, like the Queen, he trusted in God, and even as he rode up and down, +shut out in the rain from the conference, he knew that Napoleon and +wrong could not always have their day, that right and justice always +conquer. But Frederick William, good as he was, had a foe worse even +than Napoleon. At no time in his life could he decide a thing quickly, +or at just the right moment. He must think things over, he must look at +both sides, and while he wavered in came the enemy and took the prize.</p> + +<p>When an hour had passed there came a change. Napoleon summoned all the +generals and counsellors, who, drenched and dripping, entered the door +of the pavilion.</p> + +<p>For two hours more they talked, the King still riding in the rain.</p> + +<p>Surely, he thought, the peace which they were making must be favourable +to poor Prussia. His friend, the Czar, must see to it. He himself had +stood by Alexander; now let Alexander be true to him.</p> + +<p>Had they not sworn an eternal friendship; was not his little daughter +named Alexandrina, and was not the Czar also the friend of the Queen and +the old Countess, to whom he had promised many things?</p> + +<p>When Alexander of Russia entered the pavilion in the Niemen he had at +heart the welfare of Prussia only. In one hour Napoleon did much. Always +he studied citadels, or men, and discovered what we call the weak point. +On it he turned his battery.</p> + +<p>"We all know," he said to Alexander, "that no monarch in Europe has such +thoughts as your Majesty for the welfare of mankind."</p> + +<p>Alexander's face softened. He was truly a philanthropist.</p> + +<p>After a few moments' talk along this line Napoleon mentioned the word +"England."</p> + +<p>The Czar's eyes flashed.</p> + +<p>Napoleon abused that country with vigour.</p> + +<p>Alexander drew nearer.</p> + +<p>"I dislike the English as much as you do," he said, "and am ready to +second you in all your enterprises against them."</p> + +<p>"In that case," said Napoleon, taking note of Alexander's fine head and +the weak lines in his handsome face, and remembering how, when he had +been First Consul, the Emperor of Russia had been his most ardent +admirer, "everything will be easily arranged, and peace already is made. +You and I," he added, with an emphasis very flattering, "understand each +other. It will be better if we do without our ministers, who often +deceive us, or misunderstand us. We shall do more in an hour than our +negotiators would in several days."</p> + +<p>Then he talked as if the Czar and he were Atlases of the world and that +all the earth rested upon their shoulders.</p> + +<p>Alexander, listening, began to think that after all his allies had been +no good. Prussia had dragged him to defeat; England had done nothing to +help either of them. Surely a monarch must consider his own welfare.</p> + +<p>When at last the conference ended and the two mighty emperors came forth +into the sight of the people of Tilsit and their waiting soldiers, their +faces were glowing. Waving their hands again and again, each was rowed +to his own bank of the Niemen. They had formed a friendship—Russia and +France, Alexander and Napoleon—and the whole world was to profit.</p> + +<p>When Napoleon stepped on shore the people of Tilsit were deafened by the +cheers of his soldiers.</p> + +<p>As for Alexander, he gazed up into the gloomy face of the King of +Prussia and a cloud passed over the sun of his joy.</p> + +<p>"The Emperor desires to meet your Majesty to-morrow," said he, and his +eyes fell. "We can go together," he added, and then hastily deserting +the subject, he proposed that they arrange about lodgings, as for the +time they must remain in Tilsit.</p> + +<p>"Very well," said Frederick William, and his heart sank.</p> + +<p>Next day the King of Prussia was admitted to a second and very different +conference, and his noble dignity under his misfortune so struck +Napoleon that he spoke of it.</p> + +<p>"I have nothing to reproach myself with," said the King very simply.</p> + +<p>Napoleon's eyes fell, but only for a moment.</p> + +<p>He answered with a shrug.</p> + +<p>"Nor have I."</p> + +<p>The King was silent.</p> + +<p>"I warned you," Napoleon looked entirely innocent, "against England. It +is she who has caused your troubles. But France," his tones became most +grandiloquent, "can afford to be generous. In a few days all will be +arranged."</p> + +<p>Never was any man treated more cruelly than poor, good, unhappy King +Frederick William. Yet there has never been a King who behaved better in +time of trouble. In peace he had been irresolute and sluggish. In +trouble his figure stands out against a background of woe in outlines of +dignity and nobility.</p> + +<p>Napoleon made him feel absolutely alone, taking away his friend as he +had taken away his kingdom. Though he asked him to dinner, when the last +morsel was eaten, the last wine drunk, he bore off the Czar to his +private apartment, excusing both to Frederick William. When they were +abroad the French soldiers called "Vive Napoleon!" "Vive Alexandre!" but +never a cry from the Imperial Guard for the King of Prussia.</p> + +<p>"It is better for me to be friendly with Napoleon," said the Czar in +excuse. The King was silent.</p> + +<p>As for Napoleon, he utterly refused to have the King near him, unless +absolutely necessary.</p> + +<p>"I can't stand his gloomy face," he told Alexander.</p> + +<p>The Czar and Napoleon embraced in public. The French and Russian +soldiers became like brothers, leaving the Prussians to humiliation and +solitude. The King, who had always suffered from shyness, felt more and +more uncomfortable, being made always an unwelcome third. He had no +opinion of himself, the Queen was not there to cheer him, and each day +he grew more gloomy and sad.</p> + +<p>One day the people of Tilsit saw the three monarchs riding together, the +Czar and Napoleon entirely ignoring the King, who let his horse drop +behind and rode alone.</p> + +<p>"Has not our good King been true to the Czar?" they cried, and in their +hearts the fire against Napoleon and Alexander burned fiercer. "In +January," they said to each other, "we could have made peace if our King +had promised to desert Russia. And now the Czar deserts our King."</p> + +<p>But in spite of his friendship with Napoleon, the Czar truly loved his +friend and wished to help him. His brother Constantine forced him to +many things, threatening him with the fate of his father, who had been +assassinated, if he did not save Russia at the cost of Prussia.</p> + +<p>In the midst of all the great worry an idea entered his head and at once +pleased him.</p> + +<p>Of all living women he most admired Queen Louisa, not only for her +wonderful beauty and lovely ways, but for her goodness and her love for +her husband and her people.</p> + +<p>"Send to Memel for the Queen," he proposed to Frederick William, for he +knew things which were to come to pass that the King did not. "Napoleon +now is very anxious to see her. Who can tell what good she may do for +Prussia? One so beautiful, so spiritual, so unhappy, may soften his +heart and awaken his noblest feelings."</p> + +<p>For a moment or two Frederick William did not answer. Above all things +on earth he loved Queen Louisa. Napoleon had mistreated her. She was +very delicate, like a flower, "the beautiful rose of the King," a poet +called her, and was it right that he ask her to beg favours of her foe? +Of the man who hated her?</p> + +<p>"Do, Majesty, do." General Kalreuth pressed near and gazed pleadingly at +the King.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps," suggested the Czar, "the Queen may bend the iron will of +Napoleon, may she not?" And he looked flatteringly at her husband.</p> + +<p>Frederick William sought pen and ink and wrote Queen Louisa a hasty +letter.</p> + +<p>"I will go to Memel, also," proposed General Kalreuth, as the King +delivered the letter to a messenger.</p> + +<p>Frederick William nodded.</p> + +<p>"Act as escort to the Queen," he commanded, having not a doubt of his +wife's answer.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> + +<h3>THE ESCAPE</h3> + + +<p>The Herr Lieutenant obeyed Hans quickly.</p> + +<p>In breathless silence they lay hid in the bushes.</p> + +<p>For some time they could hear the soldiers, and then all was silent.</p> + +<p>"God be praised!" whispered Hans, "now let us seek the road." And out +they cautiously scrambled.</p> + +<p>All night they walked steadily, meeting no one, but now and then +catching sight of some village burning against the sky. Where they were +they had no idea, but somewhere, they knew, in East Prussia. Everywhere +was desolation. Houses had been burned, fences had fallen, and once they +came upon the blackened remains of a village. For two days and nights +they kept in the fields and woods, Hans going but once to a house to beg +for food and some coffee.</p> + +<p>On the third evening they came upon a farm at some distance from the +road.</p> + +<p>"We might venture there," said Hans, "for it is out of the line of +soldiers. I am sure that, Herr Lieutenant, all is deserted."</p> + +<p>But when he reached the window of the house he returned in a scamper, +motioning the Herr Lieutenant away with his hand.</p> + +<p>"There are French officers eating there," he announced. "Forward, +march," he added, and on they trudged.</p> + +<p>The Herr Lieutenant grew whiter and whiter.</p> + +<p>"I can go no farther," he gasped, and sank on the grass at the side of +the road.</p> + +<p>His old wound had broken out afresh, and for a moment or two he looked +as if he were dying.</p> + +<p>What to do Hans had no idea. While he was perplexing, his brain he heard +the sound of a slow, discouraged step, and presently an old peasant, +with long, unkempt gray hair and a tired, hopeless face, approached from +the wood.</p> + +<p>When Hans told him their trouble he hesitated. Kindness and bitterness +seemed to struggle hard in his wrinkled face.</p> + +<p>"The French have left me almost nothing," he said. Then he hesitated. He +looked at Hans, then at the suffering man on the grass.</p> + +<p>"My house is near here," he said at last, reluctantly. Then he called, +"Heinrich! Heinrich!"</p> + +<p>A stupid-looking boy of thirteen or fourteen was quickly at his side.</p> + +<p>"Help," he commanded, and the three bore Franz to a small peasant house +behind the wood.</p> + +<p>Hans promised to find money at once.</p> + +<p>"You say we are near Tilsit?" he asked.</p> + +<p>The peasant nodded.</p> + +<p>"Can your boy carry a letter to Memel?"</p> + +<p>The man hesitated.</p> + +<p>"There are the French," he said, and went on to explain that if his boy +were seen going into Memel houses he would perhaps be shot as a spy, +their home burned, and then where were they?</p> + +<p>"But at night," urged Hans, "let him lay a note on the window of the +house I mean and they will put out money and provisions."</p> + +<p>After much talk the old man agreed, and Hans, with great difficulty, for +he had little education, wrote the letter that the Professor had found +on his window.</p> + +<p>For days Franz was unconscious, but when he came to himself again Hans, +with a smile, handed him a letter from his father.</p> + +<p>"And we have money now," said the old man with a laugh, "and all the +good food you'll be wanting."</p> + +<p>He did not tell the Herr Lieutenant, however, that since they had found +refuge with the peasant the French army had advanced and they were +surrounded by the enemy. Instead, he announced that he had heard from +the peasant that there was talk of peace.</p> + +<p>Now, all might have gone well had Hans been content to be quiet. But he +was a restless old fellow and he could not bear sitting still doing +nothing.</p> + +<p>"I will go out," he announced next day, "and discover the whereabouts of +the enemy."</p> + +<p>In an hour he returned his face full of excitement, his legs shaking.</p> + +<p>"The soldiers saw me," he cried. "They are coming this way. Ach Himmel, +if I had been quiet!"</p> + +<p>Then he ran for the peasant and told him that they must hide the Herr +Lieutenant.</p> + +<p>The peasant, whose face grew dark with dread, nodded, shrugging his +shoulders.</p> + +<p>"There is a loft," he said, "but hurry."</p> + +<p>In his small barn was this loft, and opening from it and well concealed +by wood, a tiny closet.</p> + +<p>There was just room for Franz, who almost fainted from excitement as +they hurriedly moved him.</p> + +<p>"And you?" he gasped, looking at Hans.</p> + +<p>The old man shrugged his shoulders.</p> + +<p>"What comes, comes," he said. "Auf wiedersehen, and we will bring you +supper, Herr Lieutenant."</p> + +<p>For hours Franz lay in the stuffy darkness. He heard the arrival of the +soldiers, loud voices, the sound of many feet and then it seemed to him +that for an hour he would die of a sudden hotness. There was a smell of +burning, too, which lasted long after it was cool again.</p> + +<p>What had happened? His heart stood still. Would they burn the barn? The +smell of charred wood seemed stronger.</p> + +<p>By and by hunger told him that it was supper time, but all continued +silent. He fell at last into a sleep which lasted until what he thought +must be morning. The closet was quite dark, the only air coming in from +the loft, and he felt suffocated. He must have light and air. Where was +Hans? What had happened? At last he felt that he could stand the +suspense no longer.</p> + +<p>Putting out one foot he kicked open the door, which, kept in place by a +log, went down with a crash like thunder. Franz was in terror, but, +nothing happening, he dragged himself forward to the loft. Then he could +rise, and standing erect he waited until the dizziness in his head had +settled.</p> + +<p>Then seeking the ladder he stepped below. Instead of the neat barn of +the day before, he saw disorder everywhere. Hay was tossed here, horses +had trampled there, and not a sound of a chicken was heard. The day +before he had seen at least a dozen.</p> + +<p>He dragged himself to the door.</p> + +<p>There was now no peasant's house. Only a scene of blackened ruins met +his eye.</p> + +<p>The barn, too, was scorched; but perhaps the wind had blown in an +opposite direction, for it had not burned.</p> + +<p>Franz trembled like a poplar leaf when he thought of what might have +been his fate.</p> + +<p>"Thank God, thank God!" he murmured, and then, before he could reach out +his hand for support, he fell on the floor in a dead faint, and there he +lay while they were making peace at Tilsit.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2> + +<h3>THE FOES MEET</h3> + + +<p>Marianne, a few days later, went one morning to the drawing-room of +Countess von Voss.</p> + +<p>The room was full of ladies. Dr. Hufeland was there, the Englishman, and +the Queen herself, busy with her lint.</p> + +<p>The talk was very violent.</p> + +<p>News had come to Memel that the Czar had made a separate peace with +Napoleon, and that the Emperor of the French, in his hatred of Frederick +William, meant to rob him of his kingdom, proposing that he be no longer +called King of Prussia, but only Marquis of Brandenburg.</p> + +<p>"The monster! The upstart! The villain!" The room was full of abuse of +Napoleon.</p> + +<p>"I hate him; I would kill him!" cried one lady, her face hot with wrath.</p> + +<p>The Queen lifted her blue eyes from her work.</p> + +<p>"Dear Mademoiselle," she said, "we cannot lighten our sorrow by hating +the Emperor, and malicious thoughts can only make us more unhappy."</p> + +<p>The lady bit her lips and coloured, but even she had to laugh with the +rest when the parrot of the Countess suddenly called out in French:</p> + +<p>"Down with the upstart! Down with Napoleon!"</p> + +<p>While the room was yet echoing with the merriment, a servant announced a +courier from Memel.</p> + +<p>"A letter from the King," cried the Queen, and seized it with eager +fingers.</p> + +<p>Reading it hastily, all watching, she suddenly burst into tears.</p> + +<p>"My Queen, my dear, dear Queen, what is it?" and the Countess flew to +her side.</p> + +<p>The Queen, recovering herself, clung to her old friend.</p> + +<p>The King wished her to come to Memel, to stay with him and plead the +cause of her country with Napoleon, to entreat for a better peace.</p> + +<p>Her voice quivered as she told of the request, and for a moment her blue +eyes gazed pathetically at her friends in the Saal.</p> + +<p>The whole room was silent, though indignation flashed across a face or +two.</p> + +<p>Each knew that Napoleon had treated the Queen most shamefully, and that +it was cruel that she must plead before him, must entreat a favour.</p> + +<p>"It is the hardest thing I have had to do," at last the Queen's sweet +voice broke the silence, her body quivering as a rose on its stem when +the blasts blow. "It is the greatest sacrifice I can make for my +country." And her lips shook pathetically.</p> + +<p>Then she stood in silence, holding the letter in her hand, while the +company waited. Marianne felt her heart beat until it was near bursting. +They all knew that the Queen could say that she was not well. The winds +and cold of Memel had never agreed with her. As an excuse to save +herself it would be quite justifiable.</p> + +<p>Marianne leaned forward eagerly. It seemed to her at that moment as if +all her life was to be settled.</p> + +<p>"I will do it," said the Queen; "the King wishes it." And then the whole +room relaxed from its tension.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps," added the Queen, folding the letter with trembling fingers, +her lips quivering, "I can do good, be of some service."</p> + +<p>"Most certainly, Majesty," urged General Kalreuth, following the +courier, his face eager to have his way.</p> + +<p>He had brought her a second letter.</p> + +<p>It was from the Czar, entreating her to come, and setting before her all +that she with her talents and beauty might accomplish.</p> + +<p>"To do my full duty, dear General," said the poor Queen, the tears in +her voice, "is my only wish. As the loved wife of the King, as the +mother of my children, as the Queen of my people."</p> + +<p>She swayed, as if faint. Then sudden strength seemed to come, and a +smile, like sunlight after clouds, suddenly illumined her face, which +was even lovelier in her sadness.</p> + +<p>"And, dear friends," she gazed kindly at the people about her, "I +believe firmly in God. And, dear General," again she smiled, "I do not +believe Napoleon will be secure on his throne. Truth and righteousness +only abide. Napoleon is only politically clever."</p> + +<p>So the good Queen, who loved everybody better than her own ease or +comfort, kissed the lively, handsome Crown Prince; simple, honourable, +sensible little William; shy, beautiful Charlotte, and answered jolly +little Carl's many questions as to when she was going, and, loosening +baby Alexandrina's arms from her neck, set forth with the old Countess +and her Maids of Honour to meet her foe in Tilsit.</p> + +<p>She knew that she must smile when her heart was weeping for her country; +she knew that she must be pleasant and beg favours of the man who had +treated her as no woman has ever before been treated in history.</p> + +<p>"Truly," she said to the old Countess, "I am like Atlas, and carry the +sorrow of the world."</p> + +<p>The Countess pressed her hand and listened while the Queen continued, +for to her she might say things which might distress her husband.</p> + +<p>"I cannot, I may not forget the King in this crisis. He is very +unfortunate and possesses a true soul, but how with my broken wing"—she +had not been well and was very nervous, always having to stand the noise +of the children and the laughter of the Maids of Honour in the tiny +house in Memel—"can I do anything? How can I do anything?" she repeated +pathetically.</p> + +<p>Full of foreboding, she and the Countess and the Maid of Honour, +Countess Tauentzein, came to Tilsit, or rather to the village of +Piktupöhnen, where her husband was in lodgings because of the truce with +Napoleon.</p> + +<p>The State Minister Hardenburg, General Kalreuth, and the Czar +surrounded her.</p> + +<p>"Plead with Napoleon," they urged, "for Silesia, for Westphalia, and for +Magdeburg, but especially for Magdeburg."</p> + +<p>Napoleon, who, having all he wanted, was more amiable, sent greetings at +once to Louisa, explaining that according to the terms of the truce he +could not come to Piktupöhnen, and therefore he entreated her to come to +Tilsit that he might pay her his respects immediately.</p> + +<p>His state carriage, drawn by eight horses and escorted by splendid +French dragoons, conveyed them to a plain, two-story house in Tilsit.</p> + +<p>An hour later a messenger announced her royal foe, the Emperor Napoleon +Bonaparte.</p> + +<p>According to etiquette, the Queen awaited him at the head of the stairs, +a smile of welcome forced by politeness to her lips.</p> + +<p>"What this costs me," she had said to her ladies, "God alone knows, for +if I do not positively hate this man, I cannot help looking on him as +the man who has made the King and the whole nation miserable. It will be +very difficult for me to be courteous, but that is required of me."</p> + +<p>The two Countesses were, by accident, in the hall below when the King +met the Emperor and conducted him in.</p> + +<p>The Countess von Voss, who hated him with all her old heart, shrugged +her shoulders at the sight of the small, bloated-looking man who stared +at her rudely.</p> + +<p>With him came Talleyrand, his famous Minister, his eyes alert, his +expression watchful.</p> + +<p>The Emperor lifted his eyes; his whole face softened; for, standing with +her hand on the rail of the stair, he saw a slight, graceful woman, +golden-haired, and arrayed in a white gown of tissue, or gauze, a narrow +ribbon sash tied short-waisted fashion, its ends hanging to the +embroidered border of her gown; her mantle on her shoulders, a tiny +tissue scarf twisted across her throat, like a frame for her face of +loveliness.</p> + +<p>Never had "The Rose of the King" looked more beautiful, for excitement +had brought back colour to pale cheeks, a fire to eyes faded from +weeping. And about her whole figure was a girlish pathos.</p> + +<p>Napoleon mounted the stairs heavily, for he had grown very stout in +Prussia.</p> + +<p>"I am sorry," said the Queen, her sweet voice welcoming him, "that you +have had to mount so inconvenient a staircase."</p> + +<p>Napoleon stared in the bold, rude way he did at everybody.</p> + +<p>"One cannot be afraid of difficulties," he said, with a bow, "with such +an object in view." And he gazed at her with bold admiration.</p> + +<p>"And while reaching up to attain the reward at the end," he added, again +bowing.</p> + +<p>"For those who are favoured by Heaven," returned the Queen, "there are +no difficulties on earth."</p> + +<p>Napoleon made no answer, but stared at her as if enchanted.</p> + +<p>Approaching, he touched the material of her dress, like a child.</p> + +<p>"Is it crêpe," he inquired, "or Indian gauze?"</p> + +<p>The Queen's face flushed, but she controlled herself most beautifully.</p> + +<p>"Shall we talk of light things at such a moment?" she asked, and led the +way into the room prepared for his reception.</p> + +<p>Then she inquired concerning his health, adding the hope that the severe +climate of North Germany had agreed with him.</p> + +<p>"The French soldier," he answered bluntly, "is hardened to bear every +kind of climate."</p> + +<p>Then he looked at her curiously, as if making a study of the woman of +whom he had heard so much and whom he had treated so cruelly, and who, +in that poor little house in Tilsit, stood before him as bravely as the +Duchess had in Weimar.</p> + +<p>He admired her beauty, but her sorrows were absolutely nothing to him. +In a short time he was to divorce the wife who had borne with his +weaknesses and who loved him through many long years of both joy and +trouble. So he was not likely to treat the Queen of Prussia very gently, +merely because she was a woman who loved her husband and her country.</p> + +<p>"How could you think of making war upon me?" he demanded.</p> + +<p>Though his manner and tones were irritating, the Queen took no offence, +but answered politely:</p> + +<p>"We were mistaken in our calculations on our resources," she said.</p> + +<p>"And you trusted in Frederick's fame and deceived yourselves—Prussia, I +mean." Napoleon swung his riding whip to and fro as she talked, and +stared steadily.</p> + +<p>The Queen's blue eyes met his bold ones, though they filled a little as +she continued:</p> + +<p>"Sire, on the strength of the great Frederick's fame we may be excused +for having been mistaken with respect to our own powers, if, indeed, we +have entirely deceived ourselves."</p> + +<p>Napoleon's face softened quickly. He tried to change the subject, but +the Queen, treating him as a kind man and a friend, told him in an +almost girlish way of all her sufferings, of all she had endured, and +why she had come to Tilsit. He tried again and again to change the +subject, but she persisted, beseeching him to be kind and merciful, for +the love of man and because of the laws of justice with which God rules +all the kingdoms.</p> + +<p>Napoleon's answer was all kindness. He had never seen such a woman. She +had not a thought for herself, and when she spoke of her husband the +tears splashed down her cheeks on the crêpe dress the Emperor had +admired so openly.</p> + +<p>"Sire," implored the sweetest voice that ever had fallen on his ears, +"be kind, be generous, be merciful to your fallen foe. Sire," the Queen +gazed like a child in his face, "give us Magdeburg, only Magdeburg."</p> + +<p>The conqueror of Europe wavered.</p> + +<p>"You ask a great deal," he said dubiously, "but I will think of it."</p> + +<p>Why not make this lovely woman happy? he tells us that he thought, and +kindness for a moment entirely changed his countenance.</p> + +<p>Now, of all men in the world, the King of Prussia was the most unlucky. +There was no one who could so irritate Napoleon as he could, and at that +moment his entering the room probably changed the history of Prussia; at +least Napoleon himself says it did.</p> + +<p>But he had begun to be uneasy waiting below. He thought he could help +matters, and in his zeal entered, and entered at the wrong moment.</p> + +<p>There he stood, handsome, dignified and honest-faced, wanting, as +always, to do the right thing, and blundering.</p> + +<p>For once the Queen had no smile ready for him, and her face showed her +chagrin, for Napoleon, catching himself up hastily, with a relieved face +turned to Frederick William.</p> + +<p>"Sire," he said, "I admire the magnanimity and tranquillity of your soul +amid such numerous and heavy misfortunes."</p> + +<p>The King of Prussia hid his feelings. If he was conquered by the man who +was complimenting his behaviour, he was a Hohenzollern, but alas, too, +he was tactless.</p> + +<p>"Greatness and tranquillity of soul," he answered shortly, "can only be +acquired by the strength of a good conscience."</p> + +<p>Never did a King make a more unfortunate answer.</p> + +<p>Napoleon turned away with a glare, and after inviting the King and Queen +to dine with him, departed, followed by Talleyrand, his whole mood +changed to hardness.</p> + +<p>When they were below the Minister looked inquiringly at the Emperor.</p> + +<p>"I knew," said Napoleon, his eyes firing, "that I should see a beautiful +woman and a Queen with dignified manners, but I found a most admirable +Queen and at the same time the most interesting woman I ever met with." +Again his face looked soft and almost yielding.</p> + +<p>Talleyrand's laughter rang out in sarcastic mockery.</p> + +<p>"And so, sire," he said, with a sneer, "you will sacrifice the fruits of +victory to a beautiful woman. What will the world say?" His voice was +mocking.</p> + +<p>Napoleon flushed and bit his lip, the hard look returning.</p> + +<p>Talleyrand, seizing the moment, hastened to show what a gain Magdeburg +would be to French interests and how its loss would cripple Napoleon.</p> + +<p>"You cannot give it up, sire," he pleaded; "you cannot."</p> + +<p>Napoleon, his lips curling in amusement, shook his head. He was again +the Emperor, the Conqueror.</p> + +<p>"No, no," he answered, "Magdeburg is worth a hundred Queens."</p> + +<p>Then he laughed, as if he had escaped a great weakness, and his eyes +narrowed.</p> + +<p>"Happily," he swung his whip, "the husband came in, and trying to put +his word into the conversation, spoilt the whole affair and I was +delivered."</p> + +<p>As for the Queen, she was repeating every word of Napoleon's to +Frederick William.</p> + +<p>"He promised, Fritz," and she clung to his hand, "that he would think of +it. Moreover," she added, "I shall see him at dinner. Something then may +be done." And she caressed him tenderly, her whole body quivering from +the strain she had been under.</p> + +<p>In honour of Napoleon, Queen Louisa arrayed herself for the dinner in +her most regal splendour. Her dress was white, most delicately +embroidered, a velvet and ermine mantle flowed from her shoulders, a +diamond star shone in her golden hair, and the crown of Prussia was +arranged to surmount her exquisite tissue, or gauze, turban.</p> + +<p>When her maid had given the last touch she stood before her mirror in +the small Tilsit house. Near by stood her dearest friend, Frau von Berg, +gazing at her in loving admiration.</p> + +<p>But the Queen's thoughts were bitter. With a shrug she turned from the +mirror to her companion.</p> + +<p>"Do you remember, dear friend," she asked, with a sad smile, "how the +old Germans of the pagan times used to dress the maidens they would +sacrifice to their gods in gorgeous raiment and jewels?"</p> + +<p>Frau von Berg nodded.</p> + +<p>"Yes, dear Queen," she said, the tears starting.</p> + +<p>"I am such a victim," said the Queen. "But the question is, will the +angry god whom the world now adores be, through me, appeased and +reconciled?"</p> + +<p>Frau von Berg had no answer.</p> + +<p>Then in came the two Countesses in splendid raiment, and off went the +Prussian Court to dine with Napoleon.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2> + +<h3>THE ANSWER</h3> + + +<p>Certainly Napoleon was most courteous.</p> + +<p>He was at the carriage door to open it for Queen Louisa. He led her to +the table and placed her by his side, the King of Prussia sitting on his +left, and the Czar by Queen Louisa.</p> + +<p>The table was long, it was well set, and there were many guests arrayed +in court splendour, but one person did the talking, and that person was +Napoleon.</p> + +<p>The Queen, alone, was expected to answer.</p> + +<p>Why, he began, had she been so foolish as to go to the seat of war? Did +she know that Napoleon's hussars had almost captured her?</p> + +<p>The Queen with a smile shook her head.</p> + +<p>"No, no, sire," she said with forced gaiety, "that I cannot believe. I +never saw a Frenchman while I was on that journey."</p> + +<p>"But why did you expose yourself to danger?" persisted the Emperor, +though he knew quite well that it was an old Prussian custom for Queens +to accompany their husbands to the battle.</p> + +<p>"Why did you not await my arrival at Weimar?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Really, sire," said the poor Queen, trying to be merry, "I felt no +inclination to do so."</p> + +<p>At that Napoleon laughed and changed the subject, without a thought for +all the Queen had endured on her journey.</p> + +<p>"How is it that the Queen of Prussia wears a turban? That," he added, +"is not complimentary to the Emperor of Russia, who is at war with the +Turk."</p> + +<p>Now, the Queen of Prussia knew how to make a pretty answer. It was one +of her charms.</p> + +<p>"I think," and she smiled, "it is rather to compliment Rustan," and she +glanced at Napoleon's favourite Eastern servant, who, wearing a superb +turban, stood behind the chair of his imperial master.</p> + +<p>Napoleon was delighted, and the two began to discuss the province of +Silesia and the old ones of Prussia, which now were perhaps to be ceded +to France.</p> + +<p>Frederick William, who had been silent, at once expressed his opinion, +and, as usual, got into trouble with Napoleon.</p> + +<p>"Your Majesty," he said, and his brow darkened, while he twisted his +handkerchief and knotted it in a way he had, "does not know how grievous +it is to lose territories which have descended through a long line of +ancestors, territories which are, in fact, the cradle of one's race," he +added gloomily.</p> + +<p>Now, Napoleon was a man who had made his own fortunes, his name had not +been royal, and his race had no such cradle.</p> + +<p>A sarcastic smile played on his lips and a laugh of derision rang +through the room.</p> + +<p>"Cradle!" he said, and his lips curled in amusement. "When the child has +grown to be a man he has not much time to think about his cradle!"</p> + +<p>The guests gazed down at their plates.</p> + +<p>Why on earth had the King spoken?</p> + +<p>But the Queen saved the day.</p> + +<p>"The mother's heart," she said, "is the most lasting cradle."</p> + +<p>Then she enquired about Madame Bonaparte, whom above all living people +Napoleon honoured, and the Empress Josephine, and Napoleon's good humour +came back and he talked steadily through the whole dinner, everybody +being forced to listen and eat in silence.</p> + +<p>"That odious man," whispered the Countess Tauentzein, when at last they +arose from dinner; "he has the manners of a peasant."</p> + +<p>"And how ugly," answered Countess von Voss. "Did you notice how fat he +is, and how bloated his face, and how brown his complexion?"</p> + +<p>"He is altogether without figure, the wretch!" answered the other. "See +how he rolls his great eyes, and how severe is his expression!"</p> + +<p>"But his mouth is beautiful," admitted the old Countess, "and his teeth +perfect. But see how he looks the very picture of success!" She lowered +her voice cautiously. "But what a happy day it will be for the world +when God takes him!"</p> + +<p>As for Napoleon, his eyes never left the Queen. He followed her +everywhere.</p> + +<p>For a moment she stood alone in the room, in whose window-seat stood a +pot in which grew a rosebush with one lovely flower.</p> + +<p>Napoleon broke off its stem, and bearing it in his hand he approached +the Queen and offered it to her, smiling.</p> + +<p>"Sire," she said, her blue eyes pleading, "with Magdeburg?"</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus3" id="illus3"></a> +<img src="images/illus3.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<h3>"<i>Sire, with Magdeburg?</i>"</h3> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>Napoleon still offered the rose, his face flushing.</p> + +<p>"I must point out to your Majesty," he said, "that it is for me to beg, +for you to accept, or decline."</p> + +<p>It was the Queen's turn to flush.</p> + +<p>"There is no rose without a thorn," she said, "but these thorns," she +gazed at the rose, "are too sharp for me."</p> + +<p>And turning, she left Napoleon with a rose in his hand, his lips +pressing themselves together.</p> + +<p>He had given the Queen her answer. Prussia was to lose Magdeburg. The +Queen had appealed in vain.</p> + +<p>The banquet ended in a dance, and at a late hour the King and Queen +returned to their lodgings in Piktupöhnen.</p> + +<p>The next day the King and Napoleon had a talk, and those listening heard +hot words and angry voices.</p> + +<p>Frederick William was entreating for Magdeburg. Napoleon answering with +scowling insolence.</p> + +<p>"You forget," said the Emperor, his eyes narrowing, "that you are not in +a position to negotiate. Understand that I wish to keep Prussia down and +to hold Magdeburg that I may enter Berlin when I wish to. I believe in +the stability of but two sentiments—vengeance and hatred. For the +future, the Prussians must hate the French; but I will put it out of +their power to injure them."</p> + +<p>Again, that day, the Queen was forced to dine with Napoleon. She prayed +to be excused, but all begged her to go. It would appear better, for the +treaty now was signed.</p> + +<p>"I have given Prussia a few concessions because of its Queen," announced +Napoleon, but what they were it was hard to guess.</p> + +<p>The King of Prussia must give up half of his dominions; he must reduce +his army to 42,000 men; he must pay 140,000,000 francs as the cost of +the war, and he must acknowledge the Confederation of the Rhine and all +the kingdoms Napoleon might set up anywhere. Jerome Bonaparte, as King +of Westphalia, was to receive half of the Kingdom of Prussia.</p> + +<p>Knowing this, the Queen sat in her ermine and jewels; she talked with +Napoleon, she smiled, she thanked him for his hospitality.</p> + +<p>When she left he led her to the carriage.</p> + +<p>"I regret, your Majesty," he said, "that I must not do what you asked +me."</p> + +<p>"And I regret," said the Queen, "that, having had the honour of knowing +the hero of the age, whom I can never forget, the impression left on my +mind must always be painful. Had you been generous, sire, I would be +bound to you by an everlasting gratitude."</p> + +<p>"Indeed, your Majesty," returned Napoleon, "I lament that so it must be; +it is my evil destiny."</p> + +<p>"And I have been cruelly deceived," were the Queen's last words, and off +drove her carriage.</p> + +<p>The two Royal Foes parted, never again to meet.</p> + +<p>That day Louisa thought herself the vanquished, and before the world +Napoleon wore the laurels of victory. Seventy years later the President +of France wrote that it was his belief that, at Tilsit, Napoleon was +conquered; that had he then been generous and bound the King and Queen +of Prussia to him by a tie of gratitude his last days need not, perhaps, +have been spent on the island of St. Helena, for in his troubles they +would have been his ally.</p> + +<p>When the Queen reached her room she turned to her ladies in tears.</p> + +<p>"When I am dead," she said, "it will be as with Queen Mary of England; +not Calais, but Magdeburg will be graven on my poor heart in letters of +blood."</p> + +<p>Peace was signed on the seventh, and on June 24 Napoleon, in triumph, +entered Frankfort-on-Main, and three days later he arrived at his palace +at Saint Cloud and immediately was off again, marching armies into +Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Austria.</p> + +<p>"Peace is made," wrote Queen Louisa to her father, "but at a dreadful +price. Our boundary will only go as far as the Elbe. Yet is the King +greater than his adversary. After Eylau he could have made a more +advantageous peace, but then he must have followed wicked principles, +and now he has acted through necessity and not forsworn himself. That +must bring a blessing on Prussia. After Eylau he would not desert a +faithful ally. Once more, I repeat, it is my firm belief that this +conduct of the King will bring good fortune to Prussia."</p> + +<p>Napoleon had insisted upon the dismissal of Hardenburg as Prime +Minister, and in September the King called Stein to his assistance. From +the Queen this great man received a letter.</p> + +<blockquote><p>"I conjure you," she wrote, for he had made some objections to +remaining in office with a certain fellow minister, "have but +patience in the first few months. For Heaven's sake, do not let +the good cause be lost for want of three months' patience. I +conjure, for the sake of the King, of the country, of my +children, for my own sake, patience!</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Louisa.</span>"</p></blockquote> + +<p>As for Baron von Stein, he had at heart only the good of Prussia, and +waited.</p> + +<p>The war was ended. Prussia was in the dust; its King and Queen exiled +from the capital. Crops were ruined, villages were burned, and this +poor, unhappy country must pay its war debt.</p> + +<p>"Now, God be everlastingly praised," wrote the poor Queen, "that my +daughter, who would now be almost fifteen years old, came dead into the +world."</p> + +<p>"I must play my life days in this unlucky time," she said. "Perhaps God +gave me my living children that one of them might bring good to +mankind."</p> + +<p>And there was one who did the great things the Queen dreamed of.</p> + +<p>It was not the handsome Crown Prince, though he was a clever monarch; it +was not Princess Charlotte, though she became Empress of Russia; it was +not Alexandrina, who, a lovely old lady, died only a year or two ago as +Dowager Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg; nor jolly Carl, nor Louisa, nor +Albert, who came later.</p> + +<p>It was simple, honourable, sensible little William. Every pain his +mother felt sank deeply into his heart, and at last the day came when he +led the Prussian army to the great battle of Sedan, where he conquered +the nephew of Napoleon and created the German Empire.</p> + +<p>But no one dreamed of this that dreary summer in Memel, and though the +Queen did her best to be cheerful, all who loved her saw that the +canker-worm of sorrow was drawing nearer and nearer the heart of the +beautiful "Rose of the King," the flower whose stem had been so roughly +handled by its enemy.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2> + +<h3>THE HERR LIEUTENANT</h3> + + +<p>When Franz again opened his eyes it was to see a little figure sitting +near by with her knitting.</p> + +<p>"Am I crazy?" He gazed about the room in which he found himself lying.</p> + +<p>He saw a huge porcelain stove of green and white and blue and yellow, +with a pelican on top for an ornament. A chest of drawers boasted a vase +of roses, and there were pretty white curtains to the window.</p> + +<p>"Bettina," he said, "Bettina!"</p> + +<p>She ran to him, her blue eyes eager.</p> + +<p>"Ach ja," said Franz, "but it is the same Bettina."</p> + +<p>Yes, it was the old Bettina with the bright, eager eyes, the golden +hair, but it was Bettina grown older.</p> + +<p>"God be praised," she said, her eyes dancing; "I will call your Frau +Mother."</p> + +<p>He was home, but how had he come there?</p> + +<p>There was Madame von Stork, the tears flowing; there was his father; +Pauline, too; how handsome she was! And Marianne; but how serious she +had grown! And the twins.</p> + +<p>"Come here, Ilse. The other hand, Elchen! And Carlchen, how big you +are!"</p> + +<p>The children, hanging their heads, were pushed to the bed by Marianne.</p> + +<p>Franz's eyes sought other figures.</p> + +<p>"Wolfgang?" he said. "And Otto; where is Otto?"</p> + +<p>It was days before he heard all the news, and it was days before he +learned all that had happened.</p> + +<p>Wolfgang was dead.</p> + +<p>The Herr Lieutenant turned his face away.</p> + +<p>Otto had run off, and no one knew where he was.</p> + +<p>The rascal! That was exactly like Otto.</p> + +<p>As for the Herr Lieutenant himself, the peasant boy had come for the +Professor. The French soldiers had fired the house and the peasants had +fled at once to Memel.</p> + +<p>It was all very simple. Peace was made now, and his father had brought +him in a carriage. He for days had remained unconscious. They were all +soon to move to Königsberg, and Franz was to go also, and Otto must come +home now, for the war was over.</p> + +<p>Then Marianne, who came in often and sat with her tent stitch, told him +how the poor Queen had been deceived by Napoleon, how she had believed +in his promise and had not been well from the shock of disappointment +since she had returned from Tilsit.</p> + +<p>And when Marianne was gone, in came his mother and she wept over +Wolfgang and Otto and told him how Ludwig Brandt, who was soon to be +betrothed to Pauline, was always at Königsberg, for there were great +plans among the students in which Ludwig was helping, plans for rousing +the nation against Napoleon.</p> + +<p>Then she told of Marianne, and of how she was now a great comfort.</p> + +<p>"And it is all because of our good Queen," she assured him, and related +how Marianne now adored her instead of Goethe, and of how she had gone +all winter to make lint and to read aloud to her Majesty.</p> + +<p>"And she has now a longing to be useful," said Madame von Stork, her +face brightening. "At first it was to be useful in some high-flown way," +she added.</p> + +<p>At that Franz laughed merrily.</p> + +<p>"That is like Marianne," he said, "exactly, dear mother."</p> + +<p>"She wanted to nurse the soldiers," continued Madame von Stork, "but our +good Queen assured her that she was far too young and that home is the +true place for a German maiden. She told her how she herself had never +interfered in politics, but had been content to be a good wife and +mother.</p> + +<p>"And so," concluded Madame von Stork, "each day she becomes more of a +comfort. God be praised," she added, "that we came to Memel. Our Queen +is an example to all German women."</p> + +<p>"She is an angel," said Franz, who like all the soldiers adored Queen +Louisa.</p> + +<p>The very first day Franz asked about Hans.</p> + +<p>"We had thought him dead," explained his father. "The King had news of +his disappearance and believed him to have been shot as a spy. But when +you were brought home the peasant told me the soldiers had marched him +away with them and I could do nothing."</p> + +<p>"He will probably soon arrive in Memel," said Franz, "now peace is +made."</p> + +<p>"The soldiers about Tilsit knew nothing of him. Why they took him +prisoner I have no idea, but can only wonder," added his father.</p> + +<p>But the days passed, and no Hans came, and the weeks went by and turned +into months.</p> + +<p>Bettina, though, was sure that he would come to her.</p> + +<p>"He promised," she said, "that when peace was made we should go back to +our dear Thuringia."</p> + +<p>She had wept bitterly when Elsa had come out with the news of his death, +but only for a moment.</p> + +<p>"That is my grandfather's writing," she had said, "and so he must be +living."</p> + +<p>And now she still believed in his coming.</p> + +<p>Nothing, however, could make Marianne happy, for the Queen's health +seemed to fail entirely.</p> + +<p>As the summer advanced to autumn, and autumn marched into winter the +winds of Memel grew fiercer and fiercer. With their coming the Queen +lost her colour, her cheerfulness was forced, and she drooped like a +flower.</p> + +<p>One thing alone comforted both her and the King, a letter from the +people of Westphalia, who must now belong to Napoleon.</p> + +<p>Frederick William had bade them farewell, telling them that he felt like +a father separating from his children, that it was only necessity which +made him yield them to their new ruler.</p> + +<p>The Westphalians answered him like children.</p> + +<p>"When we read thy farewell," they wrote, "our hearts were breaking; we +could not believe that we should cease to be thy faithful subjects, we +who have always loved thee so much. As true as we live, it is not thy +fault that after the battle of Jena thy scattered armies were not led to +our country to join with our militia in a fresh combat. We would have +staked our lives and have saved the country, for our warriors have +marrow in their bones and their souls are not yet infested with the +canker.</p> + +<p>"Our wives nourish their children with their own milk, our daughters are +no puppets of fashion, we desire to keep free from the pestilential +spirit of the age. Yet we cannot change the decrees of Providence. +Farewell, then, thou good old King. God grant that the remainder of thy +country may furnish thee with wise ministers and truer generals than +those which have brought affliction on thee. It is not for us to +struggle against our fate, we must with manly fortitude submit to what +we cannot alter. May God be with us and give us a new ruler who will +likewise be the father of the country, may he respect our language, our +manners, our religion, and our municipalities as thou hast done, our +dear, good King. God grant thee peace, health, and happiness."</p> + +<p>Such a letter was a great comfort to the Queen, and though her heart was +very heavy, she occupied herself first in the sale of her jewels, then +she and the King sent all their golden dishes to the mint to be turned +into money. She bought only simple dresses and tried to set all the +people of the Court an example of patience and cheerfulness. She talked +much with good Bishop Eylert and Bishop Borowsky.</p> + +<p>One Sunday the Bishop found her alone in her sitting-room reading her +Bible.</p> + +<p>When he entered she greeted him with a smile and they sat and talked +over the 120th Psalm.</p> + +<p>In a firm, clear voice the Queen repeated aloud all its verses.</p> + +<p>"In thy light," she said, "shall we see light." And then she told the +Bishop how, though her foe had conquered her and taken away her kingdom, +she firmly believed that God would send His light and show to all the +reasons of the wars of Napoleon.</p> + +<p>"I think," she said, "it is wise to study a portion of Scripture each +day, really study it." The King, coming in, agreed.</p> + +<p>Then the Bishop suggested that each should choose a book.</p> + +<p>"I," said the Queen, "choose Psalms."</p> + +<p>"And I," said the King, "select the book of Daniel, because it teaches +that kingdoms do not rise and fall by chance. God's ways may often seem +to us dark and mysterious, but we may feel assured that they are always +holy, wise, and salutary. By His wisdom and mercy this world is so +ordered that evil works out its own destruction, and good,—that is, all +that agrees with the will of God,—must avail at last."</p> + +<p>When Marianne heard of this study of the Queen, she, too, selected a +book, and decided upon Psalms because the Queen had selected it for her +study.</p> + +<p>Now and then, however, pleasant things happened.</p> + +<p>The house where the King and Queen lived was so small that there was no +room for the children. Therefore Prince Frederick and Prince William +lived in the house of a wealthy merchant named Argelander.</p> + +<p>"To-day," said the Queen one morning, "is Frau Argelander's birthday. We +hear that for fear of disturbing the Princes she has gone to the country +to have her feast with her friends. Come, then, let us decorate her +house and send a message for her to come and enjoy it."</p> + +<p>Everyone was delighted to see the Queen again lively. Marianne ran to +the Stork's Nest and sent all the children for evergreens, the ladies +hurried to the shops and purchased little gifts, and the great work +began.</p> + +<p>A servant flew about Memel with invitations, and by late afternoon all +was ready and a messenger departed to fetch Frau Argelander.</p> + +<p>"My goodness, oh, Heaven!" cried the ladies when he returned with the +message that Frau Argelander begged to be excused, as she was enjoying +her feast with her friends, and did not need in the least her house, +which the Princes were free to use as they would.</p> + +<p>Nobody knew what to do, but the Queen arranged a plan.</p> + +<p>"You go, Fritz," she said to the Crown Prince, "take the carriage and +fetch Frau Argelander."</p> + +<p>And this time the lady appeared with many apologies to find lights +streaming from her windows, decorations everywhere, garlands wreathing +the doors, and presents spread on a table. Beneath the chandelier in the +Saal stood the Queen, lovely in white, a Prince on each side, Charlotte +and Carl and Alexandrina grouped about all holding bouquets in their +hands to present to the lady who had been so kind to them in their +trouble.</p> + +<p>"Dear Frau Argelander, dear Birthday Child!" cried the Queen, and +slipped on the lady's plump arm a bracelet containing the hair of the +two Princes.</p> + +<p>Then did the Queen begin the festivities, part of the fun being the +reading of a poem on each present, written at the command of the Queen +by a Memel poet.</p> + +<p>Marianne was standing near the table on which were the presents when +Franz, who was well, now turned towards her smiling.</p> + +<p>"Mariechen," he said in German, for after a talk or two with Ludwig +Brandt he no longer spoke the fashionable French, but always his own +language, "do you remember what Schlegel wrote about our Queen?"</p> + +<p>Marianne shook her head.</p> + +<p>"I have never heard it."</p> + +<p>Franz, in low tones, repeated the words:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"She would be a Queen if she lived in a cottage,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Queen of every heart."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Marianne's eyes danced.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Franz," she cried, "oh, brother, how, how lovely!"</p> + +<p>"And it is true," said Franz, gazing about the room, his eye resting on +the handsome old Countess, looking bored because of her love of her own +Saal in the evening, yet brightening if the Queen so much as looked at +her, at the Princes and Princesses hanging on their mother's words, at +the young poet, happy ever in the honour done his verses, at Frau +Argelander, at the people of Memel.</p> + +<p>"Ja, ja," he said, "the Angel of Prussia, the Queen of Every Heart!"</p> + +<p>But there was one person who was determined not to let the Queen of +Prussia be happy.</p> + +<p>"Pay your war debt. Pay me what you owe," Napoleon kept crying.</p> + +<p>The King of Prussia, who had no money, begged for time, and he would pay +everything.</p> + +<p>"Pay me, and at once," insisted Napoleon.</p> + +<p>What was the King to do? He had no money.</p> + +<p>Then his brother, Prince William, had an idea.</p> + +<p>"There is no gold," he said, "how can we pay? I will go to Paris and +entreat Napoleon to have mercy."</p> + +<p>He said this in public, but his real plan, told only to his wife, was to +offer himself as a hostage until Prussia could pay her debt.</p> + +<p>"I will join you," said the Princess Marianne. "Our little Amelia died +in our flight from Dantzic and I can be as happy with you in a prison as +in a palace."</p> + +<p>So the Prince departed, and the King and Queen waited.</p> + +<p>The great scientist, Alexander von Humboldt, prepared Napoleon for his +coming and he was received with both politeness and kindness.</p> + +<p>At once, with glowing face, he offered himself as a hostage for his +country.</p> + +<p>Napoleon embraced him.</p> + +<p>"That is very noble," he said, "but impossible." For he wanted money, +not Princes.</p> + +<p>When the news of this act spread through Germany it fired the people +like a draught of strong wine.</p> + +<p>"We will rise!" they cried. "Our Prince has set us an example! We will +throw off the yoke of the oppressor!"</p> + +<p>And so, in the darkest hour of the Fatherland, patriotism began to blaze +brightly.</p> + +<p>The French having evacuated Königsberg, the Queen longed to leave Memel, +whose winds had never agreed with her.</p> + +<p>"Do, Majesty," urged Baron Stein, advising the King, "it is more +dignified that you hold Court in a large city like Königsberg."</p> + +<p>While all this was being discussed, to the surprise of the von Storks, +the Queen sent one day for Bettina.</p> + +<p>"What can she want?" and Madame von Stork made Bettina ready, brushing +her hair, putting on a blue dress Pauline had made her, and seeing that +the elastics of her slippers were in exact order.</p> + +<p>Bettina went alone, the Queen requiring it, and with eyes eager, her +bright smile on her lips, the little girl appeared before her.</p> + +<p>"Dear child," said the Queen, "I have sent for you because I have some +news to tell you."</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus4" id="illus4"></a> +<img src="images/illus4.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<h3>"<i>I have some news to tell you</i>"</h3> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>Then she explained that she feared Bettina's grandfather might not +return to Memel, that Professor von Stork had many to care for, and that +she, the Queen, meant in the future to provide for Bettina.</p> + +<p>"My dear people of Berlin," she told her, "have founded a home for +orphans in my honour. The Luisenstift, they will call it. Now, dear +Bettina, I am to name and support four of these children and I have +selected you as one of them."</p> + +<p>Poor Bettina! Her little heart sank. Must she leave the Stork's Nest, +must she go among strangers?</p> + +<p>The Queen understood.</p> + +<p>"You cannot, dear child," she said like a mother, "always live with the +good Professor. Go happily, dear child, to this Home. It will help the +good Professor to have you cared for. You may visit them in your +holidays, and, if you are a good girl and study well, one day you may +come and live at Court and be a maid to Princess Charlotte, or my little +Alexandrina. Would you not like that?" And the Queen smiled +enchantingly.</p> + +<p>Bettina's eyes glowed.</p> + +<p>To be always near her Majesty! What happiness!</p> + +<p>"But go now," said the Queen, "and tell the Herr Professor that I will +talk this over with him before he moves his family to Königsberg, and +after Christmas I shall send you to Berlin, to the Luisenstift. Until +then, be happy!"</p> + +<p>"My grandfather will come," thought Bettina; "the Queen is good, but we +will go to Thuringia and I shall see Hans and the baby, my godmother and +Willy."</p> + +<p>And she believed this so firmly that she hardly worried over the Orphan +Asylum.</p> + +<p>But the Professor was relieved. Money was scarce. He had many children, +and he thanked the Queen over and over for her goodness.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2> + +<h3>DAYS OF DARKNESS</h3> + + +<p>All the Storks, grown and children, liked their new Nest in Königsberg.</p> + +<p>It was a city, and there was more to amuse one than in Memel. But life +still had its troubles both for them, for the Queen, and for Prussia.</p> + +<p>One day Marianne was standing with the children on the bridge of +Kantstrasse. They were looking down at the Fish Market and laughing at +the fish women from the Baltic as they sold their fish. There were Dutch +vessels in the Pregel, and queer sailors, and Marianne told the twins to +look at the queer signs hanging on the houses on the bank. "When the +Poles were here," she explained, "each man painted the sign of his trade +and swung it from his house. See, that was a shoemaker, there was a +tailor."</p> + +<p>While they talked, people were passing along Kantstrasse by the dozens, +professors going to and fro, town people, soldiers, sailors or fishers +from the Baltic.</p> + +<p>Presently along came Franz.</p> + +<p>When he saw the little group he smiled and joined them.</p> + +<p>While they watched the scene he told them a dreadful story of Napoleon, +of something which had helped bring on the war.</p> + +<p>"It roused all Prussia," he said.</p> + +<p>It was the story of the bookseller, Palm of Nuremberg.</p> + +<p>In that quaint old town where they make the toys of the world, where the +famous Albrecht Dürer once lived and drew and painted, had lived a +certain honest young man named Palm, and his young wife, Anna. He was a +bookseller, and respected by everybody.</p> + +<p>One day he received a package of books by mail which he was to sell in +his shop. The name of the book was "Germany in Her Deepest Degradation," +but it was anonymous.</p> + +<p>Herr Bookseller Palm placed the books in his shop as requested.</p> + +<p>A little later he was arrested by order of Napoleon and threatened with +death unless he revealed the name of the author.</p> + +<p>Palm had one answer. The books had been sent him without a name, and +that was all he knew.</p> + +<p>There was much more, but Franz first told how Palm, who had hidden, was +arrested by a trick. A man pretended to be in great trouble from which +only Palm could save him. The kind bookseller came forward to see the +messenger, was seized, dragged off, and shot without proper trial, +though the women of the town appeared before the judges clamouring for +mercy, and his poor young wife implored his life from Napoleon's +officers. Only a good Roman Catholic priest supported him to the end, +although Palm was a Lutheran. "Shot down like a dog!" cried Franz hotly.</p> + +<p>Marianne's tears fell when she heard of the suffering of the wife, of +Palm's goodness, his belief in God, and his bravery in refusing to give +the name of the author.</p> + +<p>"How I hate Napoleon!" cried Marianne. "Oh, if I were a man and able to +fight him!"</p> + +<p>Those were stormy days in Königsberg.</p> + +<p>The Stork's Nest was thronged with students and professors, all full of +talk and bitter against Napoleon.</p> + +<p>Ludwig stayed there always now, and he was prime mover in a great plan +among the students, and so when Pauline was betrothed to him many +professors and students came with congratulations.</p> + +<p>"I shall never marry," said Marianne, quite positively.</p> + +<p>Everybody laughed, but she was herself very serious.</p> + +<p>"My heart is with my country," she said.</p> + +<p>In the evenings all the family gathered again about the big table, but +instead of reading they listened now to talking.</p> + +<p>"Stein will save our land," said Ludwig one evening. "God be praised! +The King no longer opposes him, but is guided by his counsel."</p> + +<p>"But will Napoleon permit him to remain?" The Professor looked anxious.</p> + +<p>Ludwig shrugged his shoulders.</p> + +<p>"At all events," he said, "our King's conduct is noble. He had given up +everything, plate, wealth, all he has, to help with this debt to +Napoleon. The future is God's, not ours."</p> + +<p>As for the Queen, all Prussia sang praise of her nobility in going to +Tilsit.</p> + +<p>Marianne had been once to Memel on a visit to her uncle Joachim, who was +happy now with Rudolph at home again, and had been to Court and had seen +Queen Louisa before she herself moved to Königsberg.</p> + +<p>She had been reading a wonderful book called "Leonard and Gertrude."</p> + +<p>"I wish," she told Marianne, "that I could get into a carriage and start +off to Switzerland and find the author."</p> + +<p>His name was Pestalozzi, and he was full of new ideas of how to educate +children.</p> + +<p>But what pleased Marianne was the news that the Queen was soon to come +to Königsberg.</p> + +<p>"But our dear Queen is not well," said the old Countess to Marianne. +"Since her visit to that monster she lies awake at night and weeps and +often suffers a pain in her heart, though in public she smiles and is +always an angel."</p> + +<p>"Down with Napoleon!" called out the parrot. "Upstart! Villain! Monster! +Down with the Emperor!"</p> + +<p>The old Countess gave him a cracker.</p> + +<p>"Pretty Polly," she said. "But now be quiet."</p> + +<p>"Upstart! Villain!" repeated Polly.</p> + +<p>Then the Countess complained to Marianne of all the noise of the Royal +children and of the conduct of the Maids of Honour.</p> + +<p>"One night when our dear Queen was ill the noise was dreadful. It woke +her from a doze and I went out to see who was making it. And what did I +find?"</p> + +<p>The old lady shook with offended dignity.</p> + +<p>"Why, the Maids of Honour, my child, flirting and laughing with the +generals! I spoke to the King, but, my dear Marianne, what good can it +do? Etiquette has gone entirely out of fashion! The Maids of Honour will +have their ways, will laugh, talk, and behave in a way most unseemly. +But never mind, we shall soon come to Königsberg."</p> + +<p>It was deep winter when the royal family arrived. The people of Memel +were sad, indeed, to see them depart, and the King wrote them a letter.</p> + +<p>"I thank my brave citizens of Memel for their true and steadfast +attachment to my person, my wife, and my whole house. Memel is the only +town in my dominions which has escaped the worse calamities of the war, +but it has proved itself capable of enduring them and ready, if called +on, to resist the enemy. I shall never forget that Divine Providence +preserved to us an asylum in this town and that its people evinced the +warmest and most constant attachment to us."</p> + +<p>The people of Königsberg on their part were delighted. Immediately they +elected the Crown Prince rector of their famous University.</p> + +<p>"On the sixth of March," they said, "we will confer this honour on him, +give a grand fête, and have a torch-light procession."</p> + +<p>The Crown Prince, who was thirteen now, thought this very fine, and for +a few days walked about with dignity, but then he grew tired of such +stiffness and joined Prince William and his friend Rudolph von +Auerswald, Carl von Stork, and little Prince Carl, in their battles +against the mice and rats in the old castle.</p> + +<p>On February the first all the bells of this old city of the King rang +out most joyfully.</p> + +<p>"We have a new little sister," the Royal children told Rudolph and Carl.</p> + +<p>"Her name," said the King, "shall be Louisa, for her mother."</p> + +<p>"It is because I love thee so dearly," he said to the Queen, "that I +have named our youngest little daughter, Louisa."</p> + +<p>Tears started to the Queen's eyes.</p> + +<p>"May she, dear Fritz, indeed grow up to be thy Louisa."</p> + +<p>"I am weary," the King said, "of lords and ladies. It is the people of +Prussia who have been my friends and helped me. Therefore, it is they +who shall be sponsors at the baptism of my daughter."</p> + +<p>So there came men to represent every class of the Prussian people, and +they sat down to as fine a feast as the King's pocketbook would permit +him to give them.</p> + +<p>The Queen, who was not well, lay on a sofa and received all the +godfathers of the tiny Louisa, and the baptism took place there, and not +in the church, because of the cold weather.</p> + +<p>The Countess von Voss brought the baby to the Princess William and gave +it its name of Louisa Augusta Wilhelmina Amelia for its mother.</p> + +<p>The court ladies all wore round skirts and tunics, and the Queen gave +the old Countess a handsome set of ornaments, but they all wept bitterly +for the little girl whose blue eyes had opened on so cold and cruel a +world as Napoleon and winter had made East Prussia.</p> + +<p>When all sat at the banquet one of the godfathers arose and addressed +the tiny Louisa, whose blue eyes stared at him in wonder.</p> + +<p>"Louisa Wilhelmina," he said, "god-child of the people, thou art a +gentle mediator between the King and us. Mayst thou live to stand a +full-grown blooming virgin amongst thy brothers and sisters; may then +thy royal house be flourishing in renewed glory. Meanwhile, dark hours +will pass like storm-birds over thy head—thou wilt hear the rushing of +their wings, but it will not frighten thee. Thou, sweet one, wilt smile, +feeling nothing but thy childish happiness and the charm of life. Loving +arms will hold thee safely, high above the precipice on the edge of +which we stand. May the future smile on us through thee. In thee we see +thy father's love to us, and by thy bright eyes may the people speak +comfort to the King, saying, 'We are thine, thou art our lord and +master: be strong and true to thyself. Trust not in thy councillors and +thy servants, for they are not all full of courage, nor all of one mind. +What they have done and what they have left undone has brought us near +to ruin. Trust thine own judgment, thine own heart, and we will trust in +thee. We are all thine, master, be strong and true to thyself.'"</p> + +<p>But the people of Königsberg had other things to think of than tiny +Louisa.</p> + +<p>All the patriots of Germany came to and fro, among them Schleiermacher, +who had refused to remain in Halle when Napoleon took the city from +Frederick William. He believed that Austria and England would join in +throwing off Napoleon.</p> + +<p>"Now," he said, "while Napoleon is in Spain, let us do what we can."</p> + +<p>For, all over Germany, the French army were still masters, driving +people from their homes, burning villages, doing all that Napoleon +permitted.</p> + +<p>"Now," cried Schleiermacher.</p> + +<p>"Now," cried Ludwig Brandt.</p> + +<p>"Now," cried all the students of the University.</p> + +<p>So in that summer in Königsberg was founded a secret society called the +"Tugendbund," or "League of Virtue," whose purpose was to spread +patriotism throughout Germany. Members sprang up everywhere, agents went +to and fro, and the watchword was "Secresy."</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, Napoleon heard of it.</p> + +<p>"Dismiss Stein," he ordered the King, "he is the founder. He shall not +remain as Prussian Minister."</p> + +<p>Then he put a price on this great man's head, and he was forced to flee +for his life to Prague in Bohemia. He had done his best for his country +and, therefore, Napoleon wished to be rid of him. But it was untrue that +he founded the "Tugendbund."</p> + +<p>"I am heartily tired of life," he wrote, "and wish it would soon come to +an end. To enjoy rest and independence it would be best to settle in +America, in Kentucky, or Tennessee; there one would find a splendid +climate and soil, glorious views, and rest and security for a +century—not to mention a multitude of Germans—the capital of Kentucky +is called Frankfort."</p> + +<p>But the Prussians refused to be conquered.</p> + +<p>"We will outwit Napoleon, who has declared that the Prussian army can +consist only of forty-two thousand soldiers," they cried, and they +drilled soldiers, sending set after set home, always keeping the army at +forty-two thousand, but training every man and boy of Prussia.</p> + +<p>Otto von Stork refused to return home, but while he drilled away with +the rest he sent letters telling of the dreadful times of the Berliners, +how they had no food, how even the once rich lived like beggars, how +there was no wax for candles, and how Napoleon had robbed the city of +all he could lay his hands upon.</p> + +<p>So another unhappy year for Prussia passed away and brought in 1809.</p> + +<p>The Queen's pink cheeks had faded to white, her eyes showed that their +blue had been washed with tears, and about her mouth were lines of +sorrow.</p> + +<p>"If posterity," she wrote, "will not place my name amongst those of +illustrious women, yet those who are acquainted with the troubles of +these times will know what I have gone through and will say, 'She +suffered much and endured with patience,' and I only wish they may be +able to add: 'She gave being to children worthy of better times and who +by their continual struggles have succeeded in attaining them.'"</p> + +<p>Sometimes she talked this way to the Crown Prince and little William, +and their eyes would glow and they would promise that they would do +great things for Prussia.</p> + +<p>When she went through Königsberg streets, in the warm days when the +flowers were in bloom, it was the joy of all the little children to +offer her nosegays. Never did she decline one, and she always had a +smile for everybody.</p> + +<p>One day came news of Otto which startled his father and sent his mother +weeping to bed. Major Shill, a brave Prussian soldier, refused to stop +fighting against Napoleon, and became a great hero of Prussia, though on +the 30th of December, 1808, while the King and Queen were in St. +Petersburg on a visit to the Czar Alexander, the Emperor had withdrawn +his soldiers from Prussia, and the Brandenburg Hussars and a cavalry +regiment under this Major Shill entered Berlin.</p> + +<p>When Napoleon began again to fight the Austrians Major Shill departed +from Berlin against the French without a declaration of war, angering +the King, but attracting a thousand to his banner.</p> + +<p>Among them was Otto von Stork.</p> + +<p>"Do not grieve, my dear parents," he wrote; "never shall I lay down my +arms until Napoleon is defeated."</p> + +<p>But what were a thousand men?</p> + +<p>The end came quickly.</p> + +<p>Ludwig brought the news to the Professor.</p> + +<p>"Shill is killed," he said; "shot while fighting in the streets of +Stralsund. Twelve of his officers have been taken and shot by the +French, the others sent to the galleys."</p> + +<p>"Otto! Otto!" cried poor Madame von Stork; "Richard, Ludwig, where is my +Otto?"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2> + +<h3>THE ENTRANCE INTO BERLIN</h3> + + +<p>The years marched on to another Christmas.</p> + +<p>Much had happened.</p> + +<p>Napoleon was still triumphant, for, conquering the Austrians, he had +entered Vienna as victor.</p> + +<p>"All is lost," Queen Louisa wrote, "if not forever, at least for the +present."</p> + +<p>As for Otto von Stork, he was not killed, but continued fighting where +he could find soldiers.</p> + +<p>"All Europe must rise," he wrote his father; "the brave Andreas Hofer is +rousing the Tyrolese, and, oh, dear father, have you heard of the brave +deed of Haydn in Vienna?"</p> + +<p>"Haydn?" interrupted Marianne, and then with a smile she began singing +"With Verdure Clad," from the musician's "Creation." Of course they all +had heard of Haydn. Certainly the old man was a hero.</p> + +<p>When he heard the cannon and knew that Napoleon was entering his Vienna, +he went to a window and opened the sash.</p> + +<p>"Sing!" he cried to the people in the streets, "sing, good people."</p> + +<p>And then the old white-haired musician lifted his voice and sang his own +hymn.</p> + +<p>"God save our Emperor Franz!" rang through the streets, all the people +joining. And when Napoleon entered they were singing at the tops of +their voices. But the excitement was too much for Haydn. He died two +days later.</p> + +<p>Then Otto was off to fight in the Tyrol.</p> + +<p>"He will break my heart," wept his mother, but the Herr Lieutenant's +eyes flashed.</p> + +<p>"If my arm——" he began, but his mother cried out so that he never +finished his sentence.</p> + +<p>Napoleon, in these days of gloom, divorced his wife, married the +Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria, and a son was born to them, the +little King of Rome, they called him.</p> + +<p>The Czar had been again with Napoleon and there had been a famous +meeting at Erfurt, and they had divided the world between them, and then +Alexander had paid his friends a visit at Memel and had been shocked at +the appearance of the Queen.</p> + +<p>"Come," he said, "to St. Petersburg and see the wonders of my capital. +It will do the Queen good."</p> + +<p>And so they went on a splendid journey and met all the Royal family of +Russia and received honour and rich presents.</p> + +<p>But Queen Louisa cared no more for such things as fine clothes, crowns, +banquets and jewels.</p> + +<p>To her friend, Frau von Berg, she wrote:</p> + +<p>"I am come back from St. Petersburg as I went. Nothing dazzles me now. +Yes, I feel it more and more, my kingdom is not of this world. I have +danced, dear friend," she said, "I have been agreeable to the whole +world, but God Almighty have mercy upon me." So much did she feel the +sorrows of her poor kingdom.</p> + +<p>But now the French had left Berlin entirely, and, at Christmas time, the +year 1809, three years after Jena, the King and Queen were returning to +their capital.</p> + +<p>Marianne and her grandmother were standing on Unter den Linden, Ludwig +and Pauline, who was now his wife, not far off. Again there were flags +and garlands, and again the people everywhere.</p> + +<p>"The Berliners have sent our Queen a new carriage lined with her +favourite violet," and Marianne smiled in gladness.</p> + +<p>"Ach, ja," said her grandmother, who now spoke German. "We can do such +things now, but formerly that monster Napoleon would not even permit us +to celebrate her birthday."</p> + +<p>And she told Marianne of the actor, Iffland, who had had courage on +March tenth, her Majesty's birthday, to wear a bouquet of flowers in his +theatre.</p> + +<p>Marianne listened with great interest. She was altogether a changed +girl, and tried always to think of other people.</p> + +<p>"Thanks to our good Queen," her mother always was saying, "God be +praised that Marianne tries now to imitate her, for she is the model for +all German maidens."</p> + +<p>At exactly the same hour that, fifteen years before, as a bride, Louisa +of Mecklenburg had entered Berlin, the Queen appeared in her +violet-lined carriage.</p> + +<p>The Berliners cheered, but at the same moment their eyes filled.</p> + +<p>It was their Queen and as beautiful as ever, some declared even +lovelier, but she seemed like a rose whose stem is no longer erect. Her +cheeks were pale, her eyes were washed with weeping, and about her +mouth, trying so hard to smile as of old, they saw lines of sorrow.</p> + +<p>"How we hate him! How we hate Napoleon!" and the people clenched their +fists when they saw her.</p> + +<p>With her were her niece, Frederika, the Princess Charlotte, now tall and +beautiful, the old Countess, and jolly Carl.</p> + +<p>The young princes were on horseback, the King was with his generals.</p> + +<p>"Long life to our good King! Long live Frederick William!" shouted the +Berliners, but when they saw the Queen and remembered how she had gone +for their sake to Napoleon, her name rang from one side of Berlin to the +other.</p> + +<p>At the palace an old man lifted her from her carriage, folded her in his +arms and led her away from the people.</p> + +<p>"Her father, the old Duke!" cried the Berliners, and they were not +ashamed to weep openly.</p> + +<p>In a few moments Queen Louisa appeared on a balcony.</p> + +<p>The people went frantic with joy, and her cheeks grew pink, and she +tried to smile, and then, the tears flowing from her eyes, prevented +her.</p> + +<p>"It is heartrending," said a stranger to Madame von Bergman, who, +herself, was making use of an embroidered handkerchief. "When, Madame, I +see that poor lady, our Queen, and think of all that she has suffered, +and of our kingdom divided in two, and still ruled by Napoleon, I +cannot restrain my speech."</p> + +<p>"Never mind, Herr Arndt," said Madame von Bergman, "we all feel as you +do."</p> + +<p>The stranger started in alarm.</p> + +<p>"You recognise me? I thought," he said, "that sorrow had so changed me +that no one could know my features."</p> + +<p>"You are safe with me," said the good lady, who knew there was a price +on the head of this patriotic poet. "I am the mother-in-law of Herr +Professor Richard von Stork of the Tugendbund." She lowered her voice as +she said this last word.</p> + +<p>Arndt grasped her hand and then, walking away with her, told how he had +been driven from land to land and torn from his son for the sake of the +little one's safety.</p> + +<p>"When I thrust the child from me," he said, "I could almost have cursed +the French and the Corsican who rules them."</p> + +<p>For a moment he was silent.</p> + +<p>Then he gazed about gay Unter den Linden.</p> + +<p>"But, Madame," his face looked like that of a prophet, "I see to-day in +this splendour, in these loud and continued cheers for the King, a hope +that all hearts may be united in one common German spirit. I see more +eyes wet with sorrow than bright with joy, and who knows what will come +of it for our dear Fatherland?"</p> + +<p>Marianne's eyes sparkled.</p> + +<p>Her one longing was to serve her country. But what could a girl do?</p> + +<p>Her face fell.</p> + +<p>At the corner of Friedrichstrasse and Unter den Linden she came face to +face with Bettina marching homeward with the girls of the "Luisenstift."</p> + +<p>"Come home with us, pray, my child," said old Madame von Bergman very +kindly.</p> + +<p>Permission was given and Bettina joined them. She was now a big girl, +and thirteen.</p> + +<p>"Gracious Fräulein," she said to Marianne, "how happy I am." Then she +laughed her gay little gurgle. "I think, Gracious Fräulein, Frederick +Barbarossa is waking. He is stretching himself, I think. He will rise +soon and drive away Napoleon." Arndt looked at her in surprise and then +nodded.</p> + +<p>In the evening there was a grand illumination.</p> + +<p>The Berliners had pressed the King to appear in the theatre.</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes," he said, "but first we will go to church and thank Almighty +God for his mercy."</p> + +<p>To celebrate his return he freed many prisoners, gave money to the poor, +and remembered to thank all who had been loyal.</p> + +<p>On their part, the Berliners had the sculptor, Schadow, make a statue of +the Queen and place it on an island in the Tiergarten.</p> + +<p>The King also founded an Order of Merit, and with grand ceremony +bestowed it upon many, among them the actor, Iffland, and the old +clergyman who had answered Napoleon.</p> + +<p>But, in spite of all this, Prussia had no money.</p> + +<p>"But our King does all he can," said Ludwig to Madame von Bergman one +evening when he and Pauline came to supper.</p> + +<p>"Yes," put in Franz, who was then in Berlin, "he has ordered the Royal +table to be laid with four dishes only at dinner, and at supper with +two."</p> + +<p>"And I heard," said Pauline, looking up from her embroidery, "that when +a servant asked how much champagne to order, the King said none should +be purchased until all his subjects could drink beer again."</p> + +<p>Madame von Bergman shook her head sadly.</p> + +<p>"No hope of that. Look at this coffee," and she poured out a cupful from +the pot on the tray the maid had brought in for the visitors.</p> + +<p>"Oak bark, carrots, and beans burned together, that is our coffee, +thanks to Napoleon."</p> + +<p>While they were talking, in came a visitor.</p> + +<p>"Napoleon has shot Andreas Hofer," he announced, "at Mantua!"</p> + +<p>The two men started from their seats.</p> + +<p>"Impossible!" they cried out, but alas, next day they learned the truth +of it. This brave innkeeper of Innsbruck, who had fought so bravely to +free his people, had been betrayed by a friend to Napoleon and shot in +Mantua, over the mountains.</p> + +<p>The Queen wept tears of sorrow when she heard of this sad tragedy.</p> + +<p>"What a man," she had written, "is this Andreas Hofer, the leader of the +Tyrolese. A peasant has become a captain, and what a captain! His +weapon, prayer, and his ally, God. Oh, that the time of the Maid of +Orleans might return that the enemy might be driven from the land!"</p> + +<p>It was about this time that Napoleon permitted Minister Hardenburg to +return to his duties. At once affairs began to prosper.</p> + +<p>"And the Queen," Marianne wrote to her mother, "is to take a journey. +She is to go with the King and her children to all the places where she +had lived as Crown Princess, to Paretz, to Oranienburg, and Peacock +Island."</p> + +<p>At Paretz the Queen walked up and down the avenues with her husband. +Suddenly she turned to him very solemnly and said:</p> + +<p>"Fritz, you have made me very happy, you and our children."</p> + +<p>But Napoleon had no mind to add to her happiness.</p> + +<p>"Pay your war debt!" he kept crying.</p> + +<p>"We have no money," said the poor Prussians.</p> + +<p>"Then I rule you until you do," was Napoleon's unchanging answer.</p> + +<p>"And the wretch," said Madame von Stork, "has ordered our King to assist +a huge Russian force through Prussia."</p> + +<p>"And I heard," said Pauline, "that when the King heard the news he bowed +his head and said that of all men he was most unlucky."</p> + +<p>"But our Queen," put in Marianne, who was working at tent stitch, "is to +have a great pleasure."</p> + +<p>The two ladies gazed at her in curiosity.</p> + +<p>"She is going to visit her father," answered Marianne. "The Countess +told me. She has not been home for many years, and when she told the +King of her great longing, he consented. She is to leave to-morrow."</p> + +<p>Bettina, who was on her way to the "Stork's Nest," saw her depart. +Catching sight of the girl, the Queen smiled a farewell. For some reason +it made Bettina solemn.</p> + +<p>"It was as if she were saying good-bye forever," she told Marianne +later. Marianne laughed merrily.</p> + +<p>"She will be back in a few days. What nonsense!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV</h2> + +<h3>"MY QUEEN, MY POOR QUEEN!"</h3> + + +<p>On the night of July 18 a travelling carriage dashed towards +Fürstenburg, the first town within the Duke of Mecklenburg's dominions, +the driver urging its horses to their utmost.</p> + +<p>Within sat the King, pale and thin from a severe attack of malaria. With +him were the Crown Prince and Prince William, the faces of the boys wet +with tears, their eyes struggling with weariness.</p> + +<p>On dashed the horses.</p> + +<p>"Faster! Faster!" now and then ordered the King, clenching his hands.</p> + +<p>Presently a rosy light heralded the day, the clarion of the cocks +announced the morning, the stars faded from the brightening sky, and the +carriage dashed through Fürstenburg.</p> + +<p>Two hours more. The King looked at his watch and cried:</p> + +<p>"Faster! Faster!"</p> + +<p>The people of the town, startled by the wheels, wondered who was passing +in such haste. Later came a second carriage, a girl's white, tearful +face gazing from one window, a round, rosy-cheeked boy against her +shoulder.</p> + +<p>It was the King, the Crown Prince and Prince William, and Princess +Charlotte and Prince Carl hastening to Queen Louisa.</p> + +<p>After she had reached Mecklenburg the King had joined her.</p> + +<p>Never had he seen her look happier.</p> + +<p>Like a girl, she told him of how she had been met at Fürstenburg by her +sister, Frederika, her father and her brothers. Her grandmother, being +old, welcomed her at the door of the Duke's palace, and for the first +time in many years she found herself alone with her own people.</p> + +<p>When the King came they were given a public reception.</p> + +<p>"But only one, let it be, dear father," begged Queen Louisa. "I feel +that this happiness cannot last. Something oppresses me, so please let +us make the most of seeing each other in quiet."</p> + +<p>When she dressed herself for this one reception, her ladies noticed that +she had only pearls for jewels.</p> + +<p>"I have sold the rest," she said with a smile, "but, never mind, pearls +are suitable for me, for they signify tears, and I have shed many. +Moreover," and she took out a miniature worn about her neck, "I have my +best treasure."</p> + +<p>It was a picture of the King, and the Queen gazed at it lovingly.</p> + +<p>"After all these years, my good Fritz loves me quite the same," she +said, and looked as happy as a girl.</p> + +<p>"Come, Fritz," she cried to her husband, and led him about, showing him +this and that and telling stories of her childhood. Never had she seemed +so happy.</p> + +<p>One morning they were to go to see a chapel the King had expressed an +interest in.</p> + +<p>"I will stay with George," said the Queen, who complained of not feeling +well, and so they left her with her brother.</p> + +<p>When her father returned he found on his writing desk a note written in +French, by his daughter, the Queen.</p> + +<blockquote><p>"My dear father," he read, "I am very happy to-day as your +daughter and as the wife of the best of husbands.</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Louisa.</span></p> + +<p>"New Strelitz, July 28, 1810."</p></blockquote> + +<p>At once he showed it, to the King, and the two men were silent with +happiness. But little did they think that never again was the woman who +so loved them to touch paper or pen.</p> + +<p>She had not been well, but nothing had been thought of it. And now, in +the early summer morning, the King was hastening to her.</p> + +<p>"Faster!" he called. "Faster!"</p> + +<p>She had told him good-bye with a smile and the hope of soon seeing him, +and he had returned to Berlin.</p> + +<p>There had come despatch after despatch.</p> + +<p>"The Queen is ill. She grows worse. Come! Come!"</p> + +<p>But this poor, always unfortunate King was himself severely ill with a +sudden attack of malaria. For days he could not leave his bed, and it +was not until the twenty-eighth that he set off for New Strelitz. And +then the Queen was so ill there was no delaying.</p> + +<p>It was between four and five in the morning when the carriage reached +the castle.</p> + +<p>The Queen, who lay awake in her room, heard them come. At midnight she +had grown worse, at two she had called out to her sister, who at once +went to her bed.</p> + +<p>"Dear Frederika," she asked in a voice like a whisper, "what will my +husband and children do if I die?"</p> + +<p>But now the King had come.</p> + +<p>In the hall he met the physicians. They explained that an abscess had +formed and burst in one lung. The heart was involved and the Queen was +sinking.</p> + +<p>"Majesty," they said, "there is no hope."</p> + +<p>The Queen's old grandmother, her withered cheeks wet with tears, took +the King's hand in both of hers.</p> + +<p>"While there is life there is hope," she said, her old voice struggling +to comfort him.</p> + +<p>Unlucky Frederick William shook his head.</p> + +<p>"If she were not mine," he said, "she might recover."</p> + +<p>The old Duke joined him. In the night they had called him from his +sleep.</p> + +<p>The Princess Frederika was at the door.</p> + +<p>"Is my daughter in danger?" he asked.</p> + +<p>She pressed his hand.</p> + +<p>"Lord," said the poor old father, "Thy ways are not our ways."</p> + +<p>With trembling hands he now led the King to the room.</p> + +<p>Propped up on pillows, the bed curtains looped back to give her air, lay +poor Queen Louisa.</p> + +<p>On one side was the old Countess von Voss, Frau von Berg held one hand, +and Princess Frederika the other.</p> + +<p>The poor "Rose of the King," whose stem had been so roughly handled, had +drooped forever.</p> + +<p>When the physicians had entreated her to move that she might be more +comfortable, it was impossible for her strength to accomplish it.</p> + +<p>"I am a Queen," she said sadly, "and I have no power to move my arm."</p> + +<p>But when she saw the King, joy made her like the old Louisa.</p> + +<p>The King embraced her as if he would never again see her.</p> + +<p>"Am I then so ill?" she asked.</p> + +<p>The King went from the room.</p> + +<p>The poor Queen gazed from one face to the other, and the strength again +left her.</p> + +<p>"The King seems as if he wished to take leave of me," she gasped. "Tell +him not to do so, or I shall die directly."</p> + +<p>At once he returned and sat on her bed and the minutes wore away, the +arms of the old Countess supporting her dear Queen Louisa.</p> + +<p>"Where are my children, Fritz?"</p> + +<p>The Crown Prince and William came, hand in hand, to her bed.</p> + +<p>"My Fritz! My William!" she said, and gave them each a smile. Then she +struggled to ask about Charlotte, who had sent her a letter about her +birthday full of tears that her mother was absent.</p> + +<p>The effort brought on such pain that they sent the boys away.</p> + +<p>They went from the castle and out into the garden where the air was +fresh and cool and the dew lay on the roses.</p> + +<p>In the room the doctors were begging the Queen to stretch her arms that +she might lie higher.</p> + +<p>"I cannot," said the poor Queen. "Only death will help me."</p> + +<p>Holding her hand, the King sat on the bed, the old Countess knelt, and +Frau von Berg supported her head.</p> + +<p>All through her illness she had repeated over and over the texts which +she loved and found comfort in, but now her lips could only flutter as +the breath came slower and slower.</p> + +<p>The poor King, with bowed head, was thinking of Jena and all his Queen +had suffered.</p> + +<p>Suddenly the Queen drew her head against the breast of Frau von Berg. +Her blue eyes opened and gazed towards heaven.</p> + +<p>"I am dying," she said quite distinctly, "Lord Jesus, make it short."</p> + +<p>In a few minutes the Queen of Prussia had passed beyond the power of +Napoleon to harm.</p> + +<p>"The ways of the Lord," wrote the old Countess, "are implacable and +holy, but they are dreadful to travel. The King, the children, the city +have lost all in the world. I speak not for myself, but my sorrow is +great. My Queen! Oh, my poor Queen!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV</h2> + +<h3>AFTERWARDS</h3> + + +<p>When his first grief was stilled, the King went to Fritz and Willy in +the garden. Plucking a branch on which grew three roses, he returned +with the little princes to the Queen. The three kissed her, and the King +laid the roses in her hand as the second carriage dashed up to the +palace.</p> + +<p>Charlotte and Carl had come too late. Their mother had been dead a half +hour. The old Countess was all they had now, and she hushed her sobs to +comfort the King and her Queen's poor children, but, poor old lady, her +heart was broken at eighty and she lived only a few years more.</p> + +<p>The doctors who examined the body of Queen Louisa after death declared +that a polypus, formed by grief and worry, had grown on her heart and +killed her, but the people of Prussia would have none of this.</p> + +<p>"A polypus, nein," they said. "It is Napoleon who has done this. We will +rise. We will drive the tyrant from our land, for he has killed the best +friend of Prussia."</p> + +<p>"The ravens, Bettina," said the Herr Lieutenant, "will fly now from +Kyffhäuser. Wait, old Barbarossa will wake now and save us."</p> + +<p>But the peasants had another hero.</p> + +<p>"Shill is not dead!" they cried. "The brave Shill is not dead. He, too, +loved our Queen. He is in hiding and will lead us against Napoleon."</p> + +<p>"It is as if we had lost a member of our own family," wept Madame von +Stork, as she tried to comfort poor Marianne.</p> + +<p>When they brought the Queen's body to Berlin and it lay in state, +Bettina went, with the girls of the "Luisenstift" to look for the last +time on the face of the Queen who had cared for her. The Berliners who +gazed also, thought their own thoughts, made up their minds, and went +home to await the funeral, which took place on the thirtieth, the Royal +children with their father following the coffin, a nurse bearing in her +arms the new baby, little Albrecht.</p> + +<p>"After Jena," said the Berliners, "we thought we had lost all, but then +we had our Queen."</p> + +<p>Not even the Queen's death, however, moved Napoleon, who, having Prussia +under his thumb, meant to keep her there. Realising this, many patriotic +Germans, refusing to accept French rule, departed to St. Petersburg. +Among them was Baron von Stein, for the Czar, who was beginning to tire +of his friend Napoleon, invited him to be his counsellor. After his +departure Professor von Stork received a letter from Otto.</p> + +<p>"Napoleon rules Prussia," he wrote. "If I return home I must fight as he +orders, for we fear a war with Russia. In St. Petersburg Baron von Stein +is forming a German legion of deserters from Prussia. I shall join it. +Never will I fight under the banners of France. Arndt is in St. +Petersburg, also, and will be Stein's secretary. Between them and with +Hardenburg as Minister, Prussia may yet be saved. Until then, Auf +wiedersehen."</p> + +<p>On the very day that this letter arrived, Berlin was startled by the +news that Napoleon with his soldiers was to march against Alexander.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI</h2> + +<h3>THE CHECK</h3> + + +<p>East Prussia again was frozen. The snow lay deep on the ground and the +ice rattled on the tree limbs as it had done in that year when Bettina +and Hans met the Queen on her flight to Memel. Never, the East Prussians +declared, had they known a winter so terrible. In the towns the women, +in their wadded cloaks, went still and sad, and the men, in the +high-runner sleighs with the breath frozen on their beards, talked in +mournful sentences, for they knew that the frozen Vistula held fast +beneath its icy crust a secret which, when spring should reveal it, +would turn them sick with horror and make fiercer than ever their hatred +of Napoleon.</p> + +<p>Not that they did not hate him enough already. The Tugendbund had +carried the news of the poor Queen's suffering into every hamlet of +Prussia. Napoleon had killed her, the people cried out, and in secret +they were making ready to fight him. Never, they believed, had a country +been more cruelly treated. Villages had been destroyed, towns burned, +innocent men shot or mistreated. In the free city of Hamburg hundreds of +sick had been driven by Davoust from the hospitals, orphans expelled +from their asylums. Twenty thousand Hamburgers, ordered from the city, +shivering in the icy coldness, watched the French burn their country +houses, the flames blazing up against a winter sky and lighting a +blackened and desolate country. Near Dresden women were ordered out from +their homes and children, and with wheelbarrows, were compelled to bring +in the dead and the dying, while Napoleon enjoyed himself in the +theatre.</p> + +<p>The check, however, had come in that icy winter of 1812-13.</p> + +<p>Along the road from Russia, limping on frozen feet bound with straw, or +marking with blood the snow, came French and Prussian soldiers, dropping +here, dying there, sinking on land or into the Vistula. Five hundred +thousand French and the Germans forced to assist Napoleon in this war +against Russia, had marched with flying banners against Moscow. Instead +of Russians, flames met them, and now twenty thousand, for the others +had perished in the snow, or were frozen in the Vistula, were limping +back to Prussia. The horses had fallen like leaves before the icy blasts +of the Baltic, and their bodies marked the line of Napoleon's retreat +from Moscow. On they struggled, swords gone, their feet like clods, +their glory vanished. Half starved, there was nothing for them to eat, +for in Napoleon's own war against Prussia they had burned her +farmhouses, destroyed her crops and killed her farmers. They had sown +destruction and now were reaping famine.</p> + +<p>"But God be praised," cried Otto von Stork, sitting at the campfire of +the German legion, "Napoleon is beaten."</p> + +<p>"Ja wohl," cried his companions, flushed with their pursuit of the +flying. Then Otto lifted his voice and started a hymn Arndt had written +for German soldiers:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"What is the German's Fatherland?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oh name at length this mighty land,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As wide as sounds the German tongue,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And German hymns to God are sung,<br /></span> +<span class="i8">That is the land;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That, German, name thy Fatherland!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To us this glorious land is given;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oh Lord of Hosts look down from Heaven,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And grant us Germans loyalty<br /></span> +<span class="i4">To love our country faithfully;<br /></span> +<span class="i8">To love our land,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Our undivided Fatherland!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And, as they sang, Otto remembered Friedland and his brother, Wolfgang. +He remembered Queen Louisa and how she had often smiled at him in Memel, +he remembered his beloved hero, Shill, and brave Andreas Hofer. Suddenly +he interrupted his song with a laugh.</p> + +<p>"Bettina was right," he thought. "Poor little maiden! Old Barbarossa has +waked up and his sword is the spirit of the German people."</p> + +<p>And when war was over, one day he appeared in Königsberg, a great, +handsome soldier.</p> + +<p>"Ach Himmel!" said his mother, "but I am glad to see my boy again." But +Otto had talk only for the future of Germany.</p> + +<p>His father nodded when he declared that good fortune would come again to +Prussia. And then he told how, all over Prussia, and in the smaller +states, the people were refusing to speak French, wear French clothes, +or be anything but good Germans.</p> + +<p>"God be praised!" he ended piously.</p> + +<p>"Where is Bettina, mother?" asked Otto quite suddenly.</p> + +<p>When he heard of the "Luisenstift" his face fell, for he had intended +teasing her about Frederick Barbarossa.</p> + +<p>"And Hans?"</p> + +<p>"Not a word has ever been heard of him," answered his father sadly.</p> + +<p>"Shot, perhaps," said Otto. "Poor old man!" and he offered his arm to +his mother. Nothing pleased her more than to walk out with her fine +soldier boy. She forgot all the trouble he had caused her and remembered +only that he had returned a hero.</p> + +<p>Carl followed him everywhere, and informed the family that he, too, +would be a soldier.</p> + +<p>"No, no!" cried his mother, shrinking.</p> + +<p>But the professor reproved her.</p> + +<p>"All my sons," he said most solemnly, "I give freely to the Fatherland."</p> + +<p>But Madame von Stork, remembering her Wolfgang, set hard her lips.</p> + +<p>"If there comes a war against Napoleon, I shall go as a nurse. I am old +enough now, am I not, dear father?" and Marianne slipped her arm around +his neck.</p> + +<p>The professor nodded.</p> + +<p>"I agree willingly, dear daughter," and he pressed her hand.</p> + +<p>Goethe was no longer Marianne's hero.</p> + +<p>"He sat in his garden in quiet," she said, "when the cannon roared at +Jena, and never in all our trouble has he raised his voice for Germany. +He is the greatest poet, yes, but not a hero. He saw Napoleon, he +admired him, and says he has sympathy with him because of his great +dream of uniting Europe. I cannot forgive it."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII</h2> + +<h3>THE PEOPLE'S WAR</h3> + + +<p>Bettina's head was shaven like a boy's, and she held out to Marianne her +golden hair, long, heavy and in thick waves.</p> + +<p>As for Marianne, herself, she was laying on a table in the room in which +the two stood, all her books, her beloved Goethe, Schiller, all of them, +her laces and the jewels which had been given her since her childhood.</p> + +<p>"How nice it is, dear Bettina," she said, "to have you again with us, +now that after all these dreadful years, we are again in Berlin."</p> + +<p>Bettina's face glowed.</p> + +<p>"Yes, dear Mademoiselle——"</p> + +<p>Marianne lifted her hand.</p> + +<p>"No French, Bettina, German."</p> + +<p>"Ja, ja, dear Fräulein Marianne, please excuse me. I was so happy when I +heard that the Herr Professor was to come to the new University here in +Berlin and that the Gracious Frau Mother would need me again."</p> + +<p>Marianne smiled, and then, lifting her hand to stop conversation, for +she heard someone, she called out:</p> + +<p>"Ilse, Elsa, here, come, bring your offerings here!"</p> + +<p>In came the twins, tall like Bettina, and quite young ladies, but as +much alike as ever.</p> + +<p>In their hands were trinkets, books, needlework and laces.</p> + +<p>"Here," they said, and placed them on the table. Then catching sight of +Bettina, they cried: "Your hair, oh, Bettina! Your lovely, lovely hair!"</p> + +<p>"It was all I had," said Bettina blushing. "They tell me it will sell +and for much money."</p> + +<p>Carl came out next, a tall young fellow now with a faint moustache to +foretell his manhood.</p> + +<p>"This is all I have, dear sister," and he added to the pile a little +purse, some books, and a pair of pistols, once his grandfather's.</p> + +<p>Madame von Stork followed, her hair gray now, her face lined with +sorrow. In her arms was a pile of fine embroideries, linen and +lace-trimmed table covers. In one hand was a box of jewels, in the other +the amethyst necklace her sister Erna had worn to the marriage of +Princess Frederika.</p> + +<p>Behind her came the Herr Professor, Franz and Otto, bearing books, old +weapons and each a purse of gold.</p> + +<p>"Now, the maids," cried Marianne. "Here, Gretchen, oh, that is fine!" +for the rosy-cheeked girl laid on the pile her peasant necklace of old +coins.</p> + +<p>Elise, the other, gave the gold pins with which she fastened her +headdress.</p> + +<p>"And the Gracious Frau," they said, glancing at Madame von Stork, "can +give half our wages."</p> + +<p>While they talked, in came Ludwig and Pauline. With them was a tiny +child, bearing in her dimpled, chubby hands an earthen pot or bank in +which people save money. Ludwig led her to the table.</p> + +<p>"For the dear Fatherland," she lisped, and she laid her little offering +with the rest.</p> + +<p>Ludwig and Pauline added theirs, the one, gold, the other, linen, silver +and ornaments.</p> + +<p>For a moment there was silence, then the Herr Professor stepped to the +table. His eye glanced from Bettina's shaven head to the bank of the +tiny Ernchen. Then he held his hands above the gifts.</p> + +<p>"Dear Father in Heaven," he said, "bless the offerings of great and +small, rich and poor, to the use of the dear Fatherland, and let truth +and rightousness prosper."</p> + +<p>"Amen," said all the "Stork's Nest."</p> + +<p>Then he drew forward Carl, Otto and Franz.</p> + +<p>"Our sons, also," he said, and looked at his wife.</p> + +<p>"Ja, ja, Richard," she said, the tears falling. "I, too, am willing +now."</p> + +<p>Marianne held out her hand to Bettina and drew her to the table.</p> + +<p>"We go as nurses, father. You have promised."</p> + +<p>It was the "People's War," the great German rising against Napoleon. All +over the land, men, women, and children were giving their all. Russia +and Austria joined with them and the great battle was fought at Leipsic +in Saxony. The Crown Prince fought with his father, and when the victors +marched into the city Carl, Franz and Otto were with them.</p> + +<p>The battle itself lasted three days. On the last of these the Emperor +Francis, the Czar, and Frederick William were standing on a hill +watching the battle.</p> + +<p>Up dashed an officer. Springing from his horse, he approached the three +rulers.</p> + +<p>"We have conquered!" he cried. "The enemy flies!"</p> + +<p>The three monarchs alighted with solemn joy from their horses, knelt on +the field and thanked God for the victory.</p> + +<p>The entrance into Leipsic was magnificent. The allied armies formed in a +great square about the market place, their sovereigns in the centre. The +Prussians in their blue coats, red and white striped waistcoats, white +trousers, high boots and bearskin caps, held their eagle aloft before +the old Rathaus. The Russians, in blue coats and red collars, their +trousers strapped over their boots, bore their flags of white and +yellow, while the Austrians, in white and red, completed the huge square +of soldiers.</p> + +<p>Bells were rung, flags were waved, and, when the war was declared ended, +Napoleon was banished to the Island of Elba in the Mediterranean Sea.</p> + +<p>"Now we are rid of the monster," said Madame von Stork. "We can all be +happy. Thank the good God, I again have my children."</p> + +<p>But the world was not yet through with the foe of Queen Louisa.</p> + +<p>"Napoleon has escaped! Marshall Ney has joined him! Our foe is loose +again!" was the cry which, not many months later, rang through Europe.</p> + +<p>It was all to be done over again. But this time England joined Prussia. +Off marched Franz, Otto and Carl, and Marianne and Bettina again became +nurses.</p> + +<p>"Ach Himmel!" wept Madame von Stork, "will the world never be rid of +this monster?"</p> + +<p>Ludwig nodded.</p> + +<p>"This is the last," he said. "We now have England to help us."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII</h2> + +<h3>THE FOE CONQUERED</h3> + + +<p>On the eleventh day of June, in the year 1815, Prince William received +his first communion, all the Royal family being present. The next day, +he and his father, the King, departed to join the army.</p> + +<p>At Merseburg they were stopped by a courier. A great battle had been +fought near Brussels, the English under the Duke of Wellington, the +Prussians under General Blücher, the brave commander who had wept when +he had given up the keys of Lübeck.</p> + +<p>"Napoleon is conquered!" announced the courier as he handed the +despatches to the King.</p> + +<p>The English call the battle "Waterloo," the Prussians, "La Belle +Alliance."</p> + +<p>Old Blücher had proved his words by fighting. The English had fought +steadily, Blücher having promised to come if he heard the firing. The +French, who had defeated him a few days before, were in a position to +render this well-nigh impossible. But when the cannon sounded, the brave +old Prussian thought only of his promise.</p> + +<p>"Forward, children, forward!" he cried to his soldiers.</p> + +<p>"We cannot, Father Blücher," they answered. "It is impossible."</p> + +<p>"Forward, children, forward!" the old man repeated. "We must. I have +promised my brother, Wellington. I have promised, do you hear? It shall +not be said that I broke my word. Forward, children, forward!"</p> + +<p>And so they came to Waterloo and the Allies conquered Napoleon.</p> + +<p>"The most splendid battle has been fought. The most glorious victory +won," wrote old Blücher. "I think the Napoleon story is ended."</p> + +<p>In triumph, the Allies entered Paris, and Napoleon, throwing himself on +the protection of the English, was banished to the Island of St. Helena.</p> + +<p>"Alas," wrote a great Frenchman, "had Napoleon made a friend of Queen +Louisa at Tilsit this might never have happened, for then would +Frederick William have refused to join the Allies."</p> + +<p>Napoleon had valued Magdeburg above a hundred Queens, but one Queen had +conquered him, and Europe was free from the man who had warred with it +for twenty years.</p> + +<p>"But," the Queen of Prussia once wrote, "we may learn much from +Napoleon; what he has done will not be lost upon us. It would be +blasphemous to say that God has been with him, but he seems to be an +instrument in the hands of the Almighty to do away with old things that +have lost their vitality, to cut off, as it were, the dead wood which is +still externally one with the tree to which it owes its existence. That +which is dead is utterly useless—that which is dying does but draw the +sap from the trunk and give nothing in return."</p> + +<p>"I did, indeed, enjoy the sight of Napoleon," the mother of Goethe told +Marianne's Bettina Brentano. "He it is who has enwrapped the whole world +in an enchanted dream, and for this mankind should be grateful, for if +they did not dream they would have got nothing by it, and have slept +like clods as they hitherto have done."</p> + +<p>After Napoleon had stirred up Europe with his wars, things changed, and +the ways of the world became what we call "Modern Times," and for this +even the poor Prussians thanked him, for many things improved and +liberty came more and more to the people. They spoke their own language, +they drew closer together, and, in their war against a foe, they learned +to love their Fatherland.</p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX</h2> + +<h3>THURINGIA</h3> + + +<p>While Franz, Otto and Carl were fighting, Marianne and Bettina were +nursing the wounded soldiers.</p> + +<p>One day Bettina was called to assist with a wounded Thuringian.</p> + +<p>When she saw his face she cried out:</p> + +<p>"Willy! Willy Schmidt from Jena!"</p> + +<p>The soldier's face lit up with welcome.</p> + +<p>"Ach Himmel!" he cried, "if it isn't Bettina Weyland!"</p> + +<p>But the doctor ordered no talking, and so the two could only smile at +each other. But when Waterloo was many days old, and the soldier almost +well again, there was much to talk about.</p> + +<p>Certainly Willy had a strange tale to tell. It was about Bettina's +grandfather.</p> + +<p>"Ach Himmel, child!" he said to Bettina, "he is alive and with mother +and father." And he told how, after the "Peace of Tilsit," the old man +had wandered back to Thuringia.</p> + +<p>"But don't think he forgot you, Bettina," said Willy very hastily. Then +he touched his head. "Poor old man," he added, "he has forgotten +everything," and he told poor, wild-eyed Bettina that old Hans was like +a child, always talking about Frederick the Great and his battles, and +remembering not a word about Jena.</p> + +<p>"But the queer thing," said Willy, "is that he starts at any very loud +noise and he had the mark of a wound on the back of his head. What it +means we have no idea, as he remembers nothing."</p> + +<p>Bettina's tears fell fast.</p> + +<p>"Grandfather," she said over and over, "my poor, dear, old grandfather!</p> + +<p>"I will go home to Jena and see him," she cried. "I will tell Fräulein +Marianne."</p> + +<p>"And I will take you," announced Willy, "just as soon as I am well +enough to travel." And he gazed at Bettina as if he thought her very +pretty.</p> + +<p>"And little Hans and the baby?" asked Bettina. Willy laughed as loud as +his weakness would permit him.</p> + +<p>"Hans, ach Himmel! That's a joke, little Hans! There's no telling how +many Frenchmen he finished in one battle. The baby is eight now," he +added.</p> + +<p>"Hans a soldier, the baby, a big boy!" How the years had flown! Jena, +yesterday; Waterloo, to-day.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the girl, "I will go back to Thuringia."</p> + +<p>Then a smile lit her pretty face.</p> + +<p>"Do you remember, Willy, how grandfather left word we would come back +when Napoleon was conquered?"</p> + +<p>"It is nine years," said Willy, "but you can come now, for Napoleon is +conquered."</p> + +<p>Bettina nodded, her face still wet with tears, while her mouth was +smiling.</p> + +<p>"They will all be glad to see you," continued Willy. "Mother and father, +and the Schmelzes, and your grandfather Weyland. He is just the same, +quite as if nothing had happened."</p> + +<p>And so Bettina went back, and old Hans called her "Annchen," thinking +her always his daughter, and when she married Willy and had children of +her own, he used to sing for them the old song of Frederick Barbarossa, +and tell them how he had seen the beautiful Princess Louisa come into +Berlin in a gold coach to be married.</p> + +<p>Marianne went back to the "Stork's Nest," and presently home came her +brothers. Madame von Stork's face lost its troubled look, and only the +memory of Wolfgang came to make their happy home troubled.</p> + +<p>"Marianne is the best daughter a mother ever had," she often told her +husband, "and I owe it to our good Queen, for books and Goethe nearly +ruined her."</p> + +<p>"Not Goethe," the professor always said, but his wife insisted.</p> + +<p>Certainly a great honour was to come to Marianne.</p> + +<p>On March 10, 1816, on the anniversary of the birthday of the Queen, +Marianne was summoned to Court, and conducted to a great room where were +gathered all the Royal family and many grand people, but the old +Countess, however, was there no more. She had been a mother to her dear +Queen's children until she, too, had gone her way to a less troubled +country than Prussia. After a long list of names, "Marianne Hedwig Erna +Wilhelmina Ernestine von Stork" was called.</p> + +<p>In her trembling hand the King placed a golden cross with the letter "L" +in black enamel on a ground of blue encircled with stars. On the back +were the dates, 1813-14. A white ribbon held it, and there was a pin to +fasten it above her heart. It was the medal of the "Order of Louisa," +instituted by the King in memory of the Queen, and given to those women +of Prussia who had so nobly soothed the wounded and the sick in the war +against Napoleon. Marianne was the happiest person in Germany.</p> + +<p>As for her mother, she was never weary of showing the medal and telling +her friends, "My Marianne received it."</p> + +<p>Marianne's friend, Bettina Brentano, wrote a book called "Correspondence +of a Child," into which she put all her wild fancies about Goethe, and +to-day German girls are fond of reading it. She married a German author, +and her granddaughter is a living writer.</p> + +<p>But the story is not quite ended.</p> + +<p>In the year 1872 crowds were again gathered on the streets of Berlin.</p> + +<p>Standing on Unter den Linden was an old man with his grandchildren. His +hair was snow white and his face wrinkled.</p> + +<p>"Ja, Gretchen," he said to a little girl, whose hand was in his, "in a +little time we shall see our new Emperor. This is a great day, Liebchen, +for Germany at last is free and united."</p> + +<p>"I know, dear grandfather," said one of the others, a clever looking boy +they called Richard, "I have learned all about it in the Gymnasium, of +Napoleon and Jena, and Queen Louisa and Napoleon, and of the Crown +Prince who was Frederick William IV, and all Bismarck's and von Moltke's +dreams of uniting our Germany."</p> + +<p>The old man smiled.</p> + +<p>"The Queen kissed me once," he said, "Queen Louisa, I mean, the mother +of our new Emperor." Then he laughed.</p> + +<p>"It's a great day for your old grandfather, children," he said. "Why, +the Emperor and I, he was little Prince William then, used to fight +battles against rats and mice in the old castle at Königsburg. It's a +great day. God be praised that I live to see it," said Carl von Stork to +his grandchildren. "Alas," he added, "that none of the 'Stork's Nest' +are left to rejoice with me!"</p> + +<p>"Simple, honourable, sensible" little William had accomplished the great +things his mother had hoped one of her children would do for mankind. +Before he had gone to fight the French Emperor, Napoleon III, at the +battle of Sedan, he had prayed at his mother's tomb that he might do +great things for Prussia. After the Germans entered Paris all the states +had elected him Emperor and Germany at last was one Fatherland.</p> + +<p>And now he was returning to Berlin with Bismarck and von Moltke, his +councillor and general.</p> + +<p>Suddenly Carl smiled.</p> + +<p>"Ah," he said as the Royal guests passed in their carriages, "there is +the Dowager Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. See, Richard, the +pretty old lady with the white hair. She was the Royal baby when we were +at Memel. She was named Alexandrina for the Czar, and how the old +Countess loved her! They called her 'The Little Autocrat.' I remember +Princess Louisa, who was named for the Queen and who was the baby at +Königsburg, died during the war. There is 'The Red Hussar,' grandson of +Queen Louisa. Ach Himmel! What a hero!"</p> + +<p>When the people of Berlin saw the kind, good face of "little William," +their new Kaiser, cries rent the air. "Long live the Emperor! Hoch der +Kaiser! Hoch!" There were cheers for his wife, also, the granddaughter +of the Duchess of Weimar, who so bravely answered Napoleon.</p> + +<p>As for old Frederick Barbarossa, there is a poet who tells us that, when +he heard all the noise the Germans were making, he sent a sleepy little +page from Kryffhäuser to see what the ravens were up to.</p> + +<p>"They have flown away, Kaiser," announced the frightened little page as +he ran back to the table.</p> + +<p>With a great yawn the old Kaiser rose from his chair and stretched +himself. His sword in one hand, his sceptre in the other, a glittering +crown on his flaming hair, he came blinking into the sunlight.</p> + +<p>"Ach Himmel!" he cried, for before him were all the lords of Germany, no +longer fighting and quarrelling with each other, but smiling and singing +the lively tunes of "Germany over all," "United Germany shall it be," +and "The Watch on the Rhine."</p> + +<p>The old Redbeard beamed with delight.</p> + +<p>"One Germany!" he cried, "then God be thanked and praised! One Germany!"</p> + +<p>He turned to little William, standing between Bismarck and von Moltke, +the statesman and general who had made him "Kaiser."</p> + +<p>In his hand he laid the scepter, on his head he placed the crown.</p> + +<p>"These," he said, "I lay in thy hand."</p> + +<p>Then he breathed a long sigh of happiness.</p> + +<p>"God be praised," he said again. "I can now go to sleep and be happy," +and he went back into his cave to his ivory chair and his head sank to +his hands as he settled his elbows on the marble table and the old +Redbeard went again to his dreams.</p> + +<p>They say he still sleeps in Thuringia, but calmly and happily, because +there is one Germany, one Kaiser, and the ravens no longer trouble him.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>CHAPTER XXX</h2> + +<h3>THE FOES AT REST</h3> + + +<p>To-day, the two Royal Foes sleep in the two famous mausoleums of the +Continent, Queen Louisa at Charlottenburg, Napoleon in Paris. Beneath +the dome of "Les Invalides" is the sarcophagus of Bonaparte. On the +mosaic pavement the names of his battles are inscribed within a wreath +of laurel. Sixty flags that he captured adorn the tomb decorated with +reliefs and lighted by a glow which falls, most golden, about the coffin +of the conqueror.</p> + +<p>With him sleep his faithful Duroc and the Bertrand who brought his +message to Queen Louisa and so offended the old Countess with his bad +manners.</p> + +<p>The words above the entrance are Napoleon's own:</p> + +<p>"I desire that my ashes repose on the banks of the Seine in the midst of +the French people I loved so well."</p> + +<p>On each side is a figure of Atlas, one bearing a globe, the other, a +sceptre and crown.</p> + +<p>All is of earthly glory and victory.</p> + +<p>Queen Louisa sleeps in a spot where she once loved to walk with her +husband and children. A quiet avenue of pine trees leads to a grove of +black firs, cypresses and Babylonian willows, bordered with white roses, +lilies, Hortensia, the favourite flowers of the Queen, and at the end +stands the mausoleum which Frederick William erected to her memory.</p> + +<p>A flight of steps leads through the iron door to the interior, where, in +a violet light, sleeps the Queen, the King, and the Emperor William and +the granddaughter of the Duchess of Weimar.</p> + +<p>The sculptor, Rauch, to whom the Queen once was very kind, carved a +statue of her so beautiful that it is almost impossible to gaze on its +loveliness without weeping.</p> + +<p>At her feet is buried the heart of the Crown Prince, King Frederick +William IV of Prussia, in a case of silver.</p> + +<p>As long as her husband lived he brought wreaths to the tomb. Before +Charlotte went to be Empress of Russia, she wept there. The first +Kaiser, to the end of his long life, prayed there, and little +Alexandrina, who died only a year or two ago, and saw her parent's +prayer answered, never forgot the wreath for her mother's birthday.</p> + +<p>Above the entrance appear two Greek letters.</p> + +<p>"I am Alpha and Omega," they say, "the beginning and the ending, saith +the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty."</p> + +<p>The golden light which falls on Napoleon tells of the glory of the world +and things of victory.</p> + +<p>Queen Louisa's kingdom was not, as she said, of this world; but still +she lives, the "Queen of Every Heart" in the German Empire, "Her name," +writes a German author, "a watchword with the patriot."</p> + +<p>Napoleon was the Emperor of the French, the conqueror of Europe; Queen +Louisa, the heroine of the German Struggle for Liberty.</p> + + +<h3>THE END</h3> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> By many authorities said to have been only written in the +Queen's Journal.</p></div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Two Royal Foes, by Eva Madden + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TWO ROYAL FOES *** + +***** This file should be named 34220-h.htm or 34220-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/2/2/34220/ + +Produced by Darleen Dove, D Alexander, Mary Meehan and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/34220-h/images/illus1.jpg b/34220-h/images/illus1.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..75d03de --- /dev/null +++ b/34220-h/images/illus1.jpg diff --git a/34220-h/images/illus2.jpg b/34220-h/images/illus2.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..dfcfad2 --- /dev/null +++ b/34220-h/images/illus2.jpg diff --git a/34220-h/images/illus3.jpg b/34220-h/images/illus3.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2dfcc0f --- /dev/null +++ b/34220-h/images/illus3.jpg diff --git a/34220-h/images/illus4.jpg b/34220-h/images/illus4.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d2f785e --- /dev/null +++ b/34220-h/images/illus4.jpg diff --git a/34220.txt b/34220.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b480af8 --- /dev/null +++ b/34220.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10012 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Two Royal Foes, by Eva Madden + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Two Royal Foes + +Author: Eva Madden + +Illustrator: The Kinneys + +Release Date: November 6, 2010 [EBook #34220] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TWO ROYAL FOES *** + + + + +Produced by Darleen Dove, D Alexander, Mary Meehan and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + TWO ROYAL FOES + + By EVA MADDEN + + +ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE KINNEYS + +NEW YORK +THE McCLURE COMPANY +MCMVII + +_Copyright, 1907, by The McClure Company_ + +Published, October, 1907 + + + + +[Illustration: _Bettina_] + + + + +CONTENTS + + +I. THE MIGHTY FOE + +II. THE ANGEL OF PRUSSIA + +III. AT JENA + +IV. AT THE FOREST HOUSE + +V. THE JOURNEY + +VI. THE DOWNFALL + +VII. ON THE ROAD TO MEMEL + +VIII. AMONG FRIENDS + +IX. THE STORK'S NEST + +X. FRESH TROUBLES + +XI. THE MOTHER OF HER PEOPLE + +XII. OTTO + +XIII. THE JOURNAL + +XIV. PRINCESS LOUISA + +XV. THE MARRIAGE + +XVI. WHAT HAPPENED TO HANS + +XVII. AT TILSIT + +XVIII. THE ESCAPE + +XIX. THE FOES MEET + +XX. THE ANSWER + +XXI. THE HERR LIEUTENANT + +XXII. DAYS OF DARKNESS + +XXIII. THE ENTRANCE INTO BERLIN + +XXIV. "MY QUEEN, MY POOR QUEEN!" + +XXV. AFTERWARDS + +XXVI. THE CHECK + +XXVII. THE PEOPLE'S WAR + +XXVIII. THE FOE CONQUERED + +XXIX. THURINGIA + +XXX. THE FOES AT REST + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + +BETTINA + +"MY DOLLIE IS NAMED ANNA" + +"SIRE, WITH MAGDEBURG?" + +"I HAVE SOME NEWS TO TELL YOU" + + + + +TWO ROYAL FOES + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE MIGHTY FOE + + +One afternoon, a hundred and one years ago, old Hans took little Bettina +to visit her godmother, Frau Schmidt, who lived in a red-roofed house +not far from the old church of St. Michael's in Jena. + +Bettina loved to go to Frau Schmidt's. First, there was Wilhelm, her +godmother's son, who was so good to her, and cut her toys out of wood, +and told her all kinds of fine stories. And then there were the +soldiers. They were everywhere, standing in groups about the Market, +marching in companies, or clattering on horses through the never quiet +streets. + +The way from Bettina's home to Jena led through a deep, still, green +forest, and as she and her grandfather strolled along that October +afternoon the little girl begged him for a story. + +"Ja, ja, my Bettina," and the old man gave her a smile, "there is old +Frederick Barbarossa." + +Then, with a "Once upon a time," he told her how, in a cave in their own +Thuringian Wood in the Kyffhaeuser Mountain, an old emperor of Germany +had slept for hundreds and hundreds of years, his head on his elbows, +which rested on a great stone table in the middle of the cavern. + +"And his beard, child, has grown down to the floor, and it is red as a +flame, and his hair--it is red, too, quite blazing, child, they +say--wraps about him like a veil. And before the cave and around it--you +can see them yourself, little one, if you go there--are ravens, cawing +and cawing and flying ever in circles." + +"And when will the old Emperor wake up, dear grandfather?" Bettina had a +sweet, high little voice which quivered with eagerness. The old man +shook his head. + +"No man knows, child," he answered, "but I have heard always that one +day the ravens will flap their wings, caw aloud, and fly forever away +from the mountain. And then," his blue eyes flashed, "the old Kaiser +shall awake; he shall grasp his great sword in his hand and holding it +fast shall come forth from his gloomy old cave to the sunlight." + +"And then, dear grandfather, what then?" + +"There shall great things be done, dear child." Again his eyes flashed. +"Germany shall stretch herself like the old Redbeard. She, too, is +asleep, and she shall take her sword in her hand and come forth, and we +shall be one people, one great, great Fatherland." The old face grew +dreamy, the voice, very slow. + +"And will there always be fighting, dear grandfather?" + +Hans shook his head. + +"Nein, nein, the old Redbeard is to bring war which shall make peace." + +Hans was silent for a moment and then, with a laugh, he lifted a very +full, deep voice and sang an old German song of the same Kaiser +Barbarossa, and when Bettina caught the tune, she sang, too, and the old +forest rang with the music all the way to Jena. + +When they entered the town the old man took Bettina almost to the +church. + +"Now, little one," he said, "run away to Tante Gretchen and tell her to +keep you until I come after supper." + +"Auf wiedersehen, dear grandfather," and off trotted the little girl and +into her godmother's house with a "Good-day, dear Tante Gretchen!" + +Wilhelm was at home, and he carved Bettina a little doll, and she +enjoyed herself very much indeed, hearing all about the soldiers and all +that they were doing in Jena, but she was only nine years old and tired +with her walk, and so, when long after supper her grandfather opened the +door, she was fast asleep in her chair, her tired little feet dangling. + +Frau Schmidt greeted him crossly. + +"Don't excuse yourself, Hans," she said. "You forgot the child, I know +it. Perhaps you have been home and had to come back for her? Nein? Well, +what was it then that kept you? You know, Hans, how anxious her mother +will be, with the child out in the night time." + +The old man hung his head. Certainly he had forgotten the child. He was +always forgetting everything and everybody, and some day, as the women +of his family were always telling him, he was certain to have a good +lesson, a lesson, perhaps, which might teach him to remember. + +"You are right, Gretchen," he said, "but, you see, my dear woman, when +an old soldier of Frederick the Great meets again the Prussians, there +is much news to hear, isn't there?" And he looked with smiling blue eyes +into Frau Schmidt's kind, plump countenance. + +"Well, well," she said, her frown vanishing, "but come now, it's a +dreadful night and you must have a glass of beer before you start out +into the darkness. Willy, uncork the bottle there." + +Then she went to Bettina. + +"Wake up, Liebchen," and she gave her a tiny shake. + +"Is it Frederick Barbarossa?" And Bettina came forth from dreamland. + +"Nein, nein, child, it's grandfather," and she wrapped the little girl +in her shawl. "But wake up now. It is late, and time to go home to +mother." + +Then she turned to Hans, Bettina's little hand held fast in hers. + +"Quick, friend, hurry," she said, "and be off now. The night is terrible +and Annchen will be anxious, will she not?" And she nodded to Wilhelm to +hold the light. + +Draining his glass, Hans set it down on the table with a sigh of +pleasure. + +"Ja, ja," he said, as he drew closer his cloak. + +"A moment," and Frau Schmidt stepped to the tall, green porcelain stove +which served, before firetime, as her storehouse. + +"Here," she said, and from one of its little recesses she brought forth +a bundle done up with paper and string. + +"Some sausages, please, for Anna," and she gave Hans the package, "and +best greetings." + +Then, in her quick, kind way, she hurried them to the door, bundling +Bettina more closely as they went. + +"Auf wiedersehen, good-night, good-night," and she held open the door. +"The weather truly is dreadful. Here, Willy, here, my son, hold the +candle higher. Ja, ja, that is better. Can you see, Hans? Good-night, +Bettina. Best greetings to your dear mother, and good-night, +good-night." + +"Good-night, dear Tante, good-night, Willy," and Bettina stumbled +sleepily off with her grandfather, Willy calling after her not to let +the Erl King get her. + +It was, indeed, a dreadful night. The candle which Wilhelm held high, +standing long in the doorway, made but little impression on a fog which, +wrapping the world in mystery, stung Bettina in the face, choked up her +throat and gave her a queer feeling of having lost even the world +itself. + +She drew close to her grandfather and nestled against his side, her hand +seeking his in the darkness. + +"Ja, ja, little one," he said, "do not fear, child, grandfather knows +every step of the way." + +He might know the way, but he certainly did not know the puddles. + +Splash! + +Bettina's little wooden shoe went deep into the water. + +Bump! + +One foot was in a hole, a bush held fast her shawl. + +It would be all right when they reached the forest and the path went +straight between the fir trees, but here it was awful. + +"Ach Himmel," groaned Hans, splashing and stumbling, "but your mother +will scold, little one! But what could your poor grandfather do? I find +it good that a man hear the war news and, talking with the soldiers, I +forgot the hour." + +"Never mind, dear grandfather," came the little voice out of the fog. +"Mother will be in bed and we will slip in, oh, so lightly, just like a +kitty, and she won't hear a sound." + +Bettina took care of her grandfather like an old woman, her father +always said, and so she tried to speak very bravely. + +She might talk bravely; talking is easy enough even for little Bettinas; +but to feel bravely is quite a different thing and, deep down in her +heart, Bettina was frightened to coldness. + +Willy had told her the story of the Erl King who gets children who are +out on wild nights. He promises them toys and all sorts of playthings, +and then when they listen he clasps them in his arms until they are +frozen and dead. And this King has two daughters and they call out +through the storm. + +Would he get her, this Erl King? + +Little Bettina shivered all over. + +From over towards Jena she surely heard a tramp, and sometimes she +seemed to see the waving of the Erl King's mantle in the fog. + +But her grandfather kept on with his talking. + +"Ja, ja," he said, "we'll beat them, we'll beat them. We'll give the +French a lesson this time, our soldiers all promise it. And that +Corsican--we'll teach him, too. Why not? We Prussians are three to the +French one, and soldiers of Frederick the Great to boot. Ja wohl, little +one, we'll have a famous victory!" + +But Bettina was not listening. + +While her grandfather had gone on with his talk, her little hand had +grown cold in his clasp, her tongue had become dry, and her back felt as +if water were running down it. + +It was the Erl King that was coming, Ach Himmel! she knew it. + +There were his two eyes, blazing like great stars through the fog. + +Nearer they came, and nearer, and she heard the tramp of his steed, and, +oh, if he called her, not even her grandfather could hold her, Willy had +said so. + +Brighter grew the eyes, and brighter. + +"Grandfather," she tried to call, but her throat would not move. Nearer +the Erl King came, and between the eyes she saw something great, and +tall, and white, and dreadful. Nearer it came. Nearer! Nearer! + +"Ach Himmel!" Her grandfather's voice broke the spell. "But who are +coming?" + +Then the two great eyes suddenly turned into torches, and one was held +by the Postmaster of Jena, and the other by a French officer, and +between them the lights showed a white horse, and on its back sat a man +whose eyes seemed to pierce right through the fog and the darkness. + +Bettina shrank against her grandfather. The one on the horse frightened +her even as much as if he were the Erl King. Never had she seen such +piercing eyes nor felt so terrified. He was small and stout, and he wore +an overcoat of green with white facings. His hat was folded up front and +back, and his mouth was as beautiful as the rest of his face was hard +and terrifying. But even his beautiful lips seemed to say, "Keep out of +my way, or I shall ride over you." + +One firm, strong hand held the bridle of his horse, with the other he +pointed, his whip held fast, through the fog towards the dim outline of +the great old mountain of Dornburg. + +When he spoke it was in French. Bettina could not understand him, but +Hans, who, like most Germans of that day, spoke both languages, heard +him say: + +"Those Prussians have left the heights. They were afraid," then, with a +laugh of scorn, he interrupted himself, "afraid of the night," he +continued, "and have descended to sleep in the valley. They believe that +we shall not take advantage of their slumber." Again he laughed, and so +disagreeably that Bettina shivered; "but they are dreadfully mistaken, +those old wigs!" + +Laughter joined with his, and two horses appeared in his rear and the +torches revealed their riders to be French Marshals in uniform. + +But the Postmaster was silent, his face darkening. + +As for Hans, he muttered under his breath to Bettina: + +"Ach Himmel, but hear him. He calls the generals of Frederick the Great, +'old wigs.'" + +"Grandfather," Bettina pulled at him to bend down and listen, "is it the +Erl King? Will he get me?" + +"The Erl King?" The old man was completely puzzled. "The one on the +white horse, child, you mean? That, my Bettina, is the Emperor!" + +The Emperor! Oh, Heavens! Then, indeed, did Bettina wish that she was +home with her mother. Better the Erl King, better the old witch who got +Hans and Gretel, better any number of cruel step-mothers: better all the +witches, giants and ogres than the dreadful monster everyone called "The +Emperor!" + +Only that afternoon had her godmother told Willy that he lived but for +blood, and that Death followed every step of that white horse. + +"It would be well for the world if God took him," she had added, and now +this dreadful monster was pointing his whip at her, little Bettina +Weyland, and asking the Postmaster who were these people in his path. + +When he had an answer he motioned them to pass quickly. Then, +dismounting, he and his generals proceeded up the hill of Jena. + +As Hans and Bettina went on their way his voice followed after, and it +was not pleasant things it said, for it stormed at Marshal Lannes +because his artillery had stuck fast in a gorge. And then Hans heard +something about the Prussians and good-morning. + +As for Hans he was hot with fury. + +"'Old wigs,'" he kept muttering, "'Old wigs,' indeed! Did you hear him, +the villain, Bettina, call our generals 'old wigs'?" + +But Bettina had herself, and not the generals of Prussia, to think of. + +"Grandfather," she cried, "grandfather, will the Emperor get us?" + +Her grandfather laughed almost merrily, + +"Nein, nein, little one," he said. "In a day or two the soldiers of +Frederick the Great will set that white horse scampering back to Paris. +Nein, nein, my little Bettina, there is nothing to fear. But come, here +is our path in the forest. We are safe now, and out of the puddles." + +Their home lay on the edge of the deep, green wood, a little red-roofed +forest house with a paved courtyard, with a barn for the cows, and a +garden in front. It was a lovely spot, but a very lonely one, but they +must live there because Bettina's father, Kaspar Weyland, was an under +forester. But just then he was in the army and Frau Weyland was alone +with the children. + +Her voice reached them almost as soon as they came out of the deep +forest. + +"Father, is that you?" she called. "Father!" + +"Ja, ja, dear daughter. Open the door and hear the news." + +"God be thanked you have come." And she appeared in the doorway, holding +in one hand a light, and drawing a shawl about her bed-gown with the +other. + +"Oh, father, father, how could you?" + +She was young and looked like a grown-up Bettina with golden hair +showing under the edges of her nightcap. She shut the door hastily as +they entered. + +"Annchen, Annchen," the old man made no excuses, "we have just seen the +Emperor in the fields near Jena." + +"The Emperor!" Frau Weyland set down her light. Her father nodding, she +cried out, wringing her hands: + +"Ach Gott! Ach Gott! Then, father, we shall have a battle." + +The old man shrugged his broad shoulders. + +"It may be, daughter," he bent down and kissed her, "but who can tell? +The Prussians, to-day, said not." + +Then, sitting in a wooden chair by the table, she, standing and +listening, Bettina's hand in hers, he told all he had heard at Jena and +described their adventures, weary little Bettina sleepily listening. And +he told how the Prussian soldiers had gone early to bed because of the +damp and the fog, and of how they had no cloaks, and how, the bread +giving out, they had been on half rations for some days. + +"But their spirits are brave, daughter," he added, "and you never heard +such boasting. They are certain of victory; certain, Anna. Prince +Hohenlohe was with them this afternoon, and he laughed like a boy when a +soldier declared that he would catch one Frenchman, another two, a +third, four, and so on. You never heard such boasting." + +Frau Weyland shook her head, her nightcap bobbing. + +"Boasting, father, never won a prize yet. It is doing that counts, and +the Emperor was out in such weather, studying the field, and the +Prussians sleeping. Ach, I do not find that promising." + +Then suddenly she ran to her father, she clung to him like a child, her +blue eyes gazing up into his like Bettina's. + +"Ah, father," her lips quivered, "if there should be a battle and my +Kaspar----" + +The old man wrapped her in his strong arms. She was his only child and +the best of daughters. + +"There will be a battle, dear Anna," he said quite solemnly; "it is war, +now, and there must be. But why should harm come to Kaspar? Look at +me----" + +His eyes began to kindle, and his daughter, who knew what was coming, +loosened his arms and rose. + +"Why, in the battle of----" + +"Ja, ja, father," Frau Weyland interrupted with a half smile. When her +father began on his battles time might go its way unheeded. "I know, you +have told me. But come now, we have forgotten our little Bettina. She +must at once go to bed. It is late enough, goodness knows." + +Then she unpinned Bettina's shawl and shook out the damp. + +"Good-night, dear father," she kissed the old man tenderly, "sleep well, +and I'll call you in time in the morning. Oh, the sausage is from +Gretchen? Many thanks and good-night. Come, come, Bettina," and she +started towards her own room. + +Her father proceeded in the opposite direction. On the threshold of a +second door he paused. + +"Annchen," he called, for his daughter had departed. + +"Ja, father," she came back to her door holding Bettina by the hand. + +"He called our generals 'old wigs,' 'old wigs,' did you understand, +daughter? The generals of the Great Frederick's army, and he, an upstart +villain of a Corsican. Old wigs, indeed! Let him wait, the monster, +we'll show him, we'll show him." + +With a last good-night the old soldier of Frederick the Great departed +to snore away under his feather bed quite the same as if nothing had +happened. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE ANGEL OF PRUSSIA + + +Next morning Frau Weyland called Bettina early. + +"Good-morning, dear child," she said, kissing her round little cheek. +"Grandfather must go far into the forest. Would you like to go with him? +You may have a little basket like a wood gatherer and bring mother back +some faggots." + +Bettina was glad, indeed, to get up. She had had a dreadful time. All +night long it had seemed to her that the awful Emperor was always trying +to catch her, and then she would wake with a start. Sometimes he had a +long, red beard, sometimes he was draped in grey mist and wore a golden +crown; and always he was riding the white horse. + +Her mother looked at her kindly. + +"If you are tired, dear," she began, but Bettina was eager to go. + +"Nein, nein, dear mother," she cried, "I love to go with grandfather." + +So she hurried on her clothes and drank her milk and ate her bread and +said "Auf wiedersehen" to her mother. Then she started off with her +grandfather. Frau Weyland stood in the door and watched them, waving her +hand and smiling. + +She was very pretty. When she was sixteen, and only just betrothed to +Kaspar Weyland, people said she was like the "Lorelei," the maiden who +sits on a rock in the Rhine and sings songs to enchant the boatmen, all +the time combing her golden hair and gazing in a jewelled mirror. + +And she was so good to old Hans, and never cross with Bettina, and +always the meals were hot and ready, and the house clean and quiet. +About the doorway grew a vine and October had brought the frost and +turned it crimson. It fell all about her like a frame as she stood +there, so gentle and smiling. It was foggy still, but there was a light +in the sky before which the mist must soon vanish. When they reached the +gate Hans turned for a last "Auf wiedersehen" to his Annchen. + +"Till we meet again" it means, and little did old + +Hans think as he waved his hand to his daughter that never in all the +world was he ever to hear his golden-haired Anna again. How could he? +What could happen? She was never so well in all her life, and he and +Bettina would return to dinner. So gaily he and the little girl entered +the forest and presently, through the fog, they saw a great red ball of +a sun which grew brighter and brighter. + +As for Frau Weyland, she returned to her work. There was much to do with +two children to wash and dress, a house to clean, chickens to feed, +cream cheese to make, and dinner to prepare for the family. + +The daylight showed Hans to be tall and strong with broad shoulders and +the walk of a soldier. His grey hair was drawn back and tied in a queue, +and on one ruddy cheek was a scar from a sabre cut. Hans was very proud +of this, because he had won it in one of the battles of the Great +Frederick. His eyes were like his daughter's and like Bettina's, very +blue, and very big, and gleaming with gentleness. But in Hans' eyes +there was something different. At once were they merry and full of +dreams as if he could joke and yet be, also, very melancholy. + +As for Bettina, she was a little fairy of a girl who tripped along and +seemed barely to touch the ground. Her hair was golden and hung in two +tight little braids to her waist. Her dress was of red and made very +high under her arms and clinging about her little ankles. Her head was +quite bare, and a deep little wicker basket was strapped on her back in +which to bring home some pine cones or scrub oak leaves for the goat. + +"I'm a wood gatherer, grandfather," she pretended, and tripped along +behind him. + +She loved her grandfather. He told such nice stories and never was cross +like her grandfather Weyland, who always said children should be seen, +not heard, and in an entirely different tone from the pleasant one he +used with grown people. + +"I love the forest, grandfather." Bettina's eyes sparkled. + +"Ja, ja, little one," said Hans, "it is German to love all Nature, and, +truly, our forest is beautiful." + +Bettina nodded and gazed about at the tall giant-like pines and her +little nose drew in the deep fragrance of the firs. She was glad that +she did not live in Jena, but deep in this lovely Thuringian wood, where +the trunks of the trees looked like armies of soldiers. There were +lovely things in the forest. + +In its thick, pine-needle carpet grew lovely toadstools, red and yellow +and brown, and sometimes all queerly shaped and striped and just like +umbrellas and parasols. And the moss was thick and grew like a velvet +carpet and raised up the dearest little red cups, and the ferns waved +like feathers, and, in spring, there were the lilies of the valley which +rang tiny white bells for the fairies to come and dance round the gay +little toadstools. And, later, there were the Canterbury bells, so +lovely and purple. And, in and out the trees, ran great, bushy-tailed +red squirrels who peeped at her with eyes bright and sparkling, and +sometimes she saw little companies of deer and tiny fawns with their +mothers, and their eyes were like "Little Brother" in the fairy tale, +for it was in these very forests that some of the witches once lived, +and the fairies in "Grimm," and many of the people of the German +stories. + +Bettina knew that the fairies slept on the moss and danced under the +toadstools, only it was strange that she never had seen them, nor had +her mother, nor her father, nor her grandfather, nor Willy. + +But they were there. All the stories said so. + +"Do you think, grandfather," she asked, "that 'Little Brother' really +was turned into a fawn?" + +"Who can tell, Kindlein?" answered old Hans, but his mind was on other +things than Bettina and her fairy tales. + +"Hard times! hard times!" he muttered. "Always war somewhere, and what +then for poor people? Work! Work! Work!" + +Bettina was too small to understand, but, certainly, affairs were +gloomy. + +The King of Prussia had declared war upon the Emperor of the French; the +Duke of Weimar, ruler of the forest they were walking through and friend +of the great poet, Goethe, had joined the king as his ally. And now +soldiers were round about and everywhere. + +Soldiers were nothing new to Bettina. She had seen them all her life. +But the Emperor of the French! That was another thing, and an awful one. +She shuddered as her grandfather muttered his name. + +He was a dreadful man. Her mother always said so. At the mention of his +name every child in Germany behaved itself. And to think that she, +Bettina Weyland, had seen this monster on the white horse everybody +talked so about. + +Remembering the night before, Bettina trembled. Then, too, it seemed to +her that she kept hearing a queer sound of roaring--not loud, but far +away towards Jena, a rumble which frightened her. + +But old Hans seemed to hear nothing. His mind, as old minds will, had +travelled into the past and he had forgotten the Thuringian Wood, the +bright-eyed red squirrels, the deer, and even little Bettina chatting so +innocently as she trotted along behind him. + +In his day the world had changed greatly, old things were passing away +and no one knew what was coming. + +In America, the Colonies under Washington had won their independence and +founded a Republic. In France, there had been a dreadful Revolution, and +Louis the Sixteenth and Marie Antoinette had been guillotined. A +Corsican soldier first had become France's first consul, and now he was +the Emperor Bettina so dreaded. The Holy Roman Empire, whose Emperor had +lived in Vienna and ruled Germany, was no more, and France's Emperor, +Napoleon, had brought war all over the world. Europe had been fighting +during Hans' whole lifetime, and all the small countries had belonged +so to first one big one and then another, that it was hard sometimes to +exactly know who was one's ruler. + +"And now," said Hans aloud, "the French have come into Thuringia, and +our troubles begin." + +How dreadful these troubles were to be the old man had not even an idea. +Little did he think as he walked along with Bettina that before +twenty-four hours should have passed, a nation should fall, his own home +be no more, and Thuringia blood-stained and overrun with soldiers. + +What he did know was that the King of Prussia and the Duke of Brunswick +were at Auerstaedt, Prince Hohenlohe at Jena, and Napoleon, with the +French, in the same neighbourhood. + +"But there will be no battle; nonsense," the Prussians had all told him +in Jena. "And if there should be, who, tell us, would be victors but the +soldiers of Frederick the Great? Was not his army invincible?" + +"What matter?" they had answered when someone had ventured to refer to +Napoleon and his victories. "He must yield to us Prussians. Why not? The +moment that he heard that we were at Jena did he not leave Weimar in +haste and retreat to Gera?" + +In security they had gone to rest, and while they slept, Napoleon had +been planning a surprise for them. + +While old Hans was thinking, he suddenly found out what the Emperor had +meant by his good-morning. + +"Grandfather, oh, grandfather!" in sudden fright called out little +Bettina, "Oh, grandfather, what is it?" + +Hans' neck had stretched itself forward, his ears were listening, his +whole body on a strain, for a roar, deep and full and awful, seemed +suddenly to roll through the quiet of the silent, green forest. + +"Grandfather!" + +The old man turned his face as excited as a boy's. + +"Himmel, child, Himmel!" he cried. "The Emperor is saying good-morning. +It is cannon you hear. The battle has begun at Jena!" + +"Come, come," he continued, "I will not go any farther. Let the trees +take care of themselves for this morning. Come, come! What has an old +soldier of Frederick the Great to do with fir trees when the cannon are +sounding for battle?" And he started quickly in an opposite direction. +Bettina had to run so to keep up with him that her breath came in little +pants and her heart beat violently. But the roar was so awful she was +glad to be running to get away from it. + +If that was the voice of Napoleon saying good-morning, no wonder people +were afraid of him. + +"Grandfather," she panted, "dear grandfather, will the Emperor get my +father?" + +Hans' glowing face became suddenly sober. He had forgotten his +son-in-law, as he forgot everything. He paused in the narrow forest path +and raised his old blue eyes to Heaven. + +"Let us pray to the good God, my Bettina. He alone can save him in the +battle." + +For a moment he stood silent, his face gazing upward to the sky which +showed now between the fir trees. When he had ended his prayer he went +on more slowly and as they walked he told Bettina why the French and the +Prussians were fighting. For eight years, he said, the King of Prussia +had kept out of all the fighting in Europe, although both Russia and +Austria had entreated him to help them. But he declared that his country +was too poor, he loved peace, and his people needed quiet. + +"And wasn't that right, grandfather?" asked Bettina, who had been told +that fighting was wicked. + +"Perhaps, dear child, perhaps," the old soldier answered, "but it's a +good thing to help our neighbours when they need us. But the King of +Prussia is good and saving, too, not at all like the old King who spent +so much, and whose ministers brought Prussia to all this trouble." + +Then he explained how Napoleon would not let the King of Prussia alone, +how he had irritated him with taunts, how he had provoked him with +outrages, breaking a solemn promise about the Kingdom of Hanover, +quartering ten thousand soldiers on German soil, forming all the South +German States into a Confederation of the Rhine to depend upon him, and +not upon the Emperor of Austria, or the King of Prussia, and last, and +worst of all, defying the laws of nations, he had marched French +soldiers across neutral Prussia. + +"The King of Prussia is a good man, my Bettina, a very good man," old +Hans nodded. "He has saved much money for Prussia, but no man can stand +everything, and so now we have war." + +Bettina tried to listen, but all she could think of was the dreadful +Emperor on his white horse. She could see him again in his green +overcoat with its white facings, and feel the gleam of his eyes from +beneath his queer hat, and now he was firing cannon on her father. She +could not keep back her tears at the thought, and they rolled down her +cheeks and splashed to her red dress. + +"Will he get us, grandfather, will he get us?" she cried. + +"Nein, nein, little one," Hans answered. "That white horse will kick up +its heels and start back to Paris, perhaps this evening." + +"God be praised!" said little Bettina in the way all the Germans say +it. Then, suddenly, she pointed before her. + +In an opening in the forest where grew beeches, not evergreens, stood a +group of wood gatherers by a rippling stream which babbled through the +rocks, ferns dipping down their fronds from its banks to its water. They +were all women in short coloured skirts and loose jackets, deep wicker +baskets full of faggots strapped on their shoulders, their heads bare +and bowed a little because of the sticks, and their faces all frightened +and wild looking. + +"Herr Lange! Herr Lange!" they called when they saw Hans and little +Bettina, "what is it? What is all that roaring?" + +"Cannon," said Hans shortly. "The battle, women, has begun at Jena." + +Then came a noise of talk and tears and outcrying such as never is heard +out of Germany. Louisa had a husband with the Duke; Emma, a son; Grete, +a lover; Magdalena, a father. + +"Ach Gott! Ach Gott! Ach Gott!" sobbed a woman with sad dark eyes and +great shaggy white eyebrows. "The Poles killed my man," she wailed, "the +French, my sons; and now----" + +"Her grandsons are with the Duke," explained a pink-cheeked woman the +rest called Minna. + +"Come, come, women," Hans glanced kindly from one weeping face to the +other, "who says that your husbands and sons will be killed? They may +come home victorious; why not? The Prussians are three to the French +one. They are the soldiers of Frederick the Great, and is not your own +brave Duke helping them? Come, come, dry your tears. The thing, now, is +to get out of this forest. Who knows when the French will begin running +and the roads be full of soldiers?" + +He started forward with Bettina, and the wood-gatherers in single file +left the golden beechwood and, a line of bright colour, moved after him +through the deep, green forest, swallowing their tears and struggling +against their sobbing. On they went, the cannon roaring and thundering, +and, presently, they came out on a highway winding like a white ribbon +through the forest's greenness. + +They were but out of the path when a quick, noisy sound of hoofs on the +road made them start and stop suddenly. + +"Soldiers!" cried Hans, and the whole party scattered to the edge of the +forest. + +They were Prussians, and cavalry, and they acted as escort to a light, +closed travelling carriage. + +A dash, a rise of wet dust,--it had rained the day before,--hitting +them in their faces, and the cavalcade passed, the roar of the cannon +following like a pursuer. + +"We'll keep to the woods," and Hans changed their direction. + +Plunging again into the greenwood, they walked with the firs and pines +for company until the path brought them out on the highway opposite an +inn before which were the same Prussian soldiers, standing about +dismounted from their horses. + +The carriage was empty. + +Plainly some accident had happened, for a smith was busy at work on its +wheel. Herr Leo, the Head Forester, was asking questions, and Hans, +leading Bettina, pressed forward for the news, the wood gatherers +listening timidly on the edge of the crowd. + +The battle had begun before daybreak. The French guns had said an early +good-morning to the Prussians. The King was at Auerstaedt. + +"And where is the Emperor?" The forester leaned on his gun, one hand on +his hip. + +"At Jena, naturally," said a great, red-faced Prussian, who was standing +with his arm round the neck of his horse. + +"The devil take him!" Herr Leo's nostrils swelled with anger. + +"Ja wohl," cried the whole party, which is the German way of agreeing. + +"I saw the Emperor last night, Herr Forester." + +Every eye turned on Hans. + +Then he told his story, and the brows of the soldiers grew gloomy. + +"He, the Devil, was awake," said one who leaned idly against the +doorpost, "and we were all sleeping." He shrugged his shoulders and +began biting his nails as if in irritation. + +"The Prussian generals are old," said the forester. He was a +pompous-looking man, and announced everything with an air of being a +herald. + +"He called them 'old wigs.'" Hans' face flushed. "The generals of +Frederick the Great's army 'old wigs'!" + +At that the soldiers uttered words which made the women shudder. + +The forester asked news of the fight at Saalfield. He had heard that +there had been a skirmish, he said. + +"Ach Gott," cried the soldiers, "have you not heard?" + +Then the listening ears were shocked with the news of the defeat and +death of Prince Louis Ferdinand, he who was the darling of the army, the +Alcibiades of Prussia, one of the bravest princes who ever took up arms +against an enemy. + +One thousand Saxons under this Prince had been surrounded in a narrow +valley by thirty thousand of the enemy. The Saxons had fought bravely, +but in vain. The horse of Prince Louis Ferdinand, leaping a ditch, +became entangled in a high hedge and was spied by a French hussar. + +"Surrender, or you are a dead man!" he cried, and, for answer, Prince +Louis Ferdinand cut at him with a sabre. + +The Frenchman retorted with a sword thrust and made an end of the most +gallant Prince in Germany. + +Bettina, listening, and not always entirely understanding, grew cold +with horror. She could see the flashing of the swords, and, oh, her +father, her dear father was at Jena, and while the talk went on the +cannon roared louder and louder. + +"The enemy captured thirty guns," said a red-faced soldier gloomily. + +"There were bad omens before the war," announced the forester pompously. +His wife, he told them, had been in Berlin and had seen the statue of +Bellona, goddess of war, fall from the roof of the Arsenal on the very +day when the King reviewed his army. + +"And when they had picked her up," continued the forester, "her right +arm was entirely shattered!" + +He had another thing to tell. + +Old Field Marshal von Muellendorf, being lifted on the left side of his +charger, had straightway fallen down on the right. + +At this the red-faced soldier looked impatient. + +It was certainly stupid in that big-nosed forester to be telling such +things to the soldiers. + +"The Queen has been in camp with us," he announced to change the +subject. + +Then Bettina pricked up her ears. + +Oh, if only they would tell more of the Queen of Prussia! Who in Europe +did not know of her beauty, her goodness, her love for her people? To +Bettina she was like a fairy princess, for her grandfather had told her, +over and over again, of how he had seen her ride into Berlin in a +splendid gold coach to marry the Crown Prince. + +But the soldiers had their thoughts just then on war and they were soon +talking again of the Emperor. + +"The Devil," announced the forester, "is the only being who can conquer +the Emperor." + +"Or the English," said Hans quietly; "remember Nelson and his victory of +Trafalgar." + +At this there was an outcry, the whole group protesting and talking. + +"Hold your tongue, old fool!" cried a fat, rude Prussian. + +"Ja, ja!" all the others approved him. + +"Are not the soldiers of Frederick the Great as brave as the sailors of +Nelson? Did not the Great Frederick himself say that the world was not +so well poised on the shoulders of Atlas as the Prussian monarchy on the +bayonets of the Prussian army?" + +"Ja wohl," cried the company. + +Then, suddenly, little Bettina's childish voice made the whole party +pause and listen. She spoke as fearlessly as if alone with Hans. + +"Grandfather," she said, "grandfather, do the soldiers know of Frederick +Barbarossa? Tell them, dear grandfather," her little face glowed with +excitement, "tell them the ravens will wake him and he will come with +the sword and kill the wicked Emperor," and she gazed from one face to +the other, her eyes bright and eager. + +A great laugh answered her, but one soldier, a kind-looking young man +with blue eyes, patted her head and said: + +"Brava, little one, brava! If the ravens won't caw enough, we'll wake +the old Redbeard with our cannon. Never fear, we'll wake him." + +He smiled at Bettina as if he knew how little girls feel, for perhaps he +had a little sister at home who also loved stories. + +Then, before the talk could begin again, out came an officer, and the +soldiers at his command mounted their horses. While the talk had gone +on, the smith had mended the wheel and now stood in his leather apron as +if waiting for something to happen. + +The Herr Ober-Forester stepped to one side and, with a wave of his +important hand, motioned the wood gatherers to move farther from the +carriage. + +The door of the inn was then thrown open by the Herr Landlord, bowing +almost to the ground as he did it. Four grand ladies and a gentleman +then approached the carriage. Nobody troubled much to look at two of the +ladies, though they were young and very noble in appearance. + +The third was so dignified that everybody stood up a little straighter. +Yet her face was as kind-looking as it was handsome. She was not young. +Years had turned her hair quite snow-white, and yet her eyes were as +bright and sparkling as a girl's, and she greeted them pleasantly. + +But it was at the fourth lady everyone gazed and gazed almost as if +enchanted. Never in all her life was little Bettina to see anyone half +so lovely. She was exactly like the Princesses in the Fairy Tales, tall +and slender, and the most graceful person in the whole world. Her hair +was quite golden and waved in the loveliest way from a parting in the +middle. Her complexion was pink and white and made you think of +snowdrops. Her features were quite perfect and her smile altogether +enchanting. + +And her eyes! + +"Never," the people of Berlin had said years before, "never have we seen +such eyes, never." + +They were blue, and deep in colour, and they seemed to speak right to +the heart and say things no one can write of. They were wonderful eyes, +the most wonderful then in Europe, and that is all there is about it. + +Though she looked worried and anxious, the moment she saw other faces +than those of the soldiers, she smiled first at one, then at the other. + +About her lovely throat was a light tissue scarf, and a breeze, seizing +it, blew its end sharply into the very face of the dignified, +bright-eyed old lady. + +"Pardon me, oh, pardon me, dear Voss," called out a voice so sweet that +Bettina and the wood gatherers thought they had never heard anything +like it. It thrilled them like gentle music. Then she swept away the +scarf and patted the old lady's shoulder. + +Her foot was on the carriage step, when, for the first time, she saw +little Bettina. Her lovely face suddenly lighted with a smile like a +mother's. + +"Voss, Voss," she said, "see that dear child. Do look at her." + +Then she stepped from the carriage and turned to Bettina. + +"God bless you, little one," she began, but a roar of cannon, loud and +thundering, came like a voice warning her to hasten. With a wave of her +hand she entered the carriage. From its window, when all were ready, she +thrust forth her lovely head. + +"God bless you all, good people!" called her voice of sweetness. Her +face now looked sad and very anxious. "Pray for me, dear people, pray +for my King and your good Duke who is helping him, pray the dear God +that He will give us the victory." + +Then she drew in her head; bang went the door; the officer gave an +order; the postilions sounded; and away dashed the carriage, the +splashing mud and the roar of cannon behind it. + +The women crowded around Hans. + +His face was radiant. + +"Who was it?" he cried. Then he spoke with great triumph. "Who better +than Hans Lange can tell you? I saw her ride into Berlin in a golden +coach to marry her husband. Women," his voice quivered, "the lady with +the golden hair and the blue eyes is the 'Angel of Prussia.' Yesterday, +in Jena, I heard how the Emperor of the French hates her and has vowed, +if he can, to capture her. It is from him, doubtless, that she is +flying." + +The old lady, he told the excited wood gatherers, was the Countess Marie +Sophie von Voss, Mistress of Ceremonies in the Prussian Court, and like +a mother to Her Majesty. + +"Oh, grandfather, oh, grandfather!" Bettina, in spite of the Emperor, in +spite of her father and the cannon, for the moment was again quite +happy. She had seen the Queen of Prussia, the most beautiful lady in all +Europe, and she had said, "God bless you." + +But her grandfather, listening to the cannon, turned to the wood +gatherers who were standing and discussing the Queen. + +"Go home, women," he said in a tone of command, "go home at once and see +that your children are in safety. We may win." He threw out his hands. +"We may not." He shrugged his shoulders. "Either way, you are better off +the highroad." + +Then he turned to the pink-cheeked young woman. + +"Minna," he said, "take Bettina, here, home to Frau Weyland. Ja, ja, go, +child; mother will be anxious. Go, now, and you can tell her how the +Queen spoke to you. And, Minna, tell Frau Weyland to go at once to her +father-in-law's with the children. She can lock the house, tell her, and +leave the dogs unchained. Herr Weyland can go up, or send Fritz, for the +night. I am going, myself, now, to Jena. Tell her, Bettina, to go at +once. No one knows when the soldiers will be everywhere." + +"Ja wohl," and Minna took the hand of Bettina. + +Her grandfather turned towards the roar of the cannon. + +"Auf wiedersehen," he said, and off he marched like a soldier. + +As for Bettina, she trotted along with the wood gatherers, her fright +all gone. + +Now that she had seen the lovely Queen and knew that the Emperor had +vowed to capture her, she could almost see the old Kaiser Barbarossa +rising from his sleep. His sword was flashing, his eyes were like fire, +and she knew that he would kill the monster, Napoleon, and save the +lovely Louisa. + +"Do you think," asked Minna, suddenly, "that the Queen will escape?" + +The women looked gloomy and shrugged their shoulders. + +"The Emperor does what he wills," said black-eyed Emma. + +"Ja wohl," agreed Magdalena. Then she shook her head wisely. "I say +this, women, poor as we are to-day, it is better to be wood gatherers of +Thuringia than the Queen of Prussia." + +"Ja wohl," they all said, "much better." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +AT JENA + + +When old Hans left Bettina and the women he followed the highway until +he came to a path leading to a red-roofed farm house belonging to his +cousin. + +Seeing Herr Schmelze standing in the doorway, the old man went in. + +"Good-day," called the cousin. "Himmel, Hans, but the firing is awful!" + +Certainly the roar, always steady and loud, seemed to increase to a +noise like thunder. Towards Jena they saw a cloud of blue smoke rising +always thicker and higher. The air, usually so fresh with the breath of +the pines, choked their throats with its taste of powder. The din was +awful, shrieks, shots, and the cannon roar uniting. Before Hans could +even answer, the flying feet of the first fugitives were heard on the +road, men and frightened women, furniture on their backs, children in +their arms, hands holding what they could; on they came as if fiends +were at their heels, a great horror pursuing them. + +The cousin's wife, seeing Hans, came out to greet him. Her fingers were +held fast to her ears and she kept crying on God to help them. + +"Be quiet, Lotte," commanded her husband, "and bring Hans some +breakfast." + +She ran back into the house, and Herr Schmelze led the way to a rustic +table beneath an elm. + +"It is cold," said he, shivering at the dampness, "but out here it is +better, is it not? We can see all that is happening." + +Frau Schmelze returned with black bread, sausage, hard-boiled eggs, and +beer. + +Arranging them on the table, she bowed her head most piously. + +"Bless the mealtime," she said, jumping an "Amen" as the cannon +thundered a sudden volley. + +"Mealtime," answered the men, German fashion, and fell to eating. + +"Eat while you can, friends," and Frau Schmelze smoothed her clean black +apron over her short skirt of blue. "The soldiers will soon get +everything." + +Germans seem always able to eat, so, though the cannon roared and the +fugitives passed by dozens in the road, Hans and the cousin partook of +the meal in large mouthfuls, exchanging news as they drank their beer. + +"I came from Weimar to-day," said Herr Schmelze, in his slow, deliberate +way. "The Queen of Prussia has been with our Duchess, but this morning +she left." + +"I saw her on the road," said Hans, and told of the adventure at the +inn. "And I saw Napoleon," he added, and while he related again the +story, the roaring grew fiercer and fiercer. Suddenly Frau Schmelze ran +from the house. + +"Ach Gott! Ach Gott! Ach Gott!" she screamed. "Conrad, Hans, look! +look!" + +And she pointed to the highroad. + +Flying, galloping, running as if demons were at their heels, they saw +soldiers on foot, soldiers on horseback, hussars, dragoons, heard +pistols exploding, saw swords flashing, heard voices screaming madly. It +was horrible. + +A quick shot sounded. A soldier fell like a stone at the gate. + +Hans and Conrad reached him as if by magic. + +"Dead," said the cousin, as they drew the body to the grass. "And a +Prussian." + +There was a stream of blood in the road, men were falling, riding over +each other, dropping to death everywhere. On they came, faster and more +furious. + +"Save us! Save us from Napoleon!" + +Hans flung open the gate, and in rushed two wild-eyed women caught in +their flight by the hussars, who seeing them out of their way, rushed on +after higher game. + +"Vive l'Empereur! Vive l'Empereur!" The cry rose even above the cannon +roar. Hans and Conrad looked each other in the eyes. + +"The Prussians, cousin," began Hans. + +"Were first," said Herr Schmelze. + +The shoulders of the brave old soldier of Frederick the Great drooped +with shame, the fat old farmer coloured. + +It was the first time Hans had seen a Prussian soldier turn his back on +an enemy, and a tear stole down his cheek. + +"Come," said Herr Schmelze, "let us go to the height and look down on +the battle. Ulrich," he called to his son, as he passed the house, "stay +here and take care of your mother." + +Then he led the way to a spot from where they could see the battle. The +sight was one never to be forgotten, and as the hours passed the hearts +of the two Germans grew sick within them. They saw the Duke of Brunswick +borne from the field of dead and wounded, and then began a panic worse +than all else we can read of in history. Over the field flew the +Prussians, whole companies taking flight as if children. Horses, freed +from their riders, dashed where they would, galloping over the dead, +crushing with their hoofs the dying; swords flashed against sabres; men +fled as if mad; gunners deserted cannon; and still, through all the +havoc and confusion, steadily, unswervingly, the cannon of Napoleon +roared on. Towards late afternoon the Prussians were turning their backs +in all directions, crossing each other's paths, blockading, hampering, +as they struggled to escape to Erfurt, to Kolleda, to Sommerda. + +The sun dropped in the west, and, as the afterglow rose like a mist of +gold, the light fell on a field of such horror as blood-stained old +Europe rarely has seen. The cries of the wounded, the dying, the +pursued, and the victorious rent the air, and the Prussians who remained +were in a confusion most awful. Only the soldiers of the Duke of Weimar +fought with steadiness, and, presently, they began to retreat in order +towards Erfurt. + +The glorious army of Frederick the Great had disappeared like a bubble. +Napoleon had but touched it with his finger of might and its +many-coloured glory had vanished into nothing. + +For hours, old Hans and his cousin watched the fight, and lower and +lower sank the head of the old man. That he, a soldier of Frederick the +Great, should see the downfall of the army! + +"Ach Gott! Ach Gott! Ach Gott!" he said to the cousin. + +But Herr Schmelze caught his arm, his face suddenly glowing with +excitement. + +"Look, cousin, look!" he cried and with a fat hand he pointed towards +the field. "Look, I say, look, Hans! What courage! That Prussian is +only a boy, and there are four, no, five, six, seven Frenchmen in +pursuit. See him run! Bravo! Ach Himmel! Hans, at last, some courage!" + +What Hans saw was a Prussian, slender, alert, quite boy-like in figure, +fly before pursuing Frenchmen. To save himself he darted sideways, then +rushed between two wagons close together and deserted by the Prussians. + +Sheltered, he fired. + +A Frenchman dropped. + +He dodged the answer and fired again. + +"Vive l'Empereur!" called the hussars, responding, but the boy, turning +suddenly, leaped the wagon to the left; then, as the Frenchmen started +to follow, he turned on his heel, dived behind the rear of his barricade +and, turning, fled, gaining time as he ran. + +"Bravo! Bravo!" called the cousin, and Hans brightened at even this +slight show of Prussian courage. With shots pursuing, unharmed, the boy +fled on, the French behind, until dusk wrapped in its dimness both +pursued and pursuers. + +Hans and Herr Schmelze strained their eyes to see the end of the unequal +combat, but the battlefield and flying soldiers faded alike in the +gloom. + +"I must go home," said Herr Schmelze, suddenly remembering his Lotte, +"and you, Hans?" + +"I'm off to Jena." + +The cousin eyed him curiously. + +"Hans," he said, "is it wise to leave Annchen alone with the children? +The house is lonely and will be in the path of the soldiers, if they +should break through the forest." + +The old man's mind was full only of the battle. + +"Nein, nein, Conrad," he said. "I sent Anna a message by Minna +Schneiderwint. She was to take the children and go at once to her +husband's father. She is there now, that is certain." + +The cousin looked less anxious. He was easy going and usually minded his +own affairs. + +"So, so," he said, "then she will certainly be safe. You are sure she +obeyed? Otherwise----" + +Hans nodded with conviction. + +"Of course she obeyed; why not? I told Minna to command her." + +"Very well, then," and Herr Schmelze started home. "Auf wiedersehen, +Hans, and you might bring us the news as you come back from Jena." + +"Ja wohl," and the old soldier of Frederick the Great strode away in the +gloaming. + +Jena was a scene of horror. Its streets were noisy with the yells of +drunken soldiers; screaming women were rushing in or out of houses; in +the streets lay the dead and dying, and, above the noise, steady, never +stopping, roared on the cannon of Napoleon. + +About ten at night a sound of drums silenced the screams. With +triumphant flags and victorious music, in rode Napoleon, erect on his +white horse as ever. + +"The scoundrel, the upstart!" said a voice near Hans. + +The speaker wore the dress of a professor of the University of Jena, and +he stiffened his head as the conqueror approached. "I will not bow to +him," he muttered, "I will not." + +But Napoleon suddenly gazing at him, the professor hesitated, then, a +strange look on his face, bowed as if in spite of himself. + +"It is Professor Hegel, the philosopher," said a man near Hans. "He has +been writing here in Jena and did not even hear the cannon. A moment ago +the postmaster told him the news and he is like one broken-hearted." + +But Hans had not time for gossip. Jena men whom he knew were on the road +to the field to bring in the wounded and they hailed him. + +"Well met, Hans," they cried. "Come! We need men. Come, and help us." + +"Ja wohl," and Hans turned and joined them. "I am too old to fight, +alas, comrades," he grieved, "but God be thanked, I can do this for the +army." And he marched off with the group. + +Why not? + +Annchen and the children were quite safe with Kasper's father. Anna knew +his ways and would not worry. It had been different when he had had +Bettina. Her concern had been for the child and not for an old soldier +such as he was. Why not, then? + +And so he followed to the field where the horses still were racing, the +Prussian soldiers fleeing, the thieves prowling to rob the dead and the +dying, and where, above the havoc, still roared without ceasing the +cannon of Napoleon. + +Towards Weimar the sky was crimson, tongues of flame darting up and +suddenly lighting the heavens. + +There was but one cry: "Vive l'Empereur! Vive Napoleon!" and, as Hans, +with the gentleness of a woman, lifted man after man from the ground, he +knew that the soldiers of Frederick had had their good-morning, and the +country of that famous old soldier lay conquered in the dust. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +AT THE FOREST HOUSE + + +Hans worked hard all night and into the next morning, and then, feeling +the need of food and finding none in overcrowded Jena, with an "Auf +wiedersehen" to his comrades, he departed for the farmhouse. + +Frau Schmelze stood in the doorway. + +"Morning, Hans!" she called. "Come in, come in, here is coffee!" + +Bustling about, she prepared him a meal in the living room. + +On the sofa lay a man in Prussian uniform. + +"He staggered in last night," she explained. "His hand was cut and +bleeding. I bound it up for him and he fell asleep there, though, +goodness knows, it was dangerous enough with the French tearing by every +moment!" She poured out coffee. "Ach Himmel, Hans!" she cried, "but war +is dreadful! All night the cannon and the screaming." + +Then suddenly she turned on him, glancing at his tumbled hair and face +stained and dirty. + +"Hans," she said, "have you been all night in Jena?" + +The old man nodded. + +Frau Schmelze frowned in disapproval. + +"Cousin," she said, "are you sure about Annchen? All night there were +soldiers that way. It would be dreadful if she were alone with the +little ones, nicht wahr? We thought you were there." + +"Alone?" Hans put down his coffee cup in surprise. "I sent her word to +go to her father-in-law's." + +The truth was, he had forgotten everything but the battle. + +"Why should she, cousin, have stayed on in the Forest House?" + +Frau Schmelze was silent; it was not her business to remind Hans Lange +that he had a daughter exactly like him. + +"So," she answered after a moment, "so. Perhaps you know best, but----" + +Then she went to the soldier whom the talking had awakened. In her hand +was a cup of the good, steaming hot coffee. + +"Ah," said the man, "a thousand thanks!" and he drained the cup, +smacking his thin lips as he finished. + +"It makes a man over." And rising stiffly he tottered to the table and +sank in a chair beside Hans. "You have news of the battle, my friend?" + +Hans nodded. + +"Napoleon is in Jena," he answered shortly. + +"And the army?" + +Hans snapped his fingers. + +"Gone like a bubble," he said. Then he told of the night and the flying +of the soldiers, of the crossing and recrossing of lines, of the racing +of the riderless horses, and the entrance of Napoleon into Jena. + +The soldier's head sank low; he left his second cup of coffee untasted. + +"No one can stand against the French Emperor," he said. + +"Ach, nein," agreed Frau Schmelze. + +"Perhaps the English," volunteered Hans, cutting huge mouthfuls of bread +and grey sausage. + +The Prussian flushed and his lip curled. + +"The good God helping me," he said, "here is one Prussian who will never +give up his fighting until they sign peace, or death steps in." + +"Bravo!" cried Herr Schmelze, coming in at the door. "If there were more +who felt that way, Jena this morning would not be Napoleon's. The +Fatherland is full of indifference, nicht wahr?" + +"The Germans are asleep," said the soldier, "the whole nation is +dreaming." + +Herr Schmelze smiled drily. + +"There was something loud enough to wake them, yesterday, nicht wahr?" +And he looked at the other two and laughed sarcastically. + +As for Hans, he moved uneasily. + +"That a man must grow too old to fight," he said. Then he offered to +show the soldier the way towards Erfurt, where the remainder of the army +was gathering. + +Frau Schmelze put down her work and whispered in the ear of her husband. +He nodded. + +"Hans," he said, "you had better go to the Forest House. Annchen----" + +"Ja wohl, Otto." The old man rose resolutely. "We go that way, you know, +and when I show our friend here the way, I'll go down and take the news +to old Weyland." + +Then off he started with the soldier, plunging into talk of the King of +Prussia and Napoleon. + +Frau Schmelze shook her head. + +"I hope, Otto," she said, "that nothing has happened." + +The farmer looked serious. + +"I thought, of course, Hans had gone home, or I should have sent +Ulrich." + +"Hans?" A look expressed Frau Schmelze's opinion of Frederick the +Great's old soldier, and she returned to her labours. + +"A good man is our King, there is no better," the soldier meanwhile was +saying. "He and our good Angel, the Queen, have the love of all their +people. He is upright, and saving, and truly religious, but, ach Himmel, +if he were only not so uncertain! Nobody, not even Stein, steady himself +as a rock, can make him know what he wants to do and at once to do it. +'To-morrow,' he says, 'let us wait.' It is always so, nicht? Now, take +this war. He delayed and delayed, letting Napoleon insult him over and +over. The army grew feeble from want of exercise, and our generals too +old for service. Bluecher is the only one worth counting. Then, too," he +continued, "Frederick William the Second is unlucky. Look at his +wretched boyhood. He was born unlucky. And now he has made a mistake +about this war, nicht wahr? For eight years when our neighbours needed +us he wouldn't fight, and now when we are at it ourselves there is no +one to help us." + +"The Russians," put in Hans, "the Czar Alexander is our ally. Did you +not hear how he and our King--I am a Prussian, you know--swore an oath +of friendship at midnight at the tomb of Frederick the Great, the Queen +being witness?" + +The soldier nodded. + +"Ja, ja," he said, "if Russia will help," he spread out his hand, "that +will be entirely another affair. But who knows? That little Emperor of +the French may twist any number of Czars round his finger, but hark!" He +listened eagerly. "What was that? A child?" + +There was a sound as of a baby wailing wretchedly. Hans looked uneasy. +Could it be that his Anna--but, no--he had sent her word, and certainly +she had obeyed him. It was only some peasant with her baby. Presently +they left the wood and before them stood the little grey Forest House +with its red roof and garden. + +Hans started and called out an exclamation. Pine needles were scattered +everywhere as if feet, running, had disturbed the forest carpet. The +garden gate stood open. A rosebush, broken, had fallen across the path. +On the path, too, were dark drops which made both men shudder. The +chickens, not yet freed from their night quarters, clucked impatiently, +unmilked cows bellowed in pain, and Schneider and Schnip, the dogs, +howled long and mournfully. And yet, in spite of the noise, the place +seemed wrapped in a quiet most horrible. + +"Mein Gott!" The soldier looked at Hans, who, gazing steadily before +him, pushed open the unlatched door of the hall. + +A cold little nose touched his hand as he entered. It was "Little +Brother," Bettina's pet fawn, whose eyes seemed to speak most +mournfully. + +The hall was that of a Forest House, its walls ornamented with antlers +of deer, guns and sticks on the racks, and, in the corner against one +wall, a highly carved oak press, and, opposite, Frau Weyland's spinning +wheel. But Hans and the soldier took no note of furniture, for a stream, +a dark stream, was flowing from one door to the other, its source being +the living room. + +"Gott im Himmel!" cried the soldier. "It is blood!" Then he pushed open +the door, Hans and the little fawn following. + +There was the room as Hans knew it, with its sofa, its square table, its +geraniums in the windows, its tall white porcelain stove, and its one +picture of the Herr Jesus blessing the children. + +A candle, smoking dismally about the socket, filled the room with a +horrid odour. On the table stood the remains of supper, half eaten. But +the two men looked at none of these things, nor took note of the little +quivering fawn, whose eyes seemed to long to explain the whole story. + +It was at the floor both gazed in horror. + +"May the good God have pity," said the soldier softly. + +Before them lay three bodies, the first in the uniform of a French +soldier, the second, the young Prussian officer Hans had seen flying, +and the third---- + +Hans fell on his knees and took his daughter's golden head in his arms. + +"Annchen!" he cried, "Annchen! Speak to me, my Annchen!" + +But Frau Weyland was never again to laugh at his forgetfulness, never +again to smile her "Ja, ja, dear father!" never to tease him about his +battles. + +The story was easy to read; the position of the bodies told it. The +Prussian had fled to the Forest House for refuge, the Frenchman had +fired from the doorway, Frau Weyland, hastily rising, had received one +bullet. + +As for the Frenchman, a sword thrust had finished him. Doubtless he had +received it in the battle and he had bled while running. At all events, +it was a loss of blood which had killed him. + +Old Hans was almost crazy. With his daughter's head on his knees, he +kept begging God to forgive him. + +"She was all I had," he told the soldier, "and I thought she was with +her husband's father. Herr Jesus, forgive me, forgive me." + +Then, presently, as is the habit of certain people, he found comfort in +blaming someone else. He flew into a wild fury against Napoleon; he +cursed him; he cried out vengeance against him, and he swore that as +long as he had a drop of blood in his veins he would struggle to +overthrow him. The soldier paid no heed. With his unhurt hand he had +been feeling the heart of the young Prussian. + +"Get water, old man," he interrupted. "Quick! Quick! The Herr Lieutenant +still lives!" + +Hans, laying down the head of his daughter, drew from his pocket a +flask. + +"It is brandy," he said. "They gave it to me for the wounded in Jena." + +The soldier poured some drops down the officer's throat. He ordered Hans +to fling open doors and windows and they made the poor fellow more +comfortable. + +Then they covered the dead with sheets from the sleeping room beds. + +"Ach Himmel!" cried Hans suddenly. "The children!" + +He ran into the garden. Above the noise of the animals sounded the +distant wail of a babe. Following the sound, Hans came upon Bettina, +little Hans, and baby August. + +They had hidden in the forest, Bettina holding the baby wrapped in her +mother's shawl. + +"Grandfather, oh, grandfather," and she burst into sobs, "he cries so, I +can't stop him." + +"Mother, I want mother!" screamed little Hans, while the baby's wails +were incessant. + +Bearing August in his arms, Hans and Bettina at his side, the old man +appeared again in the kitchen of the farmhouse. + +"Gott im Himmel!" cried Frau Schmelze, wringing her hands and weeping. +"I knew it! I knew it! You need not tell me. Conrad, husband! Ulrich! +Come! Quick! It is Anna! Our dear, dear Anna!" + +As for Hans, he went on like a madman, railing at Napoleon and blaming +the French. Only Bettina could quiet him. + +No, he would not stay there with the children. He would return to the +Forest House where he had left the soldier. + +So the farmer went with him, and Ulrich fetched Kaspar's father. + +Hans insisted that he would nurse the wounded Prussian. + +"Let him alone," said the soldier, who announced that he must march on +towards Erfurt. "It will take his mind off his trouble." + +"The children will stay here for the present," insisted Frau Schmelze +when Hans reappeared that evening. + +He nodded. + +"Ja wohl, Lotte," he said, and then he railed so at Napoleon that she +was sure his grief had crazed him. + +She kept her thoughts to herself until that night, when she and her +husband lay under their featherbeds. Then she expressed the opinion she +had been suppressing all day. + +"It's all very well laying everything on Napoleon," she said. "He is a +monster, an upstart, a villain, but Hans should have gone home to poor +Anna. She should have obeyed and gone to Weyland's, you say? That is +just like you, Otto, taking up for Hans Lange because he is a man, but +Anna, poor woman, was not much given to obeying her father; you know +that, husband, as well as I do, nicht? She was Hans, all over, doing +what she pleased and obeying no one." Then the good woman, who truly had +loved her cousin, wet her pillow with tears. + +The farmer grieved, also. Why not? He, too, had liked Anna, and there +were those little children, but he was a man and his thoughts were on +the battle. He had learned at Jena that Napoleon was that evening to +enter Weimar. Who knew what would happen? + +The Duke was the ally of the King of Prussia, and Napoleon was not +likely to forget it. + +"Our poor country," and he sighed, remembering his meadows and how the +soldiers had tramped over them. + +He was sinking to sleep when Ulrich returned from Jena, where he had +gone after supper. + +"Father! Mother!" he called. "Wake up! Wake up! There is news of a +battle at Auerstaedt!" + +The farmer pulled back the bed curtains and sprang from his bed. + +"A battle at Auerstaedt! Impossible!" + +But Ulrich nodded, having hurried until he was quite breathless. + +"Ja, ja, father," he panted, "the whole Prussian army is annihilated! +They fought at Auerstaedt at exactly the same time the battle took place +at Jena." + +"Ach Himmel, Ulrich, I cannot believe it!" cried the farmer, his face +red with excitement. + +"Ja wohl, father," Ulrich insisted. "Davoust led the French, the King of +Prussia the Germans. They fought all day and neither the King nor the +Emperor heard the cannons of the other." + +"There has never been such a thing in the history of the world, Ulrich. +Two battles at once, here in Thuringia. Impossible!" + +But Ulrich knew what he was talking about. + +"Ja wohl, father," he said, "I heard it in Jena. All the generals are +dead or wounded. The King is no one knows where. Horses were twice shot +from under him, and they say he fought like a hero. Napoleon's soldiers +are ordered to capture the Queen, and Davoust is pursuing towards +Erfurt. Down in Jena they say Napoleon will march at once on Berlin." + +Frau Schmelze's voice came from between the bed curtains. + +"War is terrible," she said. "Ach Gott, but it is awful!" + +"Ja wohl, mother," agreed Ulrich. "All is lost, everything, and Napoleon +is our master!" Then he told how the sky was red toward Weimar and how +he had heard the Duchess had refused to fly and had taken scores of +people into the castle. + +Then he lowered his voice, which trembled. + +"Mother," he said, "I have bad news for Hans Lange. Kaspar was among +those who died, to-day, in the hospital in Jena. They brought him in +after Hans had left them." + +And so, behind the white horse of the Emperor, Death marched into +Thuringia. + +Poor Bettina! + +Napoleon had robbed her of her father and mother, and the old Barbarossa +still slept on in his cave, the ravens cawing and circling. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE JOURNEY + + +The wounded soldier lay unconscious for many days in the Forest House. +Hans nursed him carefully. He took care of Bettina, too, whom he refused +to leave with Frau Schmelze, and Minna Schneiderwint came to milk the +cows and do the cooking. Later they must find a new home, but the Herr +Forester Leo had been glad, for the present, for Hans to keep on with +Kaspar's duties. + +Bettina spent much time by the sick officer. At first, she had been +afraid of him lying there in a stupor, but presently she grew used to +the quiet and liked to sit near his bed while her grandfather was in the +forest, singing away to her doll and never minding the sick man. One day +she was putting her dolly to sleep with a pretty song her godmother had +taught her: + + "Joseph, lieber Joseph mein, + Hilf mir weig'n mein Kindlein. + Eia!" + + "Joseph, dear Joseph mine, + Help me rock my little child, + Eia!" + +she sang. The Germans say that it is the song the Virgin Mary sang when +she rocked the little Jesus in Bethlehem, and so Bettina loved it. + +"My sister sings that," said a voice from the bed, a weak voice like a +child's. + +Bettina gave a great start and then smiled when she saw it was the +soldier. + +"My dolly is named Anna," she said, and she ran to the bed to show him. + +[Illustration: "_My dolly is named Anna_"] + +"God be praised," said Hans, when he came in and found them talking. + +The soldier would hear the news. Hans told him everything, but not all +at once, for it was not wise for him to have too much excitement. + +Jena was lost. So was Auerstaedt. Both great battles had been fought in +one day, neither party hearing the cannon of the other. Retreating, the +armies had crossed each other, and never had Europe seen such turmoil +and confusion. As for the Prussian army, it had vanished. The young +soldier could not believe it. A few weeks before he had marched with +that brilliant army, singing songs, and certain of victory. + +"And the Emperor?" his face flushed with hatred. + +Then Hans told him how, on the day after Jena, Napoleon had marched into +Weimar. + +"Our good Duchess had remained," he said, "all the day of Jena, and the +next morning she opened her doors to Weimar families and any English +strangers. There was nothing to eat, and all Her Highness had was a cake +of chocolate she found hid beneath a cushion. Towards evening of the day +of the battles--I have been told, sir, it was awful!--the French rushed +in, pursuing the Prussians. It was terrible. The soldiers slew each +other in the streets, the pavements ran blood, the French fell on the +wine and beer, and, not knowing what they did, they set fire to the +houses near the castle, and the French officers quartered themselves on +the Duchess. She alone, sir, remained calm. We have heard how she waited +that second evening at the head of the stairs for Napoleon. When he +arrived she advanced to meet him, greeting him with politeness. 'Who are +you?' he cried, like a peasant." + +"The upstart!" muttered the young lieutenant. + +"'I am the Duchess of Weimar,' our lady told him," continued Hans, his +voice thrilling with pride at Her Highness's bravery. "'I pity you,' +said Napoleon, 'for I must crush your husband. Where is he?' 'At his +post of duty,' our Duchess, sir, told him. She is a brave lady, sir, and +it's a pity, a dreadful pity, that many of our soldiers are not like +her. Pardon me, sir, but the doings of our army have been dreadful." + +Then he told all the rest he had been told: how Count Philip de Segur +had come in the dawn to report to Napoleon all the events of the night, +and when he had told him that they had failed in their attempt to +capture the Queen of Prussia, Napoleon had said: "Ah, that would have +been well done, for she has caused the war." + +"That is false," cried the lieutenant, his face flushing. "Our Queen was +in Pyrmont for her illness caused by the death of little Prince +Ferdinand, and it was decided upon before her return. How dare +Napoleon----" + +"The Emperor of the French dares anything," and Hans shrugged his old +shoulders. He had heard, too, but he had no idea how true it was, that +Napoleon had written the Empress Josephine, who was then in Paris, that +it would have pleased him much had he captured Queen Louisa. + +"And why?" asked the soldier, "why should the Emperor hate so gentle a +lady?" + +Hans shook his head. + +"One is good, the other is bad. From the beginning of things, sir, the +pastors tell us in church, there's been war between good and evil, nicht +wahr?" + +The soldier nodded. + +"I suppose so," he said. + +Then he heard the rest about the Duchess of Weimar. + +The Emperor of the French could not praise her enough. + +Next morning he had breakfasted with her. "Madame," he asked, "how could +your husband be so mad as to make war upon me?" "My husband," said the +Duchess, "has been in the service of the King of Prussia for more than +thirty years, and, certainly, it was not at the moment when the King had +so formidable an enemy as your Majesty that the Duke could abandon him." + + +The Emperor was so pleased with her brave answer that his manner changed +at once. His tone became respectful and he made her a bow. "Madame," he +said, "you are the most sensible woman whom I ever have known. You have +saved your husband. I pardon him, but entirely on your account. As for +him, he is a good-for-nothing." + +Then he talked much more with the Duchess, and at her request ordered +all the disorder to be stopped in the town, and everywhere that he went +he praised her conduct. + +"And we have one comfort," Hans told the soldier. "The Duke, our Duke, +Herr Lieutenant, alone remained firm, the Prince of Orange standing with +him. They, sir, made an orderly retreat to Erfurt, but," he shrugged his +broad shoulders, "their bravery counted as nothing." + +Hans was a different man since the death of his daughter. He had but one +thought, and that was hatred of the French and of Napoleon. When he +walked now, his head hung low. He had no longer cheery words for the +people he met with, but a gruff good-day and then no more speaking. + +Only to the soldier was he talkative. There was something about the +pleasant-faced lieutenant which brought back the old Hans; each day the +young fellow grew dearer. Still, even he felt that Hans had his +secrets. He came and went in strange ways, and often after nightfall. + +One morning, when the frost was white on the grass and the leaves of the +low shrubs were touched with silver, the old man started out as usual. +There were still French at Jena, though Napoleon with the army had +marched away towards Berlin. Bettina was with the soldier, who was up +now, and hoped soon to try and join the army. + +He and the little girl were great friends. He had told her how that he +had three sisters, the oldest, very pretty and named Marianne, and the +other two, Ilse and Elsa, were twins, round, jolly and so alike there +was no telling them apart unless they spoke, when you knew Ilse because +of the shape of one tooth. He had three brothers, Wolfgang, Otto, and +little Carl. + +"And our home, dear little Bettina, is called the Stork's Nest," he told +her, "because my father is Professor von Stork, and the real stork has +brought my mother so many babies." + +Bettina was delighted at this and asked many questions about Marianne, +who was so pretty, and read so many books, and Ilse and Elsa, who were +always in mischief, fooling everybody about which was which and trying +to do everything that their brothers did. + +But the one of this family in whom Bettina took the most interest was +little Carl, who had such red cheeks, almost white hair, and blue eyes +like saucers. + +The reason of this was a story the soldier told her. + +One day, he said, his mother was taking her nap after dinner. Before she +shut her door she told little Carl, who then was six, to go and stay +with his big sister, Marianne. But Marianne was reading a famous book by +the great poet, Goethe, called "The Sorrows of Werther," and she told +Carl to run away and let her alone. + +He did run away, and so far that not a soul could find him. + +All the home was in the wildest confusion, Madame von Stork wringing her +hands, scolding Marianne, and telling her that it was all her fault, +because she would read books, write letters and poems; Mademoiselle +Pauline, a young French girl who lived with them, searching everywhere +and assuring his mother that Marianne was perfectly useless since she +had been to Frankfort-on-Main, formed a friendship with Bettina Brentano +and taken to adoring Goethe; the boys racing everywhere; and the good, +calm father trying to quiet everybody. + +At last Ilse and Elsa had screamed that Carl was coming, and in he +walked with the prettiest story you can think of. + +He had run away to the Thiergarten, a great, fine park in Berlin, and +there had found some boys who had asked him to play horse. + +One had reins and quickly harnessed Carl for his steed. + +Then off he had pranced, up and down the avenues, until, with a snap, +pop had gone the reins. + +"A run-away! A run-away!" called the boys, as off had run Carl. + +Faster came the drivers and faster ran the horse until, bump, he landed +with his head right into a lady. + +"You naughty child--you----" began one voice, an old one, when a +second--it belonged to the lady who had been bumped--interrupted: + +"Please, dear friend, be quiet. Let him alone. Boys will be wild," and +she smiled at her companion, a bright-eyed old lady with white hair. + +Then she asked Carl his name, told him she had heard of his father, and +then she patted one round cheek, kissed him on the other, and said, "Run +away, little son, and carry a beautiful greeting to your parents." + +"And who was she?" cried Bettina, when the lieutenant first told her. + +"Guess," said the soldier, smiling mischievously. + +Bettina shook her little head. + +"The Queen," said the Herr Lieutenant, and then roared when he saw how +surprised Bettina was. + +She and her friend, the Countess von Voss, had been walking in the park +like any other ladies, and Carl had run into her. + +Bettina wanted to know everything. + +Was Carl scolded for running off? Was he proud? And how had his mother +liked it? + +His mother certainly had been much pleased at such an honour to Carl, +and, as for the little rascal, he could talk of nothing else, but most +certainly he was scolded. + +"But nothing did him the least good until his sister Marianne had told +him that Pauline would write a little letter in French to Bonaparte, and +if he ran away again the Emperor would come and get him." + +Bettina shuddered. She could quite believe that Carl never had run away +again. + +"He is a great boy now," said the Herr Lieutenant. "This happened two +years ago." + +"I have seen the Queen, too," confided Bettina, and she told him all +about the day at the inn, and about Napoleon, and her mother, whom she +missed so. Night after night she wept herself to sleep under her feather +bed, poor little Bettina. + +"Oh, dear Herr Lieutenant," she said, "why did not the ravens wake the +Kaiser Barbarossa?" + +"Perhaps they will some day," he answered, smiling. + +"Do you think, gracious Herr Lieutenant," she asked on the day when Hans +had departed so secretly, "that the wicked Emperor will get the dear, +lovely Queen?" + +The soldier shook his head. + +"No, no, little Bettina, the good God must save her, for she is so good +and kind to everybody." + +Then Bettina came quite close to him, her doll in her arms. Her little +dress was no longer bright red. Frau Schmelze and her grandmother had +made her one of black. + +"Herr Lieutenant," she began. + +"Ja, little Bettina." + +"I saw a raven to-day." + +The young officer laughed. + +"So," he said, "so?" + +"I think, gracious Herr Lieutenant," and Bettina smiled, "I will run out +to the garden, and if I see a raven now, I will give him a message to +Barbarossa. He did not wake for my mother," her lips quivered, "but +then, Herr Lieutenant, there was no time to send him a message. If I see +a raven now, I will call out loud and off he will fly to the cave of +Barbarossa." + +"Put some salt on his tail, Bettina," said the Herr Lieutenant, "then he +will sit quite still and listen until he knows the message." + +Bettina trotted off and begged salt of Minna Schneiderwint. Then she ran +into the frosty garden to watch for the raven. + +At the gate she saw French soldiers. Without a word in they marched and +came forth again with the Herr Lieutenant in the midst of them. + +"Adieu, dear Bettina, adieu," he cried. "I am a prisoner. Tell your +grandfather and thank him for his goodness." + +"Auf wiedersehen," Bettina flew to him, her face all alarm. + +But the soldier shook his head. + +"Adieu, dear Bettina, adieu, I am not likely again to see you or your +grandfather." Then he put his well arm about her and kissed her. + +"Come, come," cried the soldiers, and off they marched into the forest +along the path away from Jena. + +Bettina ran into the house, her little body shaken with sobs. + +Everybody she loved the wicked Emperor took away, her mother, her +father, and now the Herr Lieutenant. Oh, if she only had a wand as in +the fairy tales, she would change him into a great black stone, or some +cruel animal. + +In came Minna Schneiderwint, wringing her hands and sobbing, "The dear, +gracious Herr Lieutenant! What will Herr Lange say when he hears of it? +Ach Gott! Ach Gott! What a monster is Napoleon!" + +Hans, returning, found Bettina still weeping. + +"Liebchen," he said, after he had heard the story, "we, too, are going +on a journey." Then he told her to say nothing to Minna Schneiderwint, +but to help make up a bundle to travel with. + +Not a soul, he said, must know a word of their going. + +Bettina did as he told her, though the tears came to her eyes when she +heard that she was not to say good-bye to Hans, or the baby, or her +godmother, Frau Schmelze, or Wilhelm. + +Her grandfather Weyland she did not mind not seeing, but she would like +to kiss her grandmother. + +"Nein, nein," said old Hans, "it is all a great secret." + +"And when shall we come back, dear grandfather?" Bettina felt, indeed, +as if Napoleon was her enemy, for now she was to lose everybody but her +grandfather. + +"When the Emperor is conquered," said old Hans, and his brow darkened, +"we shall come back to Thuringia." + +Then he took off Bettina's dress, and between the lining and the +material of the waist he placed a letter. + +"Tell no one," he said, "or I shall punish you." + +Then, when Minna Schneiderwint had gone home in the afternoon, he fed +all the animals, locked the door, and wrapped the key in paper. + +"Come, Bettina," he said, and off they started, the old man with his +gloomy face, the bundle on his back, a stick in his hand, Bettina in her +black clothes and carrying some sausage and bread for supper. + +On the road they came upon four boys at play. + +"Walter!" Hans called, "come here." + +One left the game and listened. + +"Take this package for me to Herr Leo," said Hans, "and can you remember +a message?" he looked at the boy sharply. + +"Ja, Herr Lange, naturally," and Walter looked indignant. He was twelve +or thirteen. + +"Tell him, and all who ask you, that I have gone on a journey. Bettina, +here, goes with me. We will come back when the Emperor is conquered. +And, see here, Walter----" + +"Ja, ja, Herr Lange." + +The old man gave him some money. + +"Here is your pay. See that you earn it." + +The boy nodded. + +"And, Walter----" + +"Ja wohl, Herr Lange." + +"I shall not mind if you finish your game before you go to the Herr +Forester." + +The boy laughed. + +"Do you mean it?" + +Hans nodded. + +"Thank you, Herr Lange," and Walter, pocketing the coin, went back to +his game. + +"Auf wiedersehen, Herr Lange, auf wiedersehen, Bettina, and pleasant +travel." + +"Auf wiedersehen," said Hans. + +"Auf wiedersehen," said Bettina. + +Then, breaking away, the little girl ran back, her eyes full of tears. + +"Walter, dear Walter," she cried, "please, will you not take my love to +my little brothers? And, Walter, please, will you not ask my dear +godmother Schmelze in Jena to take a wreath to my dear mother's grave at +Christmas? Please, Walter, please?" + +"Ja wohl, dear Bettina, ja wohl," and the young boy patted her on the +shoulder. + +"And greet Willy Schmidt, and Tante Lottchen Schmelze, and, auf +wiedersehen, dear Walter, and thank you." + +Then she ran after old Hans, waiting impatiently. They started towards +Erfurt, but, as soon as they could, Hans changed their direction. + +"Where are we going, dear grandfather?" asked Bettina, surprised. + +The old man hesitated. + +"Would you like, Liebchen, to see the Queen again?" + +Bettina's eyes glowed. + +"Then say nothing to anybody, and try and keep from being tired, and +perhaps we may help save the Queen from Napoleon." + +"And the Herr Lieutenant, dear grandfather?" + +But Hans shook his head, his face saddening. + +"Nein, nein, dear child," he said, "we will not see our soldier," and he +muttered something against Napoleon. + +Poor little Bettina! + +It would be nice to see the lovely Queen, but she knew the Herr +Lieutenant, and he told her stories. Her lips began to quiver. + +The old man, noticing it, held her hand closer in his. + +"Nein, nein, do not cry, Liebchen," he said, "we may see the Herr +Lieutenant. Who can tell? Soldiers are everywhere." + +Then he taught her a story to tell if any questioned them. She had lost +her parents and her grandfather was taking her to an aunt in Prussia. +Their home had been burned after Jena and they had nothing to live upon. +Of her little brothers, or her grandparents Weyland, she was to say +nothing. + +It was well the old man had been in haste to tell her these things, for +even that evening they were stopped by French soldiers, who searched +Hans's pockets and even his clothes, and questioned both him and +Bettina. + +"Nonsense," said one man when they discovered nothing, "this is not the +man we want. This one speaks true. Look at his eyes. And who burdens +himself with a child when out on such business?" + +The others looked uncertain, one with keen black eyes and firm mouth +biting his nails while he considered. + +"The man answers the description." The first man looked dubious. + +"Use your sense," said a third man. "The child----" + +All eyes turned on Bettina. + +"You have lost your father and mother?" She felt the keen black eyes +reading her through and through. + +At the sound of these names and at the thought that she would never +again see them, her lips quivered and her eyes filled. + +The man stopped quickly. + +"Let them pass," he said with a shrug. "Only a fool would choose such a +messenger," and he glanced with contempt at Hans, who certainly had +answered stupidly, quite like a peasant, saying he knew no French, and +begging them to speak in German. + +"God be praised, child," he cried, when they were safe through the +lines, "you have saved me. The first danger is passed." And he bent down +and kissed her. + +"Shall we save the Queen, grandfather?" + +"Who knows?" answered Hans. Then he charged her that she must never +mention that it was to her they were going. He did not tell Bettina that +had the letter in her dress been found they would have shot him without +discussion, and so she gazed at him in wonder when, "God be praised! God +be praised!" he said over and over. + +A wagon was waiting at an inn where presently they stopped. It was all +very queer and puzzled Bettina, for the driver said, "The Angel," and +her grandfather said, "God bless her," and without more words he lifted +her in and told her to lie down on the straw and go to sleep. + +They drove the whole night and it was morning when her grandfather waked +her and gave her some black bread and sausage. Then they alighted and +trudged all day through the forest paths, keeping off the main roads, +and as they walked Bettina saw the deer in great herds coming to the +open places to feed on the hay which the foresters had tied about the +pine trees for their dinners, and once she saw great, gleaming, yellow +eyes in some bushes. + +It was only a huge black cat, but Bettina was sure that it was +Waterlinde, the mother of all the witches in Germany, and who, on +Walpurgis night, leads the dance on the Brocken Mountain. + +"Wait, grandfather, wait!" she cried. Then she ran back to the cat. + +"Waterlinde! Waterlinde!" she called, "please ride on your broomstick +and get Napoleon!" + +The cat raised its tail, which grew monstrous from its anger. + +"Hiss!" it said, "Hiss!" Then fled into the bushes. + +But Bettina was joyful. + +"It will get the Emperor," she said. "It promised. Oh, grandfather, how +happy I am! Waterlinde will get Napoleon!" + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE DOWNFALL + + + +Bettina was tired, indeed, when one day before noon they drew near a +great city on the banks of the Elbe, its splendid cathedral rising +against the sky, the snow falling and melting on its strong walls and +fortifications. + +When Hans saw the colour of the flags flying over this city, he cried +out in horror. + +"Gott im Himmel!" he exclaimed, "but the French have taken Magdeburg!" + +In all Prussia there was no stronger fortress. On it had rested the +whole hope of the country. + +For a few moments Hans felt quite stunned. Then, taking Bettina's hand, +he turned into a path leading to a red-roofed farmhouse standing in the +fields some distance from the walls of Magdeburg. + +All along the way they had heard of defeats and misfortunes. Like the +houses of cards children build, all the strongholds and forts of Prussia +had fallen at the mere breath of Napoleon. + +But Magdeburg! + +"Ach Gott," Hans cried, "but I cannot, nien, I cannot believe it." + +As for Bettina, she was so tired that her feet moved without her any +longer feeling them. + +"Poor child!" cried the farmer's wife, when Hans begged for admission. +"Come in! come in!" And she refused to answer a question of Hans until +she had fed Bettina on warm milk and tucked her to rest under a huge +feather bed. Then, giving Hans a chair, she went for her husband. + +He was busy in his barn, hiding all the corn from the French in a hole +he had dug beneath its floor, and covered with fire wood. His wife's +steps startled him, and his keen, money-loving face appeared at the +door. + +"It is I, Herman; Magda," she called, and then told him of Hans and +Bettina. + +"He seems half crazy to me, Herman, the old man. I've put the child to +bed. She's half dead from walking. He says they've come from Jena, where +the mother and father were killed after the battle. It's an awful story. +He's taking the child to an aunt in East Prussia." + +The farmer made no movement to go into the kitchen. + +"He can pay for everything, Herman." + +His face brightened. + +"Ach ja," he said, "but that is different. A moment, dear Magda, and I +shall be with you." + +Following her to the kitchen, he seated himself opposite Hans, pulling a +table between them. + +"Beer, Magda!" he commanded, and she set bottle and glasses on the +table. + +"Ja wohl, friend," he said, "Magdeburg is Napoleon's." + +Then he filled the glasses, and, clinking with Hans, proposed the +downfall of the Emperor. + +"Three times, a thousand times over," said Hans, and he begged for the +news. + +"The King's hope was in Magdeburg. Ja wohl," said the farmer. His voice +was loud and he roared instead of talking. "And why not? What fortress +in Europe is stronger? There were twenty-four thousand soldiers here; +Kleist was in command, and both the King and Queen stopped here in their +flight to implore the garrison to be true to Prussia. And then," his +face darkened, and he paused for a sip of his beer, "the French Marshal +Ney appeared and shot a few projectiles and the Magdeburgers took to +tears and appeared before Kleist, begging him to surrender and spare +them the horrors of a siege." + +"The cowards!" Hans struck the table with his fist. + +The farmer sipped his beer, quite unexcited. + +"Why fight when one must, in the end, be conquered?" He set down his +glass. "They gave up the keys without a breach in the wall, or a single +cannon being taken; twelve thousand troops under arms, six hundred +pieces of cannon, a pontoon complete, immense magazines of all sorts, +and only an equal force without the walls," roared on the farmer. + +"Cowards!" And Hans thumped again. + +"We are conquered, man," said the farmer, "and the good God knows this +war is expensive." + +Then he told Hans that he had heard that the King of Prussia had written +a letter to Napoleon from Sondershausen, where he had fled after the +defeat at Auerstaedt. + +"And the answer?" Hans' hand, holding his beer glass, trembled with +eagerness. + +The farmer, shrugging his shoulders, thrust out his under lip in a queer +way he had. + +"There has been none that I know of," he roared. Then he refilled their +glasses, his eyes gleaming as the beer foamed. + +Hans thought that he cared much more for this same beer than for his +country's troubles, since he drank it with such pleasure while roaring +how Napoleon, with a splendid procession, had entered Berlin. He had +heard that the Berliners sat at their windows weeping. Napoleon had +ransacked all the palaces and was stealing and sending to Paris all the +art treasures of the Berliners. Only at Potsdam had he shown reverence. +The Prussians had fled so hastily that they had left the cordon of the +Black Eagle, the scarf and sword of Frederick the Great on the tomb in +the garrison church. + +When Napoleon saw them his eyes fired. + +"Gentlemen," and he turned to the officers who accompanied him, "this +is one of the greatest commanders of whom history has made mention." +Then he traced an "N" on the tomb in the dust. + +"If he were alive now I would not stand here," he said. + +And because of his respect for the great Frederick he saved Potsdam from +all annoyance from the war. + +What else had happened the farmer did not know, only that the brave +Bluecher, with tears streaming down his cheeks, had been forced to +surrender Luebeck. + +As for the King, the farmer had heard that he had gone to Custrin; but +he also had heard that Custrin was among the forts which had +surrendered. At all events, the beer being now at an end, he had no more +time to talk, but arose to return to his barn. + +Hans asked him to let Bettina remain until in the afternoon, when he +would return for her. Then off he departed also. + +The farmer's wife touched her head. + +"Grief has crazed him," she said to herself. "It is cruel to drag that +child about this country." + +Bettina ate a nice warm dinner with the farmer and his wife, and then +was put back to bed again. + +"A queer little thing," said the wife to her husband. "Poor little +lamb!" The tears filled her eyes. "She thinks old Frederick Barbarossa +will come from his cave to save us!" + +The farmer laughed and told his wife what to charge Hans, for he might +not see him again. + +It was in the late afternoon when the old man returned. + +"We must be off at once," he announced. + +The farmer's wife protested. + +"The little one," and she set her lips hard, "is too tired." + +But Hans was positive. + +"We must go, my good woman, and at once," he announced again, and most +positively. + +Poor little Bettina did not want to go. The farmer's wife had been as +kind to her as her mother; but her grandfather took no notice. + +"Come, Liebling," he said, "say good-bye and thank the good Frau, and +quickly, for we must be starting." + +"Auf wiedersehen," said Bettina shyly. She hoped that some time she +might see this good Frau Magda again. + +Then Hans paid the bill, and off they went and trudged on their way +until, late that evening, they came to an inn, where Hans announced they +would remain until morning. + +Bettina went to bed, but Hans returned to the big room where the men +sat, and presently, just as Bettina was dreaming a fine dream about +Willy Schmidt and her brothers in Thuringia, he returned with great news +and awoke her. + +The Emperor, he announced, had offered terms of peace to Prussia. All +the troops, not wounded or prisoners, must be drawn up in northeast +Prussia; the great cities of the kingdom, including Dantzic and Breslau, +must be surrendered; all the Russians marching to the aid of Prussia +must be sent back, and the King of Prussia must join with Napoleon in +war on his friend, Alexander of Russia, should Napoleon command it. + +"I am beaten," answered the poor, good King; "my kingdom is taken from +me, but never will I save myself by fighting against a friend. Let the +war go on." + +Hans' face glowed as he told Bettina this answer. + +The little girl was happy to see her grandfather smiling again, but she +was too sleepy to understand what he was talking about, and so, when his +voice ceased, she went back to her dreams and the old man poured over +maps until midnight. + +Next day they marched on, keeping out of the way of the army, eating at +the farmhouses and hiding often in the forests. Soldiers sometimes +stopped them. More than once they searched Hans, but when they +questioned Bettina and saw the tears which always came when she heard of +Jena they let them pass on. + +Once Hans persuaded the driver of a carriage to take them a part of +their journey. The carriage belonged to a great person and the man had a +passport, and Hans and Bettina could pass as servants. + +"For the sake of the child, ja," said the driver. But it may have been +for the sake of Hans' gold, which he readily gave him. It was queer that +a wild-looking old man, wandering about the country, had gold, but in +war times people do not ask too many questions. + +It was when in this carriage that Bettina was sure she saw again the +Herr Lieutenant. + +It was at a place where the driver showed his papers. + +At the window of a house surrounded by soldiers a man was gazing +gloomily from the window. + +Behind him were other faces, and one, Bettina declared, was that of her +dear Herr Lieutenant. + +"And he knew me, dear grandfather; I know that he did, only he could not +dream that his Bettina was here in Prussia, could he?" + +"Indeed, no," said her grandfather, and then went to sleep. It was not +often that he had such a soft bed as the carriage cushions, and he +meant to make the most of it. And so they came to Custrin. + +"Now," said Hans, his face full of joy, "we shall see the King!" + +But, alas! + +Certainly, the King had been there; the Queen, also. + +An old peasant woman outside the walls, whom Hans questioned, knew all +about it. + +The King had come first and gone straight to a house in the Market. + +"It is a sad event that brings me here," he had said. And then, later, +had come the Queen. "They were here some time," said the old woman. "Her +Majesty, wrapped in a travelling cloak, used to walk on the walls and +try to put some courage into the soldiers. Foolish work," she added; +"you might as well try to fill broken bottles; all she put in their +hearts went out at their heels, and Custrin surrendered without +fighting." + +The King and Queen, she said, were at Graudenz, on the Vistula. + +"We will follow," announced Hans. + +Poor little Bettina! Would the journey never end? + +Her grandfather set out at once. Travel now had become very dangerous. +The French were everywhere, and often they must answer questions. They +heard how Napoleon had stolen and sent to Paris the splendid statue of +"Victory," the pride of Berlin; how he had read all the Queen's letters +to the King, which he had found in the palace, and of awful things he +had written of Her Majesty. + +"He seems to hate her, poor lady," said Hans; "but why, no one can say." + +At Graudenz there were the French also. The King and the Queen and the +court had been there, certainly, but one day in had rushed citizens, +crying "The French! the French!" And pell-mell over the bridge had come +Prussians, pursued by French cavalry. + +Bang! Up went the bridge, blown to atoms by the citizens. But the French +were not to be stopped; and on had fled the King, Queen, and the Court +of Prussia. + +So Bettina and her grandfather trudged on to Marienwerder. + +Never had they seen a place so muddy and dirty. The King and Queen had +stayed there ten days. The landlord showed them the room they had lived +in, and Bettina, listening, heard how they had eaten, dressed, and slept +in one room, and that not a fine one. + +"And our poor King," a woman told Hans, "had to take long walks if the +Queen wished to dress, or the servants lay the table." + +The Maids of Honour had been forced to sleep in a tiny, dirty closet, +and the five gentlemen of the flying court in one room, with beds for +two and straw on the floor for the others. + +"And they changed about," said the landlady. "There was an Englishman, +Mr. Jackson, with them, who was pleasant about everything. But our +Queen! She is an angel!" + +"On every hand someone had good to tell of her; how sweet she was, how +patient, how she cheered the whole party and only laughed when she went +up to her knees in mud, and declared that she was not thirsty when they +could get no wine and the water was not fit to be drunk by anybody." + +On one of the windows of the inn the landlady showed Hans some words the +Queen had cut there with a diamond. + +The old man repeated them to Bettina. The great poet, Goethe, had +composed them: + + "Who never ate his bread in sorrow, + Who never spent the darksome hours + Weeping and watching for the morrow,-- + He knows ye not, ye heavenly powers."[1] + +[Footnote 1: By many authorities said to have been only written in the +Queen's Journal.] + +Bettina looked puzzled. + +"And what does it mean, dear grandfather?" + +The old man took her on his knee. + +He held one little hand in his, and with his other he smoothed her soft +hair. + +"It means, dear child," said he very solemnly, "that we never can know +the dear God well until, when all the world is fast asleep, we weep +because of our own troubles. Then it is that it seems that we know best +the dear God who, in the night, seems to comfort us. Do you understand, +my Bettina?" + +The little girl nodded. + +"I prayed to the good God, dear grandfather, when mother was there," she +shuddered, "and I was with Hans and Baby in the forest. Do you think, +dear grandfather," her lips quivered, "that the poor Queen has such a +trouble? Did that wicked Napoleon kill her dear mother, too?" + +Hans' face twitched, and he drew his arm closer about little Bettina. + +"The Queen's mother, my child, died when her little girl was six, and +she lived all her child life with her grandmother." + +He smoothed Bettina's hair with his hand, but his thoughts were with his +Annchen. + +"Grandfather," Bettina patted his cheek with her hand, "grandfather, +tell me, please, what is the trouble of the Queen? Why is she so +unhappy?" + +Then the old man explained how a Queen is the mother of all the people +in her country, and of how, when a foe comes and with sword and war +slays these people, it is her trouble and she must weep for her +children. + +"Then Queen Louisa, my Bettina, weeps for her poor husband, the King, +who has lost his kingdom, and for her poor children, who are driven from +their home and the palace. And now," he added, "in cold and ice and snow +she has had to fly, as the landlady told you, with not enough to eat and +no fit place to rest in." + +Bettina sighed. + +"Ach ja, dear grandfather." + +Her own feet were very tired and she was certain that she understood +that part of the Queen's trouble. + +"Grandfather," she asked, "please, what is a foe?" + +"Napoleon, child, Napoleon. He comes to do us harm, to work evil. He is +the foe of the good King and Queen, but especially does he hate our +Queen and seek to do her harm." + +Bettina opened her blue eyes. + +"Grandfather," she said, "how can he?" + +The old man shrugged his shoulders and sat absently stroking her hair. + +As for the little girl herself, she was thinking. How anyone could be a +foe of that lovely Queen it was hard to understand. But then, it was so +with all the fairy princesses. There was always an ogre, Bettina +remembered, but it was true, too, that the foes were always conquered by +a knight, or a prince, a dragon, or something. + +She remembered the cave of Kyffhaeuser. + +"Grandfather," she said, pulling at one of the buttons of his coat, "why +don't the ravens wake Barbarossa? I told one at our Forest House. I +think, dear grandfather, it is time for him to wake up, don't you?" and +she gazed quite anxiously into his face. As for Hans, he laughed for the +first time in days. + +"It would surprise the Emperor a little, my Bettina," he said, and then +told her that their journey was ended. "The King, dear child, is at +Koenigsberg, and there we will rest for a long time." + +"God be praised," said little Bettina, in the way the Germans do. "I +shall truly be glad, dear grandfather, to sit down and do a little quiet +knitting." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +ON THE ROAD TO MEMEL + + + +On a certain day in the January following Jena the snow was falling +fast. + +It clung to the tree limbs and turned the feathery firs to fairy trees. +On the low bushes and oaks the ice glittered and gleamed, and a piercing +blast, sweeping through the branches, crackled the crusted limbs and +filled the air with a mysterious sound of coldness. Now and then a +high-runnered sleigh dashed along the highway, its driver muffled to the +eyes in fur, the breath frozen on his beard or moustaches. From the +Baltic Sea the breath of the frozen North swept over the East Prussian +land and, obedient to its command, life seemed to still its slightest +sound and the whole world freeze into silence. + +Suddenly the voice of a child broke the quiet. + +"Grandfather,"--oh, how tired it sounded,--"truly, dear grandfather, I +can go no farther." + +It was little Bettina, wrapped in a woollen shawl and trudging by the +side of old Hans, whose face was almost hidden in a huge cape of fur. + +They were still on their journey, though Koenigsberg had been passed two +days before. + +"Ja, ja, Liebchen," the old man paused in the road; "it is cold, indeed. +But have courage, little one; we shall soon reach a village, and then +sausages and bread." + +"God be thanked," said little Bettina, and on she trudged, her poor +feet so cold she could not feel them moving. + +On they went for a time in silence. Then the old man, with a short +laugh, said: + +"God be praised we have left the French behind us." + +Before Bettina could answer, or Hans himself say more, the Baltic sent a +breath sharp with icy edge. It cut the falling snow, it dashed the +flakes in their faces, it beat against their bodies; and, gathering +strength, it drove them apart, tossing and twisting Bettina. + +There was no speaking. + +The wind howled in icy salutation; the snow struck their eyes, drove +itself into their mouths, lodged in the necks of their garments, +whitened their hair and froze on their gloves and chilled them to almost +fainting. + +Then suddenly the wind gave a shriek like a terrified spirit. The snow +began to whirl, and upward went leaves, sticks, and even lumps of the +earth itself. + +Hans caught Bettina in his arms. He drew her to the edge of the road. + +"Down! down!" he cried, and pulled her into a gully. Harmless, the +whirlwind passed above their heads, the ridge of earth protecting their +bodies. + +"Lie close, lie close, my Bettina," cried Hans, and he drew her within +the folds of his great cape with fur lining. + +Winds from the north, east, west, and south fought for mastery, the four +beating and screaming and whirling the innocent snow in their fury, +until, rising, the white confusion became like a veil concealing +everything. + +But wheels were approaching. They reached the road above the travellers, +and then, their horses losing power any longer to struggle, suddenly +stopped short in the road. Even their stamping sounded faint and +exhausted, so great was the fury of the awful war of winds which nature +had excited on that narrow neck of land in East Prussia. + +Then suddenly came a lull. The winds retreated from their battle ground. + +Both Hans and Bettina raised their heads in wonder. In the sudden quiet +they heard a voice, a voice whose sweetness sounded a note quite +familiar and a voice whose owner seemed ill and suffering. + +"I am in a great strait," it said; "let us fall now into the hand of the +Lord, for His mercies are great; and let me not fall into the hand of +man." + +Even while the voice was speaking the whirling snow fell like a curtain +of white wool to the ground, and Hans and Bettina, rising, saw in the +snow of the road a travelling carriage, on whose cushions, covered with +a feather bed, lay a lady, white and pale, whose golden head, for want +of a pillow, rested on the arm of an attendant. With her were ladies and +a physician. + +Hans' face flushed. + +"Curtsey," he whispered to Bettina. "Curtsey, child, it is the Queen!" + +Bettina forgot her own cold. She was no longer tired, no longer hungry, +in her pity for the poor, ill lady, who, when she saw a child, smiled +her a greeting, quite feebly, but as sweet as the one at Jena. + +It was Queen Louisa of Prussia, flying still before her foe, Napoleon. + +He had entered her palace; he had ransacked her private desks; he had +read all her letters to her husband; he had published dreadful things +against her in the French paper in Berlin; he had proclaimed her the +cause of the war; declared her to be vain, foolish, and unworthy of the +love of her people; and loudly had he declared that never would he rest +until he had brought the King and Queen of Prussia so low that they must +beg for their bread. + +He had driven them from place to place, and now was advancing on +Koenigsberg. + +When Hans and Bettina had arrived in that old city the King had gone, +the court was flying, and so, never heeding the snow, on they had gone, +too, fleeing like the rest, before that dreadful Emperor. + +And here was the poor Queen, who had been ill to death in Koenigsberg, +journeying in the cold and snow to Memel, with not even a pillow to rest +her head upon! + +When the carriage started again Hans and Bettina walked behind it. + +"It will shelter us," said the old man, for the wind blew little Bettina +almost off her feet. + +Ach, as the Germans say, but it was cold! + +The blasts, sweeping from the Baltic to the Kurischehaff and from the +Kurischehaff to the Baltic, still fought for mastery, and the curtain of +the northern night began to fall about them early in the afternoon, and +on they struggled in the gathering darkness. + +At last, through the snowy gloom, they saw the lights of a village, and, +nearly frozen, they sought lodgings. + +Hans asked a woman whom he saw at a door to shelter them. + +She stoutly refused him. + +She was tall, dark, with sallow complexion and gleaming dark eyes, whose +lids she had a trick of narrowing. Hans pointed to Bettina shivering and +wet to her skin. + +"You cannot refuse us a room," he said. + +The woman shrugged her shoulders and hesitated. + +Truly, Bettina would have moved any heart. + +"Because of the child, poor darling," at last said the woman, "though my +man, if he comes, may not like it." She shrugged expressively. + +She rubbed Bettina's hands and feet with snow and made her dip them in +water, and, undressing her, she wrapped her in a warm bed-gown of her +own and covered her with a feather bed. + +"Drink this," and she held warm milk to her blue little lips, and when +the child was sinking into a doze, she started towards her kitchen. At +the door she paused. + +"I must dry the child's clothes," she said, and coming back gathered up +the damp, draggled garments, Bettina never noticing. + +As she was cleaning them in her kitchen she started violently. Bearing +the dress on her arm she went to her room. + +"I thought so!" she said, and her eyelids narrowed. + +As for Hans, when he had dried himself somewhat and partaken of bread, +cheese, and beer, he was off to the shoemaker's house, where they had +taken the Queen. In its kitchen, with its great stove and its pots of +blooming geraniums, he found some court servants, who, now they were +resting, were glad enough of a gossip. + +Especially was the driver of the carriage fond of talk. + +"Ja," he said, "our good Queen has been ill to death of a nervous +fever." + +Then he told of how she had been with the King; her children, with the +Countess Voss; and first little Princess Alexandrina, and then Prince +Carl had been ill, and the Queen could not reach them. + +At Koenigsberg little Carl had been near to death, and the Queen from +nursing him took the fever. + +"Ach Himmel," said the driver, gazing from face to face in the hot, +steaming kitchen, "it was terrible, for we thought we should lose her! +Herr Doctor Hufeland arrived from Dantzic. His Excellency found her near +death. Ach, friends, but it was a dreadful night, and all hearts were +anxious, for at sea was a ship, and on board Baron Stein, bearing to +Koenigsberg the state treasure. He had saved the gold and jewels in +Berlin from that thief Napoleon." + +Then he told how in the night, while the wind howled and blew, there had +come a crash which had startled old Koenigsberg. + +It was a wing of the old castle which had fallen in the storm. + +"And it brought bad luck," continued the driver, "for a courier arrived +soon after with despatches. 'Fly!' they said, 'fly! the French approach +Koenigsberg!'" + +And then had come the flight, and he told how, the night before, the +Queen had slept in a room whose windows were so broken the snow had +drifted in all night over her bed and nearly frozen her. + +There was much to talk about, and all were eager to listen. The warmth +from the stove was comfortable, and the shoemaker brought out some beer. +The driver, who certainly was fond of talking, told of the sufferings of +the Royal children; how the old Countess had not been able always to get +them bread, nor find clothes to keep them clean and in order. + +"And they have grown most noisy," he said. "The Queen is an angel. Never +does she complain, but is always sweet and amiable, and the old Countess +is very noble. But our King is gloomy and wrapped in thought and no one +reproves the children." + +The shoemaker asked questions about them. + +"Prince William is the best," said the man; "he looks like his father, +but in disposition he is like our Queen. The old Countess calls him 'A +dear good child,' and that he is always." + +Before he could continue a messenger arrived from Memel with bouillon +from the King for the Queen. + +This arrival brought much excitement, and when again they were quiet +they all fell to talking of the French and how the Emperor coveted the +great fine city of Dantzic and of how its people vowed that he never +should enter its gates while they could prevent him. + +"Where is he now?" asked Hans, hatred burning in his eyes and his cheeks +flushing. + +"They say in Koenigsberg that he is at Helbsberg. Our army is in that +neighbourhood, also. They report that both are approaching Eylau. +Perhaps they may fight there." + +The shoemaker's wife came into the roomful of men, interrupting a second +time. + +At first she coughed loudly, for they were puffing smoke everywhere. +Then, with a beaming face, she told them how the Queen had just said she +was more comfortable than she had been anywhere on her flight. + +"Our Queen is an angel!" Hans raised high his glass. "Hoch!" he cried, +as the Germans say when they drink to anything or anybody. + +"Hoch!" answered the others, but low, that they might not disturb the +Queen. + +"Long may she live," said the voices. + +Then "Three times hoch!" and they clinked their glasses softly and +drained them. + +Then, it being late, Hans returned to Bettina. + +She was fast asleep, one little hand, thin and pale, lying outside the +feather bed. On a chair by the bedside were her clothes, clean and dry, +and everything quite in order. + +Hans, in terror, felt for the letter. + +It was safe between the lining and the waist material, and, tired +himself, he was soon fast asleep. + +Next day they all started forth, Hans and Bettina walking behind the +carriage, and presently they came to the ferry at Memel. + +In those days Memel was a flourishing little city of about six thousand +people, noted for its cleanliness and its English ways of living. It +lies on water, and into its harbour came Dutch ships and English ones, +giving it a look of activity. + +As the Queen entered Memel a strange thing happened. + +As if Nature, whom she loved with all her heart, wished to welcome her, +the clouds suddenly parted like a curtain and there was the sun, which +no one had seen for days, smiling forth gloriously. + +"God be praised!" cried Hans. "It is a good omen." + +As he and Bettina started into the city they came upon a lady and some +children. She was stout and comfortable looking and wrapped in fine +furs. The oldest of her children was a girl about fifteen, and the +prettiest girl Bettina had ever seen. + +When this lady saw Hans she gave a shriek. + +"My goodness!" she cried. "Why, Hans, how came you here?" + +As for Hans, he was all excitement. + +"Mademoiselle Clara!" he cried. "Ach Gott! that I see you again!" + +When the lady, with many exclamations, heard of Hans' journey, she +raised her hands in horror. + +"Heavens!" she cried, "but you must come home at once with me. I am +married now, Hans, and these are my children." + +Then she turned to the pretty girl. + +"Daughter," she said, "this is Hans, Johannes Lange. He was with your +grandfather when he was Colonel. Come, Hans; come, child," she smiled +kindly at Bettina. "My husband is home and will welcome you kindly. +Come, come!" + +And off she led them into Memel. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +AMONG FRIENDS + + +The stout lady, asking Hans question after question, led the way to a +large, roomy house surrounded by a garden, now bare and wintry, the +limbs of fruit trees, birches, and shrubs crackling with ice. + +"This is, naturally, not our own house, Johannes," explained the lady, +who had just finished telling him how she and her family had fled from +Berlin upon the approach of Napoleon. "This is my husband's brother's +home," she continued, leading the way to the door. "In the spring we +shall move to Koenigsberg, where my husband will become professor in the +University. Come in, Hans, come in. Ja, ja, you are right. It is a +comfortable house, but the cold here in Memel is awful. Carl," she +turned quickly to the small boy who was teasing his sister, "behave +yourself, or I'll send you to Napoleon!" + +It was funny to see him straighten up and become quickly as good as his +sisters. + +"Come in, come in," she closed the door quickly. "Husband! Richard!" she +called very loudly. + +A door at the end of the hall opened in response, and out came a grave, +learned-looking man, who smiled kindly from face to face. + +"Richard! Richard!" the lady's voice screamed with excitement, "who do +you think is here?" + +She drew forward Hans and Bettina. + +"An old soldier of my dear father's regiment," her voice vibrated with +pride, "and one, dear Richard, who was with the great Frederick, and, +oh, such a favourite with father, was it not so, Hans?" + +The old soldier shrugged his shoulders as much as to say, "It is not for +me to agree." + +"Ja, ja, Richard, he was, and a favourite of our dear lost little Erna. +It was such a surprise to see him," and she motioned the group to the +warmth of the sitting room. Then, all crowding around the tall, green +stove, Hans told his story. + +"Heavens, dear Richard!" the stout lady pulled out an embroidered pocket +handkerchief, "but seeing him brings back the past." + +Then she turned to the pretty young girl. + +"Mariechen, take the twins upstairs and see that they are quite dry as +to stockings; go, also, dear child," she smiled at Bettina, who, feeling +shy and strange, followed across the hall and upstairs to the room into +which the young lady entered. + +"The child is tired," she heard the lady saying, "and Hans must see our +King. He has brought messages. They must stay here. Ja, ja, Hans. The +house is big, and our brother Joachim gives me my will." + +Then the door closed and Bettina heard no more. + +In the great room where she found herself sat a dark-haired young lady +embroidering. + +"Pauline, Pauline!" called the children, "Hans has come, and here is +Bettina." + +Then, before the pretty young girl could explain, in came the stout lady +and told the one called Pauline how once this Hans had saved her little +sister's life, and how the family never could forget it, and that +Bettina must be dressed drily in one of the children's bed-gowns and +given warm milk and at once sent to bed and left there. + +"I'll tell you the story presently. The child must not hear it again. It +is dreadful." + +When Bettina was safely in bed, up came Hans and the gentleman. + +"My oldest son, Franz, was at Jena," she heard the latter saying--and +then to her surprise her grandfather called him "Herr Professor." + +Bettina, her eyes sparkling, sat up in bed. + +"Grandfather, dear grandfather!" she called, and when he came close, she +drew down his head and whispered most eagerly. + +"Nein, nein, child," they all heard him reply, and then Bettina insist: + +"But, yes, dear grandfather. Please, please ask him, I know it, dear +grandfather, I know it." + +"What is it, Hans?" and the Herr Professor came close to Bettina, +smiling in his kind, fatherly way. + +"She will have it, sir," answered the old soldier, "that your name must +be 'Von Stork,' and that you are the father of the young Prussian +soldier whom we nursed in the Forest House!" + +"I know it, dear grandfather, I know it," burst out Bettina in high +excitement. "The Herr Lieutenant told me of Carl and Ilse and Elsa and +Mademoiselle Pauline and his big sister, Marianne, and of how our Queen +kissed Carl--and----" + +Bettina could say no more. + +Screaming and crying out, they all crowded round exclaiming that it was +their Franz, their own dear Franz and no other. + +And then they would know everything and all he did and said and just +where he was wounded and how they took him prisoner, and Madame von +Stork fell to weeping, and all the others cried, "Ja, ja," and "Nein, +nein," so loud and so much that poor, tired little Bettina was almost +deafened. + +And then Hans must go all over the whole story for them again, and it +set Bettina to weeping, and the old man to vowing vengeance against +Napoleon. + +Madame von Stork first rejoiced because her boy was alive, and then wept +because he was a prisoner, and she thanked Hans over and over, and told +him that she would care for Bettina so long as they remained in Memel. + +And then they all went from the room and Bettina fell sound asleep, and +did not move until the next morning. + +But, no, she moved once, for her grandfather, coming into the room, +waked her and asked her if she had taken the letter from her dress +lining. + +"Nein, grandfather," she had answered and then had gone off to sleep. + +When next morning she opened her blue eyes, her grandfather was packing +his bundle. + +Her little heart sank and her eyes filled. Was she to go forth in the +ice and the wet and the snow and that awful wind again? + +"Nein, nein, little one," said the old man, patting her cheek very +kindly. "You shall stay here with my good Mademoiselle Clara," for so he +called Madame von Stork, as he had known her when she was as small as +Bettina, and he explained that he was going alone, but would return in a +day or two to Memel. + +Then, sitting on her bed, he asked her question after question. + +Had she told anyone of the letter, had a person touched her dress? + +"Nein, grandfather, nein," she said. + +At first she was quite certain. + +But, presently, she remembered the woman they had lodged with, and how +she must have cleaned her dress and dried it. + +The old man clapped his knee with his hand. + +"Ach Himmel, child!" he cried. "It is she who has stolen it." + +Then he shouldered his bundle, declaring he must fetch it. + +"Auf wiedersehen, my Bettina," he said, and departed from Memel. + +It was only a day's journey to the village, but a week passed and no +Hans. Then another. + +Madame von Stork shook her head. + +"His trouble has crazed him," she said. "We will keep the child, yes?" +and she looked at her husband. + +The Professor nodded. + +"Our Franz loved her," he answered. "She is not noble, it is true, but +she is sweet and good, and our children love her. The Stork's nest, dear +wife," and he smiled at her lovingly, "is always big enough for one +more, it is not, my dear Clara?" + +Madame von Stork nodded. + +Pauline was not their child, but a French refugee whose parents were +nobles who had perished in the Revolution. The Stork's nest had received +her; so why not another? + +"Let her remain," concluded the Professor, "until the old man returns, +or we can make some provision for her." + +So Bettina became one of the "Nest", as the von Storks always called +their home, and with so much love and kindness about her, the little +girl soon forgot much that she had suffered. + +"But I should like to see Willy Schmidt and my little brothers," once +she said to Marianne, who was her favourite. + +The little round-faced, tow-headed twins flew to her sides, each taking +a hand and pressing it against her chubby cheek. + +"When Barbarossa, that you told us of, Bettina, comes out of the cave, +our father will take us all to Thuringia," promised Ilse. + +"What nonsense, you geese," and Carl laughed scornfully. "There isn't a +Barbarossa. Otto says so, and he's fifteen and knows everything. +Anyway," he looked very proud of his knowledge, "nobody can conqueror +the Emperor!" + +But when he heard that Bettina had really seen the awful Napoleon, he +listened with wideopen blue eyes and was not so important. + +Perhaps, after all, Bettina did know something. + +"And you saw him," he asked, "saw Napoleon?" + +"Ja wohl," answered Bettina, glad to have the young hero listen +respectfully. + +"And he didn't run away with you?" Carl looked eager. + +Bettina shook her golden head. + +"Nein, nein, or I should not be here." The twins roared. As for Carl, he +laughed very rudely and snapped his fingers at Marianne. + +"You just hear, Mariechen," he said, "Bettina's seen Napoleon and he +didn't do a thing to her." + +At that was the whole Stork's Nest most sorrowful, for now they knew +that Carl would never behave, since Napoleon was the only thing he was +afraid of. + +While they were talking, Elsa and Ilse cried out to come quickly and see +who was passing, and they all crowded to the windows, breathing on the +frost that they might see out more clearly. + +What they saw was a tall, handsome gentleman with a kind, but very sad +face, a lovely lady leaning on his arm, and two little boys, one tall +and handsome, the other, delicate-faced with soft curly hair, clinging +to the hand of the lady. + +It was the King and Queen of Prussia, with the Crown Prince and little +Prince William. + +"God be praised," said Madame von Stork. "Our dear, dear Queen has +recovered." She stood behind the group and watched, having entered the +room while they were talking. + +As for little Bettina, a great happiness filled her. + +Her lovely Queen lived here in Memel and she walked out like other +people. + +"Perhaps," she said to Ilse, "one day we shall meet her." + +But Ilse did not answer. + +"Look, Bettina," she cried, "our King is talking to father." + +Sure enough there was the Professor standing with their Majesties, first +looking cheerful, then becoming grave and attentive. + +As soon as he entered the house he called to his wife. They talked for a +long time in private, and after that day everybody in the house was +very, very kind to Bettina. Sometimes Madame von Stork's eyes would fill +when they gazed at her, and once, when the little girl told her that she +was making a nice pair of stockings for her grandfather, the lady began +to weep. + +Bettina thought her tears were for the Herr Lieutenant, and sat very +quiet. Only she could not help wondering why no one ever said a word +about her grandfather. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE STORK'S NEST + + +As Madame von Stork had told Hans, her family had taken refuge in Memel +when the news came that Napoleon, having conquered the King at Jena, +would advance upon Berlin. + +Old Major Joachim von Stork had welcomed his brother's family into his +great empty house in Memel, and in the safety of a new nest the Mother +Stork had gathered beneath her wings all her startled, frightened brood, +but two sons who had gone against Napoleon. + +Bettina nearly laughed aloud when she saw the old Major. He was stout, +and red-faced, and wore a stock as high as three inches. On each side of +his head were four curls, frizzled and powdered, as they once wore hair +in the army, and his pig-tail boasted a huge cockade. + +Bettina heard him talking one day with his housekeeper about his stocks: + +"They must be exactly three inches high," he ordered, "exactly, my dear +Frau, and as to my cockade, are you quite certain that it is large +enough?" + +And he looked very anxiously at his housekeeper, who held up her hands. + +"Gracious, Herr Major," she said, "it is immense." + +But the Major, puffing a little, looked offended. + +"Immense, my dear woman, what on earth are you talking of? Why Captain +von Schallenfels of my regiment had always seventy or eighty ells of +ribbons on his queue. Fact, I assure you," added the indignant old +gentleman. "It trailed so on the ground that he was forced to tuck it +into his coat pocket when on parade. True, my dear woman, true, I assure +you." + +The old Major, however, was kindness itself, though he went his way just +the same as if his house was still empty. And this way was to have his +meals to himself and, at four o'clock each day, to depart to the house +of one Monsieur von Schrotter, and, with six other Memel gentlemen, +drink beer, smoke, and discuss the army, Prussia, or Napoleon, until +bedtime. + +His wife, Bettina learned, had died many years before and he had but one +son. + +"Our cousin, Rudolph," Carl told her. "He is with my brother Wolf in the +army." + +In the evening all the family gathered in the sitting-room and there +Bettina saw everybody. + +First, there was the Professor, tall, kind-looking and very fond of his +wife and children. He still wore his hair in a pig-tail and not brushed +forward like the King, and he liked silver buckles on his shoes, and a +stock, but not high like that of his brother. + +"And our father knows, oh, everything," the twins told Bettina, "so much +that our Queen used to send for him in Berlin to talk to her. He has +read, oh, all the books in the world." + +Madame von Stork was as kind-looking as her husband, but she was stout, +and her skin was pink and white like a girl's, and she wore her hair +very high, and on top of its rolls one of the huge turbans then the +fashion. Sometimes she seemed quite like a large hen, clucking about her +children, her feathers ruffling if a thing went wrong with any one of +them. + +Especially was she troubled about her pretty daughter Marianne. + +"And no wonder," Bettina heard her telling the Major's housekeeper, Frau +Winkel. "She is a girl, and yet is the one most like her dear father. +She must always be at her books, and I cannot make her care for her +embroidery, her tent stitch, nor the cooking. And what good is a German +girl who cares for none of these things? Who will marry her, my dear +Frau Winkel? She is fourteen, and most girls are married at fifteen or +sixteen. Pauline, now, is entirely different. When there are clothes to +be mended, her fingers assist me. When the children are noisy, she can +quiet even Carl. It is she who makes the puddings, and if she has a +spare moment she is busy over her embroidery; a true house-wife by +nature, and French, too," added Madame von Stork, as if the two things +were impossible. Perhaps it was Pauline's troubles which had subdued +her. Before the flight from Berlin, Marianne had known nothing but joy +and petting, but Pauline had a history as sad as Bettina. + +One day, many years before the days of Memel, an old Frenchman had +appeared at the "Stork's Nest" in Berlin. + +Though his hair was white, his shoulders bowed with trouble, and his +clothes worn and poor, the Professor recognised him as a once very +elegant-looking servant of a French nobleman whom he had known well in +Paris. He led by the hand a little girl of eight or nine. + +"My master and mistress lost their heads in the Revolution," the man +explained, "but I escaped to Berlin with Mademoiselle Pauline." + +Then he told of his dangers and all they had endured. + +"Monsieur," he said, "I am old, poor, and alone. What shall I do with a +fine young lady?" + +Madame von Stork's quick eye had been studying the child. The sadness of +the pale little face, the neatness of the black dress, the daintiness of +the Marie Antoinette kerchief warmed her heart to the homeless little +girl. + +She looked at her husband, a question in her kind grey eyes. + +He nodded, and so Pauline came to the shelter of the "Nest," which so +kindly welcomed Bettina also. + +And now Pauline was like Madame von Stork's own child, and, since she +was noble and hated the French Republic, and loved her poor King, she, +too, had no good for Napoleon and, like the Prussians, hoped to see him +conquered. + +"And what I should do without Pauline, Heaven only knows," Madame von +Stork was often saying, "my own Marianne being so useless." + +Marianne might be useless, but Bettina thought her almost as pretty as +the Queen, in her short-waisted dress, her puffed sleeves, her long +mitts and her lovely curling hair tied in place with a snood of blue +ribbon. + +When they all came to the sitting-room in the evening Bettina would +arrange her stool quite near the "gracious Fraeulein Mariechen," and, +while she knitted away, she used to gaze up shyly at her pretty +neighbour and make up stories about the Prince who would one day come +and marry her. + +"Pauline's worth ten of her," Otto was always saying. He was nearly +sixteen and was always wanting someone to do things for him, and, +"Marianne," he said, "is so stupid. Pauline can mend a fellow's things +in a minute." + +But Elsa and Ilse, the twins, who were so alike only their mother seemed +always to know which was which, and Carl preferred Marianne. + +"She can tell you stories," they told Bettina. + +As for Marianne herself, sometimes she was quite unhappy. She wanted to +be useful, but she did so love to read, and then she forgot. And house +work and cooking were not amusing. + +Madame von Stork had little good for idleness. + +"It is German," she always said, "to work. Even our good Queen is never +idle. I have seen a handkerchief she herself embroidered, Marianne, with +beautiful flower designs and a crown in gold placed in one corner." + +Settling herself with a huge bundle of mending, she with her keen eyes +would inspect the family group each evening. + +"Come, now, Marianne, no reading," she would say. "You do not know what +to do? Nonsense. There is your tent stitch. Pauline? Yes, yes, you of +course are busy. Ilse, Elsa? Bettina? Knitting, that's good. Carl? You +are a boy? What foolishness. Get your pencils and drawing book. You +don't like that? Very well then. Let Otto bring you the silhouettes that +Mademoiselle von Appen began in Berlin, and you can cut others. But, +Otto, first fix the lamp. There, where the light can fall on your +father's book. There, that is good." + +Her eyes travelled from needle to scissors, from pencil to work. + +"There, there," she said, her face beaming, "we are a busy German +family. Begin now, dear husband, we are all quite ready to hear your +book." + +The father of the family often read aloud to them in the evenings. But +the books he read were not such as children would even look at to-day. + +Bettina and Marianne, the twins, Carl and the others all listened, on +those long, cold Memel evenings, to grown-up histories, to romances, or +sometimes to plays or poems, very long and very serious. + +Now and then the Professor would talk, not read, and then Bettina loved +it. He told of the new Republic across the sea, America, which had +fought a great war and was now free and independent, and there were +stories of the great men called Washington and Franklin, and of all the +excitement when they had signed a treaty of peace in Paris. + +"I was young then," said the Professor, "and in Helsingoer, and there was +much talk of a new life beginning for the world with the Declaration of +Independence,--you must read it, Otto,--and the ships and the harbour +were gaily decorated and cannon were fired and we all drank to the +health of this new Republic at a fine party given to celebrate the birth +of Liberty. And they raised the American flag and lit bonfires, and +heavens, children, but there was hurrahing!" + +And he told of a great Englishman, named Nelson, who had conquered +Napoleon at Trafalgar, and of the Revolution in France, and all that in +his day had happened. But often he read, and sometimes Bettina's little +head fell to nodding. One night she was almost asleep when the +Professor's voice stopped suddenly. + +"Richard," interrupted his wife, and her tone was furious, "see our +Marianne." + +Bettina dropped her knitting and stared. So did the twins, and Carl +stopped cutting. What had Marianne done? Her cheeks were quite crimson +and one hand held something under the table cover. + +"My Heavens, Richard, think of it! Let me see it, Marianne. Obey me." + +Never had Madame von Stork spoken so severely. The twins nearly fell +from their chairs. Carl opened his mouth, and his eyes stared at +Marianne. Pauline never looked up once from her embroidery. Bettina's +knitting needles shook in her hands. + +"She's been reading under the table cover," announced Otto with the +superior air boys wore in those days with their sisters. "It's the +'Sorrow of Werther.' I see the cover." + +Such a thing had never happened in the "Stork's Nest." + +The father's face grew stern, and anger made even his neck red to the +roots of his queue. + +"Marianne," he began, when the maid opening the door announced: + +"His Excellency, Herr Doctor Hufeland, and the gracious Herr Brandt." + +A great cry of "Ludwig!" "Cousin Ludwig!" welcomed the entrance of a +tall, handsome man of perhaps thirty-five, with a serious face and +English features. He was dressed in one of the long-tailed coats then +the fashion, coming down to the top of his high, spurred boots. His hair +was brushed forward, and within the high collars of his coat appeared a +soft lawn stock. The other gentleman Bettina at once recognised as the +physician who had been with the Queen on the road from Memel. + +"We call him 'Cousin Ludwig,'" whispered Elsa. "He was betrothed to our +Aunt Erna who died." + +"He won't speak French," whispered Isle; "he says Germans should not +imitate the French people as upper-class people do, but should speak +their own language." + +Bettina was glad of this, for often she had to sit for hours without +understanding a word, unless the twins explained things. + +There was much to talk about. + +Madame von Stork bustled from the room to give orders for refreshments, +and while she was gone, Herr Brandt, who had settled himself near +Pauline, explained that he had come over from Koenigsberg. + +"I was with Baron von Stein," he added. "We escaped from Berlin with the +royal treasure and arrived in Koenigsberg at Christmas time. Since then I +have been at Dantzic." + +Bettina opened her little ears. Dantzic was a great, free city of +Germany, around which was the army of Napoleon. Its people were holding +out bravely and it was hoped that Napoleon would withdraw. + +"But the city is bound to fall," said Ludwig. "All who can are +escaping." + +That dreadful Emperor! Bettina seemed to see him on his white horse +before the gate of the brave old city. + +When Madame von Stork returned, the maid followed her with cake and +wine. + +"God be thanked, gentlemen," she said, "our brother Joachim has a full +cellar and as yet we have something to offer our visitors." + +Pauline and Marianne served the guests, one, dark and handsome in a red +dress trimmed with bands of fur, her arms and neck like ivory, her dark +hair arranged in curls tied back with ribbon, the other, golden-haired +and pink-cheeked, in a gown of blue, her curls tied back also with +ribbon, the ends of her narrow sash floating about as she moved in her +quick, merry way. As they ate and drank, Dr. Hufeland told his old +friends all the sad things which had happened to the Queen because of +Napoleon. He described her flight from Jena, relating how she rode +through the lovely Harz Mountains to Brunswick and from there went to +Magdeberg. + +"And all the time, dear Madame," the doctor turned to Madame von Stork, +"our poor lady had no idea of how the battle had gone, nor did she hear +a word of the fate of the King. The Countess von Voss tells me that for +courage she has never seen her equal. The Queen held fast her hand and +all through that dreadful flight, with the fear of Napoleon behind her, +she repeated over and over texts which had words to sustain her." + +"What were they, dear Doctor?" + +"From the eighth chapter of Romans, dear Madame," said the Doctor, +consulting a little note book. + +"Marianne," commanded her father, "fetch the Bible. Let us hear what +words gave comfort to our Queen." + +Marianne tripped across the room and returned in a moment with a Bible +which she laid before her father. + +All listening, he found the place and read aloud: + +"The Spirit helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray +for. + +"We know that all things work together for good to them that love God. + +"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or +distress, or persecution, or famine, or peril, or sword? + +"Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate +us from the love of God, which is in Jesus Christ our Lord." + +"Our good Angel," murmured Madame von Stork, wiping her eyes. + +"Ach, ja," said the Doctor, "she had much to endure, poor lady." + +Then he related how, tired to death herself, she had tried to encourage +the soldiers at Magdeburg, and of how in dread and trembling she had +driven across the flat country towards Berlin, and at last had entered +the old city of Brandenburg. + +"It was by the old stone, Roland," continued the Doctor, "that a courier +stopped her with the news. 'Majesty,' he said, 'all is lost! +Everything!' Then the Queen, seizing the papers from his hands, read the +awful news, her figure trembling like a leaf! 'The battle was lost at +Jena. The King has been defeated at Auerstaedt. Napoleon is making on +Berlin. Your Majesty must fly with the Royal children.'" + +Bettina's tears fell as the Doctor's voice faltered. The Mother of the +Nest wiped her eyes on her embroidered handkerchief and the gentlemen +and Otto blew their noses. Marianne sobbed. + +"And our Queen," went on the Doctor, "turned like a child to the old +Countess. She has been to her like a mother, you know. 'Voss, dear +Voss,' she said, 'my poor, poor husband.' Then she forced back her +tears. 'Dear Voss,' and she clung to her hand. 'I must go at once to my +children.'" + +Then the Doctor told of how her carriage had dashed into Berlin to find +the city a scene of wild confusion. The people, deceived by early news +of a victory, were now driven into panic by the disaster at Jena. When +the Queen entered they were pouring through the city gates in flight. + +"Napoleon is coming! Napoleon! Napoleon!" was the cry which everywhere +met her ear. + +"It was terrible," put in the Professor. "I had to pay a fortune for the +travelling carriages which brought us to Memel." + +"But the Queen," the Doctor continued, "found only disappointment at the +palace. Springing to the ground, she cried: 'My children!' to the +attendant." + +"But they were gone," interrupted Otto, "they left before we did. Their +tutor took them to Swert-on-Oder." + +The Doctor nodded, while the Professor frowned at Otto for his rudeness. + +"Her Majesty," resumed the Doctor, "sent at once for me. When I saw her +I started in amazement. Her dress was travel-stained and crumpled, her +hair in wild disorder, her face wet with tears. Never had I before seen +her any way than very neat and smiling. She held out her hands. Oh, dear +Madame, it brought tears to my eyes. 'I must fly to my children,' she +cried, 'and you must go with me.' Then, just as fast as we could, we +proceeded to Swert, leaving things just as they were in the palace." + +"A great pity, too," put in Herr Brandt, whose ways were most orderly. +"For Napoleon, as we all know, found the Queen's letters to her husband, +read what he pleased, and published all that might injure her." + +"The monster!" cried Madame von Stork, motioning Marianne to fill the +Doctor's glass and pass the cake to Herr Brandt. + +"Thank you, many thanks," and the visitor smiled at Marianne and went on +with his talk. + +"The meeting, dear friends, between our dear Queen and her children was +most heartrending. The poor little things had been torn from their play +in the palace, hurried into the travelling carriage and borne away with +very little idea of what had happened. When they heard that their +mother, whom they adore, had arrived, they rushed with cries of joy to +meet her. Even the baby Alexandrina, holding the hand of little Prince +William. But when they saw their mother, her face all wet with tears, +her dress so tumbled and with such a wild look in her eyes, the poor +little things started back in fright. The baby set up a wail, and even +the Crown Prince looked frightened." + +"Poor things," murmured Madame von Stork, her handkerchief again to her +eyes. + +"'My poor children! my poor children!' cried the Queen. Truly," and the +Doctor gazed from the faces of Elsa, Ilse, and Bettina to the grown +ones, "it was a pitiful thing to see the frightened little faces. Our +Queen, ashamed that she had frightened them, put her own feelings +entirely aside and thought only of them! 'Come with me, my darlings,' +she said, and taking the baby she led the way to her room. When she had +removed her wraps, she gathered them all around her. 'Fritz, Willy,' she +said to the two older boys, 'stand before me. Charlotte, Carl, sit one +on each side. I will hold the baby. Listen now, and I will tell you why +your mother comes to you thus in tears. My dear, dear children,' I have +written down every one of her words in my diary," explained the Doctor, +reading from his little book, "'We have suffered a great and terrible +defeat. Your poor, unhappy father and all the soldiers of Frederick the +Great, your famous uncle, have been defeated in two terrible battles, +one fought at Jena, the other at the same moment at Auerstaedt.'" + +Then the Doctor told how she related the news of that dreadful October, +and told of her journey and the flight to Berlin. And she spoke so +simply that even little Carl had an idea of all the trouble. + +"My darlings," and she gathered Carl and Charlotte in her arms, "you see +me in tears. I weep for the destruction of our army, for the death of +relatives and of many faithful friends." + +The older boys wiped their eyes, and Carl began to sob, for his lively +Cousin Louis Ferdinand, who always brought him toys and had a joke +ready, was dead, too, his mother had told him. + +"Fritz, Willy," the Queen turned to them, speaking only to them, "my +dear, dear sons, you see an edifice which two great men built up in a +century, destroyed in a day; there is now no Prussian army, no Prussian +empire, no national pride: all has vanished like the smoke which hid our +misery on the fields of Jena and Auerstaedt. Oh, my sons, my dear little +children, you are already of an age when you can understand these +unhappy things. In a future age when your mother is no more, recall this +unhappy hour. Weep again in your memories my tears, remember how I in +this dreadful moment wept for the downfall of my Fatherland." + +Then she described to them the glorious death of their cousin, Prince +Louis Ferdinand, and again addressed the little princes especially. + +"But do not be content, little sons, with tears. Bring out, develop your +own powers, grow great in them, Fritz, Willy. Perhaps the guardian angel +of Prussia gazes on you now. Free, then, your people from this humiliation +which overpowers it. Seek to shake off France as your grandfather, the +Great Elector, did Sweden. Do not forget, my sons, these times. Be men +and heroes worthy of the names of Princes and grandsons of Frederick the +Great, and for Prussia's sake be willing to confront death as Louis +Ferdinand encountered it." + +The fire which thrilled her voice caught the souls of the two boys and +their eyes glowed with excitement. + +"We promise, dear mother," said the Crown Prince, and both boys kissed +her. "We promise," said little William. + +Then the Queen being so tired sent the children from her, and attendants +appeared from Berlin, couriers arrived with despatches, and Count +Hardenburg, the Prime Minister, waited on Queen Louise with news of the +King. + +His Majesty, he assured her, was safe and sent word that the Queen and +the children must go at once to Stettin. + +On the twentieth they arrived in that strong town, and the Queen said +good-bye to her children. + +"Go, darlings," she told them, "with our Voss to Dantzic. Mother will +join father at Custrin." + +Then she held them a moment one by one in her arms and begged them to be +good and to pray always for their country. + +"Auf wiedersehen, darlings, as soon as possible you will see both your +dear father and your mother." + +Then they had separated, the Countess Voss and the children going +towards the Baltic, the Queen joining her husband in the strong old +fortified town where he was then in hiding. + +But something very annoying happened to the Queen at Stettin. + +There she had been promised fresh horses. She waited and waited and none +were brought forth. At last it was discovered that all the horses had +been turned into the field after her arrival, and that she must go on to +the King with her tired one. + +"It was the work of that villain, Napoleon. All believe that +everywhere," put in Ludwig. + +When Dr. Hufeland had finished his story, Ludwig Brandt told of the +entrance of Napoleon into Berlin; how he came in a splendid procession +with flags flying and trumpets sounding. + +"But the Berliners, watching him from the windows, wept," he added, his +face glowing. + +Then he related how Napoleon had said all manner of things against the +Queen, and of how surprised he was when he first beheld her portrait at +Potsdam. "I had no idea that she looked like that," he said, and began +to ask questions about her and listened attentively to all the praise +which on every side was given her. + +But, however much he was interested, it did not prevent his accusing her +of having caused the war, before an assembly of Berliners he called to +discuss matters. Only one of these Prussians had courage to defend the +Queen. He was an old clergyman named Erman. + +Up he stood and looked Napoleon straight in the eye. + +"Sire," he said, "that is not true." + +Not a soul believed that he would escape with his life, but he did. + +"Perhaps," said the Professor, "Napoleon respected one brave man among +such a group of cowards." + +Before the Doctor could reply, a thundering knock at the door made all +stop and look at each other in consternation. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +FRESH TROUBLES + + +It was the Major, who never could wait a minute. + +His face was red and the powder from his curls had been shaken off in +his hurry. He greeted no one. + +"Richard, Richard," he cried, "there is news of a battle at Eylau!" + +The gentlemen sprang from their chairs, Madame von Stork turned pale. +Her Wolfgang was with the army. + +"Yes, yes," cried the Major, speaking French very rapidly, "there has +been a battle, a dreadful one, something terrible. There is no news yet +that is certain. Some say, victory, others, defeat, but the whole town +is in wild excitement. I have heard that the suffering of the soldiers +was awful." + +"Naturally," said Herr Brandt in German--not a word of French would he +speak, "with all this ice, snow, and freezing." + +"I have but one boy," said the Major, "and he is with the army. Here, +Clarchen, some wine. Ah, many thanks, Mademoiselle Pauline." In spite of +his worry he made a gallant bow, the cockade on his queue bobbing. + +"My Rudolph," he said, "is a soldier, and perhaps at Eylau. But he can +be nothing better than his father was, now can he?" He settled his +double chin over his high stock and gazed from his blue eyes at the +gentlemen. + +The Professor motioned them all to seats. + +"Clarchen," he said to his wife, "it is bedtime for the children." His +voice was trembling. + +The children all bowed and curtsied, and, kissing their mother's hand +and wishing pleasant dreams for everybody, departed; Marianne, Pauline, +and Otto, also. + +The gentlemen, for Madame von Stork in a moment followed to give orders +to her servant, sat with filled glasses and discussed Napoleon and their +country. + +Presently the Professor left the room to order another bottle of wine +and some sandwiches. + +"That older girl, Mademoiselle Pauline, is an excellent maiden," +remarked Dr. Hufeland, in tones of admiration. Herr Brandt nodded, his +face growing serious. + +"Did you notice how calm she kept amid all the excitement?" + +"Yes, yes," said the Major, "she is excellent, always ready to arrange +my stock or tie the ribbon on my queue. Very different from my niece, +Marianne," he added, "very different, I assure you." + +Herr Brandt raised his eyebrows. + +"Richard has spoiled that girl," he remarked; "see here." He picked up +"The Sorrows of Werther," which lay under Marianne's chair. + +Then he read aloud high-flown passages marked by Marianne's pencil. + +"How her parents expect any sensible German man to marry her I cannot +form an idea. A German man desires a wife who can cook, sew, and keep +his house in order." + +The Doctor raised his hand, for the Professor was entering with the +bottle. + +Almost immediately his wife followed. + +Her eyes at once fell on "The Sorrows of Werther," and her face +darkened. + +"See, Richard, see," she cried, "we quite forgot to scold Marianne." + +"Come, come, Clarchen," the Professor's voice was kind and soothing, +"let the girl be. We have far more serious things now to worry over." + +Then he lifted the book from the table. + +"Ah, Goethe," he cried, and, in a moment, the battle of Eylau and all +else was forgotten, while his eager eye conned the familiar pages. +Madame von Stork turned to the others, who burst into laughter as they +watched her husband. + +"Just see him!" cried the poor lady, her turban bobbing as she shook her +head with violence. + +Startled, the Professor looked up from his book, his mild, learned face +full of wonder. + +"What is it?" he asked, "is it supper time?" + +"Nein, nein, Richard," and Herr Brandt slapped his shoulder with +sarcastic affection. "It is nothing, you know, only the cannon of +Napoleon." + +He, himself, had not the least good for Goethe, who had remained quietly +at his dinner in his garden in Weimar when the cannon were thundering at +Jena, and who sang no songs of patriotism, had nothing to cry out +against Napoleon. + +"But, Richard," his wife laid her hands on his arm, "you must pay heed +to Marianne." The gentlemen nodded. "She is more trouble to me than all +my other children. Even the twins and Carl are more useful. Reading, +talking, dreaming, that is Marianne. She is good for nothing else. It is +Bettina Brentano who has ruined her. I have never approved of that +friendship. But, O Heavens, why worry over anything when my Franz is a +prisoner, and my Wolfgang, I know not where!" and she burst into tearful +sobbing. Herr Brandt and Dr. Hufeland arose in haste, and, kissing her +hand and saying good-night to the Professor and Major, they fled. + +There was little sleep for anyone that night, for dreadful pictures of +Wolfgang, or Rudolph, frozen, or dead in the snow, arose before every +eye, and drove away all slumbers. + +On the morning, when the courier brought the truth to Memel, Marianne +was writing a letter to her friend Brentano. + +She had met this famous friend of Goethe when she was a year younger, +and on a visit to her aunt in Frankfort-on-Main. + +Never had Marianne seen anyone who had seemed to her so clever. + +Both of them adored the poet Goethe, it being the fashion in those days +for young girls to worship some poet. + +Bettina Brentano knew Goethe's mother, a fine old lady whom everyone +called "Frau Rat," and often she and Marianne went to see her. + +When Marianne returned to Berlin she was changed entirely. + +From a merry, jolly, little girl she had become a mournful maiden who +convulsed her family with the most melancholy speeches. She spoke of the +gloom of living, of the joy of dying while one was still beautiful, and +if anyone talked of Goethe, or even so much as mentioned his name, +Marianne clasped her hands and rolled her eyes and behaved, her brother +said, "like an idiot." + +The Professor only laughed. + +"She has the Goethe fever, Clarchen," he told his wife. "It has spread +at times all over Germany." + +But on the day when Carl had been lost and the Queen had kissed him, the +fault of the whole affair was to be laid on the shoulders of Marianne. + +Then the Professor had at last listened to his wife and heard how +Marianne would do nothing but read books, keep a foolish, sentimental +journal, and write letters to Bettina Brentano. + +"And, dear husband," his wife had added, "our Marianne talks of love and +hopeless sorrow, our Marianne, who used to be so merry. Her thoughts are +never with the coffee-cake, never with her sewing. And tell me, please, +how is a girl to get a husband with this nonsense? Her wedding chest, +which every German girl, as you know, must have ready, has not a thing +to boast of, and Pauline's is entirely ready. She will not stitch, knit, +or embroider, only read, read, read." + +"It is the Goethe fever, I tell you, dear wife," said the Professor. "It +will vanish." + +"But, Richard," pleaded the Mother Stork, "consider the candles." + +"Candles?" + +Ah, that was a different matter. + +"Yes, yes, dear husband, the candles. Do not think for an instant that I +permit all this nonsense to go on in the daytime. If I see Marianne with +a book, I take it away and provide needlework. And what does she do but +burn candles!" + +"Ah," said the Professor, "that will never do. I will see to the +matter." + +Now, at that moment Marianne was safe, she thought, in her room, her +pretty hair floating over her blue dressing jacket, her paper on her +desk, her pen in her hand. + +"Ah, my chosen friend, my Bettina," she wrote in the high-flown style of +that day, "who but thou understands thy Marianne? On every side I meet +with derisive laughter when I would speak of him whose name I am not +worthy to mention, our Master, thine and mine, our Goethe! Oh, to be +again with thee, to sit with thee beneath the free, open Heaven, gazing +upward at the celestial orbs whose silver beams thrill into thought, +mysterious wonder of that law-ruled world of Nature which none but poets +truly know. Oh, Bettina, how worthless is life when spent amid the +trivialities of nothingness. Oh, to wander with thee, my heart's true +friend, chosen of my spirit, to wander on the wings of thy imagination +into the realms of infinite calm, and there to prepare our souls to be a +sacrifice to him who----" + +A knock at the door had interrupted this flight of sentimental fancy. + +In had come her father. + +With a laugh he had shut the writing-desk. + +"Liebchen," he said, "it is time for bed. Do your writing by daylight." + +Then he kissed her cheeks and patted her hair, and told her he could +have no such wasting of candles. + +"To bed in five minutes," he had commanded, and that ended the burning +of candles. But nothing yet had cured her of her thoughtlessness, and it +was still Pauline who did everything to assist the mother. + +On the day that the news came of Eylau, Madame von Stork and Pauline +were busy making coffee-cake, Bettina, Ilse, and Elsa helping stem +currants and stone raisins. + +In her room Marianne was telling Bettina Brentano all about their life +in Memel. She was not sure that she could send a letter, but it was +amusing at all events to write it. It was stupid to make coffee-cake. + +"It is pleasant, dear Bettina," she wrote, "that our dear Queen and King +are in Memel. Often, now, father is sent for to talk with the Queen, and +one day mother took me to pay our respects to the Countess von Voss, who +is a friend of my dear grandmother. She is a very lively and beautiful +old lady, Mistress of the Court, and like a mother to our Queen. She is +very clever, and the gentlemen greatly admire her. She is so stately, +and will not forgive a lack of ceremony. I was in the greatest terror, +as you may imagine. We were shown into her room where she was engaged at +her toilette, some gentlemen, among them a Mr. Jackson, an Englishman, +laughing and talking as her maid did her hair. + +"I made my curtsey and saluted her hand. + +"'And this is your daughter,' she said very kindly to mother. 'Dear +Clara, the child has a look of poor Erna.' + +"That was my aunt, my Bettina, who died when she was a girl, and who was +engaged to Ludwig Brandt. + +"Then the Countess asked us to be seated, and when at last her hair +received its crown of a turban, she gave us some fine tea from England, +which Mr. Jackson had given here. + +"It was most kind in her, but I prefer our coffee. + +"She told us story after story about our Queen, for it is of her that +she best likes to talk; and, also, she spoke of dear little Prince +William, and of how he had entered the army. + +"It happened on New Year's Day, because the coming of the French made +the King fear that he could not present him with the honour on his +birthday. + +"When the Royal children appeared before our King, he greeted them for +the New Year, and then turned to little Prince William, and, oh, he is +the dearest little fellow, my Bettina! so sensible-looking and so, in +face, like our King. 'To-day,' said our King, 'something very important +is to happen. William,' and he turned directly to him, 'I have nominated +you to a commission in the army. We can no longer stay here in +Koenigsberg, because of the approach of the enemy, and we must go to +Memel at once. I might not be able to give you the appointment on your +birthday, as I had intended to do, so I give it to you now.' Then, +indeed, as you may imagine, little William was happy. + +"The Countess told us how they arrayed him in a blue coat, with a red +collar and narrow, dark trowsers and high boots to his knees. Exactly +like the Guard, you remember. + +"Then, suddenly, everybody began to cry 'Ah Heaven!' and lift up hands +in horror. It is a rule that the Guard must wear queues, and Prince +William's hair was too short for a pig-tail. 'And there they were,' said +the Countess, 'acting as foolishly as they are doing about this war, +when I simply sent out for a false queue and tied it on the child's +hair, and ended the trouble.' Then they gave him a little cane, and +behold, a fine soldier! + +"He is my favourite, and sometimes I think that the Countess likes him +better than the Crown Prince, who certainly knows that he is clever, but +he is very handsome. Then the Countess told us of how dreadful it was at +Koenigsberg, where our dear Queen was so ill, and how, when they told her +that the French were at hand, she begged to be allowed to travel. She +had a great horror of that monster, Napoleon, who has vowed to capture +her, and so she told them it was better to fall into the hands of the +good God, than into the hands of man. + +"Mother asked the Countess why Napoleon so hated the Queen. Before she +could answer her parrot suddenly called out in the funniest way: +'Napoleon is a monster! Our Queen is an angel! Down with the French!' +You can guess how startled we were, but...." + +Before Marianne could end her sentence she heard Otto calling: +"Marianne! Marianne!" + +She flew downstairs and into the great kitchen. + +There were Pauline, her mother, the children, and her father all +listening to her uncle. + +"The courier has come!" cried Otto. "Uncle will tell us the news!" + +Both Russians and French claimed the victory, but such sufferings had +never been known in the world's history. + +Amid the ice and snow, all had waited for days, the Russians occupying a +church and graveyard, the camp fires lighting snowy fields and trees +and bushes which crackled. + +"The courier, dear Richard," the old major addressed his brother, "says +thousands are sleeping a sleep from which even the love of their +families never can wake them." + +He blew his nose with great violence. + +"The snow is red with the blood of thousands," he continued, "the +Russians, God be thanked, kept their ground. They are not conquerors, it +is true, but they have checked Napoleon!" + +The Major's face flushed crimson. + +"God be praised!" cried all the company, and the kitchen rang with +rejoicings. + +But they had not heard all the good news. + +"It is said," concluded the Major, "that the Emperor of the French will +now propose peace." + +"And Wolfgang? Rudolph?" + +The Major shook his head, his cockade bobbing. + +"No news yet, dear sister, we can trust only in God, but I have no +reason to believe they were at Eylau." + +Bettina had listened eagerly. + +She was very much afraid of the Major. He was so red-faced and +important looking, and had not much good for people below him, and so +she waited until at last he left the room. Then she crept quietly to +Marianne. + +"Please, dear gracious Fraeulein," she whispered, "was my grandfather in +the battle?" + +Marianne was opening her lips to speak, when Otto interrupted: + +"Nein, Bettina, nein. Your grandfather...." + +"Otto!" + +Pauline quickly stopped him, her hand across his mouth. + +"No, little Bettina," she said very kindly, "your grandfather was not +with the army." + +"Will he come, gracious Fraeulein, come soon?" Bettina's eyes looked up +eagerly. + +"Perhaps, child, perhaps." Pauline turned away and picked up some cups +from a table. + +"Run away, children," she said, "and play until dinner." + +Bettina went slowly. It was very strange that her grandfather never came +back to fetch her. They were kind to her and she loved them, but she +wanted her grandfather. Would she never see Thuringia again, nor Willy, +nor her godmother, nor her brothers? The tears filled her eyes and the +sobs came. + +Poor little Bettina! + +She lived in sad, cruel times, and she was to be a woman before she ever +again met even one of them, or walked in the forest paths of Thuringia, +or saw the spire of St. Michael's rising high above the red roofs of +Jena. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE MOTHER OF HER PEOPLE + + +One morning, soon after the news of Eylau, the Major told the children +that an English ship had arrived in the harbour. + +"Mother, mother," they cried, "may we go and see it?" + +Poor Madame von Stork, who was almost ill from worry over Franz and +Wolfgang, rejoiced at the thought of a morning free from noise and +questions. + +"Yes, yes," she agreed very quickly. "Put on your wraps and furs, and +Pauline and Marianne shall take you." + +In a few moments the whole party set forth, Pauline and Marianne in dark +red dresses, fur hoods, and great baggy white muffs, the children +wrapped to the tips of their noses, Otto and Carl in huge cloaks and fur +caps. + +Reaching the bridge, whom should they come upon but the Queen and her +party, who, also, were there to see the great ship. The Crown Prince was +there, handsome, clever-looking, clinging to the arm of his mother, to +whom he seemed entirely devoted, little William with such a clear good +look in his face that it was impossible not to love him, and beautiful +little Princess Charlotte keeping shyly at the side of the Countess +Voss, who was guarding with watchful eyes the merry Maids of Honour. + +When the Princes saw Otto and Carl, their faces lighted, and they +whispered to their mother, who at once begged the Countess to have them +sent for. + +"My little boys, the Crown Prince and Prince William, would like to know +you," she said, and then she sent the four to the side of the bridge +that they might talk without grown people listening. + +Princess Charlotte at once flew to her mother's side, the joy in her +face proving that she had not the cold nature that seemed to show in her +face. + +Then the Queen, with one of her bright smiles, asked Pauline and +Marianne if they could not come and assist in making lint for the +soldiers. The ladies of the court, she said, worked busily in her rooms. +Then she turned away, and, with Charlotte, joined the boys, whose +laughter soon rang as if they were enjoying themselves. At once the +Maids of Honour began to amuse themselves with Marianne, and, some of +the gentlemen soon joining them, they turned the talk to Goethe, and +then laughed behind their hands when Marianne rolled her eyes and +clasped her hands and spoke of Frau Rat, and vowed she would never marry +because there was but one man in Germany, and that one, Goethe! + +The Countess von Voss did not like this conduct. + +"I beseech you, dear ladies," she said with great dignity to the Maids, +"let Mademoiselle von Stork alone. Young girls are better unnoticed." +But the Maids of Honour tossed their heads and would not stop their +nonsense. + +"Do you not pity us, Mr. Jackson," they cried to a handsome young +Englishman, "that we have but one man in Germany?" + +But Mr. Jackson, being very devoted to the old Countess, only remarked: + +"Oh, greatly, ladies," and began conversing about the ship with his +favourite, and the Maids of Honour were left to Marianne. + +Meanwhile Bettina and the twins had been amusing themselves. + +Bettina was so happy that her eyes did nothing but gaze at the face of +her dear, beautiful Queen. + +Never was anyone so lovely, so patient. With a kind word for all she put +aside her troubles and showed the boys how the ship was manned, told +them what this meant and that, and now and then patted Charlotte's hand, +that she might not feel neglected. Never for a moment did she seem to +think of herself or her own pleasure. She smiled at the twins, asked +their names, and then tried to tell them apart, and laughed quite like a +girl when she called "Ilse," "Elsa." + +Suddenly she gazed at Bettina as if puzzled. + +"Dear Voss," she touched the arm of the Countess, "do we not know this +child? Where have we seen her?" + +The Countess called Marianne. + +"It's a sad story," said the girl, glancing at Bettina, whose eyes were +fixed on the Queen. + +Then the Countess commanded Bettina to run away with the twins and watch +the sailors, and taking Marianne to the Queen, told her to relate the +child's history. + +More than once, as Marianne told the story, the Queen's eyes filled with +tears. + +"Poor child," she said, "poor little Bettina!" + +When she had heard it all, she had Marianne bring Bettina back again. + +"Dear child," she said, "surely I have seen you before. Is it not true?" + +And she smiled at the little girl most enchantingly. + +Now, nobody had ever told Bettina that a little girl must be afraid of a +Queen, so she smiled back at her with the eager, bright look which made +her so pretty. + +"Ja, ja, dear Queen," she said, for no one had told her to say +"Majesty," and then she told of the inn on the road from Jena. + +A look of pain banished the brightness from Queen Louisa's face. Very +gravely she asked Bettina question after question, and she heard of the +cruel journey, and of how Bettina's grandfather had left her. + +"Yes, yes," she nodded to the Countess, "I remember the old man. It was +of him that we spoke to the Professor, your father," and she glanced at +Marianne with a look of warning. + +"But, dear Queen," said little Bettina, nodding her head in her bright, +fairy way, "my dear grandfather will come back soon, and we will go to +Thuringia when the Kaiser Barbarossa comes from the cave and with his +great sword kills the Emperor!" + +The Queen did not laugh. + +"God grant it, dear child. God grant it," she said. "Let us pray that +the ravens will wake him, the old Red-Beard." + +When Bettina had danced away to the twins, she turned with a saddened +face to the old Countess. + +"Dear Voss," she said, and her voice was low and troubled, "these poor, +poor children whom this cruel war has orphaned! Each day I hear a fresh +story of their suffering. Alas, that I, the Queen, can do nothing for +want of money. But something must be done, and I, the Queen, must do it. +Such a lovely child, so trusting and, alas, so desolate." + +Then, her whole mood changed, she walked back to her house in Memel, her +heart heavy with the troubles of the Fatherland. + +That very day Ludwig Brandt appeared. Why he travelled to and fro over +the country no one knew, unless it was the Professor. It was something +to do with the war, of that all were certain. + +He reported that fifty thousand French and Russians lay dead in the snow +of Eylau, and that Napoleon was to send General Bertrand to Memel to +propose peace to King Frederick William. + +In a day or two this general came--"A most disagreeable-faced +Frenchman," the old Countess called him, "and with dreadful +manners,"--and the story of his visit was soon known about Memel. + +He had submitted an offer of peace from Napoleon, who agreed to restore +his kingdom to the King of Prussia if he would break off his friendship +with the Czar of Russia. + +To the Queen he brought most agreeable and flattering messages from +Napoleon. He sent her word that he had been deceived in her character. +He wished now to be friends. + +The Queen was polite, but that was all. She had no belief in the +promises of the French Emperor. Napoleon had made a cruel war on a poor, +helpless woman, driving her across the country, reading her letters, +publishing wicked things against her, having horrid pictures drawn of +her for his newspapers, and declaring her to have caused the war and all +the misery to Prussia. + +It was impossible to believe that he had truly repented because he had +halfway lost a battle. + +As for the good King, he refused to break his word to his friend to save +his kingdom, merely because Napoleon commanded him. + +"Let the war go on," he said, and suffering Prussia, its houses burned +to the ground, without food, with the cruel French everywhere, cried: + +"Hoch to our King! He is a good man, and true, and we will shed our last +drop of blood in his service!" + +And so General Bertrand left Memel, and the war went on. + +But everywhere there was much suffering. Even the King and the Queen had +little to eat and no money to buy anything, for the French had burned +the farmhouses, the farmers were in the army, and this poor land must +feed not only its own people, but all the enemy. Sometimes seven +villages could be seen burning at once, and behind Napoleon's white +horse stalked two dreadful figures. One, called Death, commanded +executions in every town and slew thousands on the battlefield, and +refused to spare hungry little children. Gaze where the poor Prussians +would, the shadow of his great scythe was over them. The other, Famine, +breathed on the poor down-trodden fields, and nothing flourished; with +her fierce hands she gathered up all the wine in the cellars, the +potatoes saved for winter, the meat, the fruit, all there was to eat +everywhere. + +The poor Prussians between them were desolate. + +In those cruel days there came to the King's house in Memel two simple +people of a sect of which there are some now in America, the Mennonites. +Their name was Nicholls, and they asked to see the King and the Queen. + +When they came before their Majesties, Abraham, the husband, holding in +his hand a bag, addressed the unhappy, worried-looked King: + +"Majesty," he said, "I bring you from my people, who send me as their +deputy, two thousand gold Fredericks. We have collected them among +ourselves, and offer them as a token of love and respect to our +sovereign." + +Then he laid the heavy bag in the hand of the King. + +"We, thy faithful subjects," he continued, "of the sect of the +Mennonites, having heard of the great misfortunes which it has pleased +God to permit, have gladly contributed this little sum which we beg our +beloved King and ruler to accept, and we desire to assure him that the +prayers of his faithful Mennonites shall not fail for him and his." + +The wife then placed a basket in the hands of Queen Louisa. + +"I have heard," said this kind woman, "that our good Queen likes good +fresh butter very much, and that the little Princes and Princesses eat +bread and butter very heartily, so I have made some myself, which is +very fresh and good, and that is very rare just now, so I thought it +might be acceptable. My gracious Queen will not despise this humble +gift. This I see already in thy true and friendly features. Oh, how glad +I am to have seen thee once so near and, face to face, have spoken with +thee!" + +Queen Louisa took the basket, with tears in her lovely eyes. + +"Dear Frau Nicholls," she cried, her face all warm with gratitude, "I +thank you many, many times, and over and over." + +Then she took off the handsome shawl she wore and threw it about the +shoulders of the Mennonite woman. + +"Dear Frau Nicholls," she said, "keep this in remembrance of me." + +For answer the good woman burst out into speeches of pity for the +misfortunes of the poor King. + +But his Majesty, interrupting her with a kind smile, lifted his hand to +check her. + +"No, no, Frau Nicholls," he said, "I am not a poor King. I am a rich +King, blessed with such subjects." + +Then he and the Queen sent many messages to the poor Mennonites, and, +when the two had gone, promised each other that when good times again +would come they would not fail to reward them, and the King did not +forget it. + +To Memel, too, came Prince William, the King's brother, and his wife the +Princess Marianne. They had fled from Dantzic, and their only little +daughter, the tiny Princess Amelia, had died of cold on the way. + +Sometimes the children of the "Stork's Nest" saw this poor lady walking +with the Queen, and they all gazed at her with great interest because +her name was the same as Marianne's. + +Ludwig Brandt remained, too, in Memel, and was much with the Englishmen +and went almost every day to the reception room of the old Countess von +Voss, where the talk was the hottest against Napoleon. + +"The Prussians," he told the Professor, "may be conquered, but never +will they forgive Napoleon's treatment of the Queen. There he went too +far." + +He further told the Professor, but this was a secret, that the students +of Koenigsberg were forming plans by which they hoped to defeat Napoleon. +He was concerned in this affair and hoped to do more that way than by +joining the army. + +And so the days passed at Memel. Often the children saw the Queen +walking, or taking the air in one of the high-runner sleighs. Carl and +Otto and the Princes were often together, and Marianne and Pauline +assisted with the lint. There was no stiffness as about a court. They +all had become friends in the time of trouble. + +Then, presently, the Professor went to Koenigsberg to fulfil his duties +as Professor. + +"But remain here with Joachim, dear wife," he said. "Who knows that the +French will not advance upon Koenigsberg? You know now that Wolf and +Rudolph are safe, so you can rest here and not worry." + +The Queen also went to Koenigsberg to visit her sister, Frederika, who +had married the Prince of Solms and lived in that city. + +But the Professor was right. + +After a brave siege the fine city of Dantzic fell. Again Napoleon was +conqueror, and back in haste came the Professor and back came the poor +Queen, flying again to Memel, whose cold winds so disagreed with her. +With them came news so dreadful that Marianne felt that never in her +life could she be happy again. Napoleon had won the bloody victory of +Friedland. Not a French cannon had missed its aim. Like ninepins, the +enemy had fallen. Fleeing, the Russians, weighed down by their arms and +heavy uniforms, had rushed into the nearby river and the waves had been +as cruel to them as Napoleon's guns. + +With the dead was Wolfgang, curly-haired, merry Wolf, the one ever ready +with a laugh, ever making jokes, playing tunes on his fiddle, waiting on +his mother, teasing the twins, laughing at Marianne, Wolf who had been +the favourite of all the family. + +"Ach Gott, ach Gott, ach Gott!" wept poor Madame von Stork, and she beat +the wings of her love and refused to be comforted. + +When the Queen heard that the Professor had lost a fine young son and +that his wife was so overcome with her sorrow, she went like a friend to +see her and to comfort her. + +Madame von Stork felt the honour of the visit, but not even a visit from +a Queen could make her cease weeping. + +With gentle words her Majesty tried to comfort her. She told her of the +bravery of Countess Dohna von Finkenstein, whom she had seen in +Koenigsberg. Four sons had she sent to battle, and when they returned +wounded, she had sent them forth again. + +"We must trust in God, dear Madame von Stork," the Queen's eyes glowed. +"I know that He will not desert us, no, not even after this dreadful +battle of Friedland. Dear Madame, think what it means to me. Napoleon is +in Koenigsberg now, and I can return no more, and we must perhaps quit +our kingdom and fly for safety to Riga in Russia. But in spite of this, +as I have written my dear father, I beg you in the name of God, to +believe that we are in the hands of God. It is my firm belief that He +will send us nothing beyond what we are able to bear. All power, dear +Madame, comes from on high. My faith shall not waver, though after this +dreadful misfortune I can no longer hope. To live or die in the path of +duty--to live on bread and salt if it must be so--would never bring +supreme unhappiness to me. Let us trust then, dear Madame, in the God +who sends us good and permits the evil that in all things we may be +drawn nearer to Him and His love." + +Though the Queen's sweet voice trembled, though her eyes said, "I sorrow +with you," Madame von Stork would not be comforted. + +"Majesty," she said, thinking only of her own grief, "have you lost a +son?" + +The Queen's eyes filled, her lips trembled like a child's. + +"I have lost one son," she said, "and a dear little daughter." + +Then Madame von Stork remembered, and forgot her grief for the first +time. + +The Queen's face changed. She looked as if the whole sorrow of Prussia +had crushed her. + +"But, dear Madame," she said, her figure drooping, "I am the Queen, and +I have lost your son and every Prussian woman's son, also. Am I not the +Mother of my People? You have lost one son. I, the Queen, have lost +thousands. Each mother's grief is mine and, oh, my God, how am I to bear +it? Was not your Wolfgang mine, also?" + +She touched her heart beating quickly beneath her dress. + +"Dear Madame, pity your Queen and believe her. Here is a wound which +nothing can heal. It has ached day and night since the battle of Jena. I +am Rachel, indeed, weeping for my children." + +When the Professor met his wife an hour later, a new look shone in her +eyes. + +"I was forgetting you, dear Richard," she said, "Wolfgang is gone, Franz +is gone, but I have you and the children." + +Then she laid her hand on his arm. + +"Our Queen has been here, dear husband, and she is an angel." + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +OTTO + + +In the winter Marianne had gone often to court. There was much need of +lint and the ladies were always occupying themselves with making it. + +The old Countess, who had known Marianne's grandmother well in her +youth, made a pet of the pretty girl, and the ladies and gentlemen found +her bright talk very amusing as they worked away in the rooms of the +Mistress of Court Ceremonies, or in those of the Queen. + +But Wolfgang's death changed everything. + +"I shall never be gay again," wept poor Marianne. + +At first she was for staying in her room and writing out her sorrow, but +one day the Queen, whom she adored, had a talk with her. + +What she said no one knew, but from that day Marianne began to think of +others. And certainly there was need of patience in the "Stork's Nest." +So much trouble made them all nervous, and the children, not having +Madame von Stork's eye upon them, grew cross and very restless. + +And the affairs of Prussia were in as bad a way as possible. After the +disaster at Friedland on the 14th of June, Marshal Soult entered +Koenigsberg, the King and the Czar fled to Tilsit, and the country waited +to see now what would happen. Talk of peace began to be heard in all +quarters. + +"But let us not despair," said Ludwig Brandt to the Professor. "Prussia +is conquered, but all through our land a spirit is rising against +Napoleon. Stein and our best generals, our orators, our poets declare +that the tyrant must be overcome and their burning words are stirring +the people. Bluecher, for instance, Richard, has declared that when a +whole people are resolved to emancipate themselves from foreign +domination they will never fail to succeed. I foresee that fortune will +not always favour the Emperor," he said, "the time may come when Europe +in a body, humiliated by his exactions, exhausted by his depredations, +will rise up in arms against him. Then," Ludwig's face changed, "there +is the enthusiasm in our Universities." + +The Professor nodded. + +Before, however, he could answer, in came poor Madame von Stork, her +face full of fresh trouble. + +"Richard," she said, "Ludwig, have either of you seen Otto?" + +Both shook their heads and went on with their talk. + +"Bettina!" called the lady. + +In tripped the little girl, her face eager and interested. + +"Dear child," asked Madame von Stork, "have you seen Otto?" + +Bettina thought that he had gone to Frau Argelander's to see the Crown +Prince, who had a room there. + +"No, no," said Pauline, who came in at the moment, "Carl went alone. The +Royal children wished to roast potatoes and Otto said that was too +childish." + +Dusk came, and no Otto. + +"Carl, Carl," his mother cried when at last he returned with the +servant, "where is your brother Otto?" + +Carl's face flushed. + +"He told me not to tell until bedtime." + +"You must," cried his mother. + +Carl brought a dirty little note from his pocket and handed it to his +father. + +When the Professor read it he grew white to the lips. + +"The foolish, foolish boy," he said, "why could he not have asked me?" + +The frightened family cried out for news of what had happened. + +When Madame von Stork heard it she was distracted. + +Otto had run away. He was sixteen now, and he had gone to fight against +Napoleon. So he wrote his father. + +"I did not tell you or mother," he said, "because you would have +prevented me. But my country needs me. Ask Cousin Ludwig." + +The Professor tried to comfort his wife. He told her that peace must be +made in a month, that Otto could do nothing, but still she wept on. + +By morning she was so ill that the Professor brought a doctor. + +"Nervous fever," he said, "brought on by this climate and worry." + +"I will nurse mother," cried Marianne, her heart all full of a new +desire to be helpful. + +"Nonsense," said her father. "Pauline is much more reliable. No, no, +Mariechen, I couldn't trust you," and he left the room. + +"It is my mother. I love her. It is my right!" burst our Marianne, her +cheeks crimson. + +But Madame von Stork decided it. + +"I should go crazy with you, Marianne," she said. "You would be reading +when I needed my medicine. I am sorry, dear child," she smiled to soften +the lesson, "but I am nervous, very nervous, and I must have a +thoughtful person. Pauline, you know, remembers." + +Marianne rushed to her room. In a flood of bitter tears she flung +herself on her couch. There in rows on their shelves stood her books. +How she hated them! + +Seizing one, she flew to the kitchen, her cheeks blazing. In a rage she +opened the door of the stove. She thrust in "The Sorrows of Werther." +With a blaze it ascended on the air of Memel in smoke, the maid staring +in wonder. Marianne tore back to her room. She flung herself face +downward on her couch. + +"It is _my_ mother, not Pauline's," she sobbed, and she wept for an +hour. + +Worn out at last, she rose to bathe her face in cold water. + +On her chest of drawers stood a little picture that a lady of the court +had given to her. + +Marianne started. A flush dyed her face as she gazed into the blue eyes +of the Queen. She who loved books above all things, put them aside +without a word if the King, if the Royal children, if the ladies wanted +her. She was never well, but was always helping others, always +forgetting what she wanted, what pleased her, that she might do her +duty. + +"Dear Marianne," again the girl heard her voice as it had soothed her +after the death of her brother Wolfgang, "there is no trouble in which +the dear God will not help us." + +All the demons of self and anger and dislike of Pauline ceased to +struggle in Marianne, as she remembered. She would be good, she had +promised Queen Louisa. She hesitated a moment, then she bowed her head +and whispered a little prayer that the dear God would help her and make +her good like the Queen who so loved Him. + +Then she went below, all worn out with her battle, but quiet and humble +and wishing to help her mother. + +And certainly there was need of her. + +Carl and Ilse and Elsa were quarrelling violently, Bettina with +frightened face struggling to quiet them. She had on her little apron +and had brought dishes to try and set the table for supper. Marianne's +face flushed. Pauline was above, nursing her mother, Bettina below, +trying to quiet the children and get supper for the Professor, and she, +the daughter of the "Stork's Nest," had been in her room in a temper. +She took the dishes from Bettina and she separated Carl and the twins. +For an hour she sat with them telling them stories. Then her eye fell on +a volume of Goethe lying on a table where her father had left it. + +A half hour later the Professor opened the door. His face darkened. + +"Marianne," he said, "I expected better things of you." + +With a start the girl laid down her book. Carl and Ilse were squabbling +over the last piece of cake on the table, Elsa was looking at a valuable +book with sticky fingers, the clock had stopped for want of winding, and +Bettina had vanished into the garden. + +Marianne flushed hotly. + +"I am trying, father," she said, "very----" + +Without a word he left the room, his face stern with displeasure. + +Putting the book aside, Marianne wound the clock, she sent the children +to bed, and sought Bettina in the garden. + +"I will do better," she promised herself, and next day she remembered +much better. + +But it was hard to keep the children quiet in the evening. She told all +the stories she could think of, and they only clamoured for more. + +One evening a bright thought struck her. + +She ran to her room and came back with a fat, red book whose brass clasp +she unlocked with a tiny key. + +"Now, Ilse and Elsa," she said, "get your tent-stitch. Bettina, I would +not knit. Work on that strip for a bed-spread. Carlchen, draw some +pictures and I will read you a lovely book about our Queen." + +Then she told them that their Aunt Erna, who had died when she was +sixteen, had written it and it would give them a story of how happy the +Queen was before Napoleon came into Prussia. + +Then she arranged the candles, and all settled to listen. + +The Professor, passing through the room, this time smiled on Marianne. + +"Where are the children, Richard? What are they doing?" cried nervous +Madame von Stork as he opened the door of her room. + +When he told her, the worry faded from her poor ill face. + +"God be praised, dear husband," she said, "that our Marianne is +improving. It was hard to refuse her the nursing, but I hoped the +lesson might rouse her, and I was right." + +Then, smiling at her husband, she sank back on her pillow and soon was +enjoying her first restful sleep. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE JOURNAL + + +Marianne had first heard of her Aunt Erna's journal in Berlin. + +It had been on the night when Ludwig Brandt had come in with the news +that the French had made the French Consul, Napoleon, Emperor. + +When he had told his news the children with glowing faces informed him +that their Carl had been kissed that very day by the Queen. + +Ludwig, who was always serious, called the little fellow to his knee. +Marianne never forgot how solemn it all was. + +"Listen, my little Carl," he said, and waited until the laughter had all +died from the chubby dimpled face, "a great and noble woman has kissed +you. All your life think of it as a kiss of baptism. The call of war +will come to you as to all Germans. Let the kiss of the Queen make of +you a brave, a true, a patriotic soldier!" + +How Ludwig's voice had rung through the room and how Pauline had gazed +in admiration! And then Ludwig had taken little Carl on his knee and +told him a nice little story of Queen Louisa, of when she had gone with +her husband on his Huldigung, the journey German sovereigns take to +receive the oaths of allegiance in their provinces and cities. + +In the village of Stargard, in Pomerania, Ludwig related, the good +people who had arranged the welcome had dressed little girls in white +that they might strew flowers before the new young Queen, and the quick +eye of the Queen noticed that, as there were nineteen, one must walk +alone. + +She turned to the grown people. + +"Where is the twentieth?" she demanded, and her face grew crimson with +anger when she heard their answer. + +"Majesty," they said, "the child was so ugly that we sent her home." + +"Poor child!" cried the Queen, "poor child! Send for her, and at once!" +she commanded. + +And when the poor little thing appeared, her plain, pale face all wet +with tears, Queen Louisa held out her arms as she would to one of her +own Royal children. + +"Come, Liebchen," she said, "come at once to me. Tell me your trouble, +every bit of it." + +And then she petted her and praised her and drove away all the little +thing's shame and tearfulness and told her stories of the Crown Prince, +and the little girl forgot all about her ugliness and the people's +cruelty. But to the grown people Queen Louisa was very stern, as she +could be when it was necessary. + +"Was my coming," and she looked at them until they blushed, "to be made +a cause of sad memories to a dear little girl only because of her +ugliness?" + +"Our Queen is an angel," said Madame von Stork as Ludwig ended. + +Then Marianne told stories, also, of things she had heard of the Queen +at Frau Rat Goethe's. + +"Bettina Brentano," she began, "is a friend of the mother of our +Goethe!" + +"My goodness, Marianne!" cried Franz, who was home in those days, "don't +pronounce that name as if it were sacred!" + +But Marianne paid no heed to him. + +"Frau Rat," she continued, with a toss of her head, "loves our Queen +with all her heart. She has known her since she was as old as Carl. +Once, when she and her sister, the Princess Frederika, were little +girls, they came to Frankfort to the coronation of the Emperor Leopold." + +Then, while Carl crowded to her knee and even her father stopped his +reading to listen, Marianne told how, one day, the two princesses came +to visit Frau Rat with their Swiss governess, Fraeulein de Gelieu, and of +how in Frau Rat's garden was a pump which at once attracted the +princesses. + +Little Louisa, who loved the old lady, and was not a bit afraid of her +in spite of the great turban she wore, whispered in her ear how much she +would enjoy pumping like a common child. + +The mother of Goethe nodded. She had no taste for prim etiquette and saw +no real reason why the little princesses should not enjoy themselves. + +"Come, dear Fraeulein de Gelieu," said she to the governess. "Come into +my saal. I will show you my beautiful snuffbox with the picture of my +famous son upon it." + +Then, leading the lady, she softly locked the door and Louisa and +Frederika, running to the pump, clung to the handle, and pumped and +pumped until the water ran in streams and splashed their stockings and +elastic strap slippers, and made them for once enjoy themselves quite as +if they had not been princesses. + +When time for good-byes came the two happy little girls threw loving +arms around the neck of this kind Frau Rat and grateful little lips +whispered thanks for her kindness, telling her that never, never, never +would they forget their joy in being permitted to play like other +children. "Never, dear Frau Rat, never!" they cried. + +Nor did Louisa, at any rate. + +"Frau Rat," concluded Marianne, "showed me one day the most beautiful +gold ornaments she had only a few months before received as a present +from our Queen, who really loves her." + +A second time Louisa visited Frankfort-on-Main. It was two years later +when, Leopold being dead, Francis, the last Emperor of the Holy Roman +Empire, came to receive the crown which, in 1806, just before the battle +of Jena, he resigned forever. + +At that time the Princess and her brother Carl came to supper with Frau +Rat Goethe. + +There was omelette, very light and delicious, and famous bacon salad, a +dish much loved in that day throughout Germany. + +"Oh, how fine!" cried Carl and the princess, and when they stopped +eating there was not even so much as a half leaf left on either plate! + +All her life Frau Rat loved to tell about this, and Marianne related how +she joked when she told the story. + +"And, mother," said Marianne, "Frau Rat told me that our Queen, though +she was then a princess, made her own satin shoes for the coronation." + +Madam von Stork beamed approval. + +She opened her lips to impress the importance of sewing upon Marianne, +but the young girl was too quick for her. + +"Frau Rat, father, says that our Queen reads both Goethe and Schiller +always." + +Before Madame von Stork could answer, the maid appeared with wine and +cake, and, when all were settled, Marianne had told more stories about +Goethe's mother and what a fine old lady she was, but so amusing in her +great turban, with its red, white and blue feathers, or great decoration +of sunflowers, with her hair all arranged and plaited with ribbons, her +face rouged, her embroidered kid gloves, her rings, and her famous +speech: + +"I am the mother of Goethe!" + +When Marianne told all this she altered her voice and put on what her +brothers called her "Goethe manner," and, turning to Herr Brandt, she +exclaimed: + +"Oh, Uncle Ludwig, the Frau Rat showed me her son's playthings and the +dresses he wore as a child. Oh, think of my touching, my handling what +his noble hands have rested upon! Oh, how it thrilled, how it +over-powered me!" + +The boys burst into a roar, but her father with a glance quieted them. + +"And what is Frau Rat like, Marianne?" he asked. + +Delighted to talk on her favorite topic, Marianne told how, when the +Frau Rat announced, "I am the mother of Goethe," her voice rang out like +a trumpet. + +Ludwig pushed back his glass. + +"The trumpet we should hear," he said, "is the voice of her son singing +songs of patriotism. Never mind, Mariechen," for Marianne was beginning +to cry out, "your idol is not entirely perfect. Now, when at last we +have a literature in Germany, why will not our poets rouse our people? +The imitation of France is on us like a curse. All must be French. We +must speak French, we must read French, we must despise all things +German. I tell you, Richard, it is now the calm before the storm. Over +Prussia is gathering a cloud and the day will come when the sun shall +shine no more for us." + +He arose and paced up and down the floor. + +"Oh, Ludwig," cried Madame von Stork, "come, come, sit down and enjoy +your doughnuts." + +But Ludwig Brandt was not to be soothed with cake. + +"Good-night, Clara," he said suddenly, and bending, kissed Madame von +Stork's hand. + +With an "Auf wiedersehen," he departed. + +"My goodness," cried Madame von Stork, "but Ludwig is uncomfortable. +Here we were enjoying a quiet, happy evening, and in he comes and upsets +everything. See, Marianne, see, there he has spilt wine on the +tablecloth. It is the English in him which makes him so solemn. Perhaps +if dear Erna had lived she might have made him gayer. And speaking of +Erna, Marianne, you are old enough to read your dear aunt's journal. It +is really a history of our dear Queen the child kept to please Ludwig. +To-morrow, when you visit your grandmother, you must ask her to lend it +to you." + +It was this same journal which Marianne brought forth in the sitting +room. + +Before she could begin reading Elsa and Ilse crowded to her side. + +"Sister," they said, "tell Bettina what happened when you took us to +grandmother's and she gave you the book, won't you?" + +Marianne laughed. + +"We had cherry compote for supper," she said, "and we all had some, and +Otto whispered to Wolf that he could keep more stones in his mouth than +Wolf could, and all the others heard and in whispers they all dared each +other, and they kept on eating and eating until their cheeks were quite +puffy." + +Bettina laughed gaily. + +"And there was company," put in Elsa. + +"And grandmother asked Otto a question," said Ilse. + +"And then----" Carl shouted. + +"Otto couldn't keep his in----" + +"And Wolf laughed----" + +"And, oh, Bettina, it was awful! Stones shot everywhere out of +everybody's mouth and oh, grandmother!" She held up her hands. + +Bettina thought this very funny and they all laughed and would have made +a great noise had not Marianne put the tiny key in the brass lock of the +red book. + +"Come, now, be quiet," she said, "and I will begin the journal of our +Aunt Erna." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +PRINCESS LOUISA + + +"First," said Marianne with an air of great importance, "I will tell you +about the family of our Queen." + +All the children looked up with eagerness. + +"Her name," continued Marianne, "is Louisa Augusta Wilhelmina Amelia. +Her father is the Duke Carl of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Her mother, who +died when she was six years old, was a Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt." + +Here Marianne paused. + +"It is important, children, that you should know these things of our +Queen," she informed them, looking very wise and grown up. "Her name, +the mother's, I mean, was Frederika Caroline Louisa. Now our Queen--I +learned this to tell you--was born in the old castle of Hanover, March +10, 1776. Her father was the governor there for his brother-in-law, who +is king of--where, Ilse?" + +Both twins shook their heads. + +"Carl?" + +"Go on, Mariechen," said he, "don't be a teacher." + +But Marianne had her plans. + +"Bettina?" + +"Oh, England," said the little girl, who had learned this from something +she had heard Mr. Jackson say. + +"Go on, Mariechen," urged Carl. + +Marianne nodded. + +"When our Queen was six," she said, "her father married her aunt, but +she died, too, and our Queen lived with her grandmother, who took her +to Holland, and Strasburg, and everywhere she travelled. One day she +took her to the Rhine and she met the Crown Prince, who now is our King. +Now, listen to what our dear Aunt Erna has written." + +Marianne opened the red book. + +On the first page was her aunt's name. + +"Erna Hedwig Anna Marie von Bergman, her journal." + +On the next was the date, "Dec. 22, 1793." + +"To-day," read Marianne, "we went to see the entrance of our Crown +Princess into Berlin. While we walked to Unter den Linden, where my +Ludwig--I am betrothed now to Ludwig--had obtained for us very fine +seats, he entertained us with stories of this lovely princess, who came +to-day to our prince. He said everybody loved her, and he told me so +much of her beauty that I was all eagerness to see her enter. + +"Ludwig said that even when she was a child she gained love everywhere. +Once, at Darmstadt, the great poet, Schiller, was reading aloud from his +'Don Carlos,' and he felt a pair of eyes on him. He looked up, and saw +the loveliest little girl, who seemed to understand every word of his +poetry. It was the little Princess Louisa, and Schiller smiled on her. +To be smiled upon by a genius seems to me to be better than to be Crown +Princess." + +Marianne's face glowed as she read this. + +"She would have understood me, my Aunt Erma," she thought. + +"Go on, please, go on," said Carl. + +"I said this to Ludwig," read Marianne, "but he told me that to be a +good house-wife was better than either." + +"Exactly like him," she muttered, and then went straight on with the +journal. + +"Our Princess, who came to-day, met our Prince at Frankfort-on-Main. Our +King invited her with her grandmother and sister, Frederika, and the +very instant that our Crown Prince saw Princess Louisa he said: 'She or +never another.' A great love was at once in his heart. + +"Every day they were together. Every evening in the theatre, and now, +to-morrow, they marry. Our Prince Louis marries Princess Louisa's +sister, Frederika. I find that lovely. + +"They were betrothed at Darmstadt. Our King, who is such a jolly, joking +man, gave them their rings. 'God bless you, children,' he said, and all +the people said: 'Amen.' + +"We thought there would be no marriage for a long time, for the King +would not have it because of the war with France. But something changed +his mind, and so to-day Berlin was decorated for the entry of the +Princess. + +"It was so fine I can hardly write about it. The whole of +Berlin was decorated with flags. There were flags of Prussia, of +Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and of the Holy Roman Empire. They were +everywhere, on the Rathaus, across buildings, in windows. There were +evergreens, too, and in all my life I have never seen such a Christmas +Markt. The open place was all full of booths with fir trees in the +centre. We started early enough for me to buy a few things for our +Christmas tree. + +"It was hard to choose. I wanted laces and I wanted Swiss carvings, and +I wanted French bonbons, but at last at one booth I bought honey cakes, +at another, the dearest gingerbread images of the Prince and Princess, +at another, a chocolate group of the four royalties, and some lace and +toys for the tree. + +"The streets were so full we could hardly push our way through the +throng of hunters in green, Berliners and peasants all in their Sunday +costumes and gold ornaments. + +"People were in all the windows, hanging over balconies and pushing and +pressing in the streets. We reached our places just as the 'Berliner +Citizens' Brigade' formed in lines up Leipzigerstrasse to the corner of +Wilhelmstrasse. + +"We were quite near the big arch where the Princesses were to be +welcomed. + +"It was splendid. There were three divisions in the arch, all decorated +with flowers and statues and pictures and words of welcome. + +"One figure was Hymen, who is the god of marriage, and there were two +bridal wreaths, because of the double wedding. + +"'Look, Erma,' said mother, and there, among the little French boys in +green suits sitting on the arch, was Francois de Ballore, and among the +lovely little German girls in white with pink sashes and wreaths of +roses, I saw Hedwig Rueckert, Elise Stege, and Annchen Romeike. + +"'One of them,' explained Ludwig, 'is to recite a poem of welcome.' + +"It was dreadfully tiresome standing in that great crowd, but at last +came the procession. + +"There was a sound of horns, and six splendid horses walking with the +greatest stateliness entered Unter den Linden. On them were the Royal +Post Secretaries. Then came postilions in splendid uniforms, and after +them the carriers in blue. The postilions, there were forty of them, +Ludwig said, were all blowing horns, and I felt sorry, indeed, for the +carriers. I liked the next thing very much. It was the Hunters' Guild, +and they wore green costumes with peach-blossom facings. But the next +after the hunters was splendid. It was dozens of young Berliners dressed +as knights of the Middle Ages. + +"The people cried out: 'Enchanting!' 'Wonderful!' and I said to Ludwig +that I wished men dressed that way now and not in ugly every-day knee +breeches and ruffled coats. + +"But Ludwig only told me that armour would be inconvenient, and made +fun. But I think so, just the same. What is there romantic about a +queue, or slipper buckles, and knee breeches? Nothing at all. + +"It was fun to see how important the Brewers and Distillers looked in +blue. The merchants and their sons wore red, and after them came +Frederick the Great's fine Royal Guard, and they all arranged themselves +in two lines for the carriages to enter. + +"The Berliners refused to have Royal Chamberlains about the carriages. + +"'We want to see the Princesses, not Chamberlains,' they said. + +"Ludwig named the people to me. + +"The handsome, white-haired lady with bright, sparkling eyes, was the +Countess von Voss, the Mistress of Court Ceremonies, who had gone to +Potsdam to meet the Princess. There was the Duke, and the grandmother, +and the brother of the Princesses, and the Maids of Honour, the two +Ladies Vieregg, and Master of Court Ceremonies von Schulden. + +"We could hardly see them for the crowd, and there was a woman near me +who talked so much I could hardly hear Ludwig. She said that her husband +was a member of the Guild of Butchers and he had marched to Potsdam, +which was splendidly decorated, in a brown suit with gold shoulder-bands +and a gold-figured vest and splendid red galoon hat with lace trimming. +They gave the first welcome to the Princesses and, goodness knows, the +butcher's wife was proud of it. + +"But at last she was still, for in a splendid gold coach drawn by eight +horses came the two brides. + +"They are so beautiful I cannot describe them. + +"They are both slender and very graceful, and they both have blue eyes +and golden hair, but if you once see Princess Louisa, you can never look +again at Princess Frederika. + +"The people were enchanted. + +"'Never have we seen such eyes, never,' was all we heard, for the +Princess turned as she stepped on the platform and smiled right at us. + +"They were blue and true, and oh, they are so different from other +people's that I do not know how to tell it. They seem to say: 'I love +you, I love you.' + +"The sweetest thing happened. + +"The prettiest little baby girl in white and pink, with a wreath of +roses on her curls, came out on the platform to welcome the Princess. +She was like a round-cheeked cherub, and she carried a bouquet of roses +almost as big as herself. It was a poem she said of great big grown-up +words, and her mouth was so tiny that it made everybody smile just to +see her. + +"'When thou appearest,' she began, and kept ducking her little head and +then smiling at the Princess and looking out of the corners of her eyes. + +"I have never seen anything half so pretty. + +"And when she was through, what did she do but just stand and look at +the Princess and smile, as much as to say: 'And how, dear Princess, do +you like it?' + +"And then what did our new Princess do but spring forward, catch the +little round-cheeked thing in her arms and hug and kiss her as if not a +soul was looking. + +"'You darling!' she said. + +"The people were just wild. + +"'She will not only be our Queen,' said the woman who talked so much, +'she will be a mother to her people.' + +"But the Mistress of Court Ceremonies was shocked. + +"We could hear what she said, quite distinctly. + +"'My heavens!' she cried, and her voice was so full of horror that even +Ludwig laughed, 'what has Your Highness done? That is against all +etiquette.' + +"Then our Princess turned just like a girl. + +"'What!' she cried, and I never heard a voice so sweet and like a silver +bell, 'may I not do such things any more?' + +"'She is adorable," said Monsieur de Paillot, who was standing quite +near mother. + +"'She is an angel,' said the woman who talked so much." + +"Why, Mariechen," interrupted Elsa, "that's what everybody now calls +her." + +Marianne nodded. + +"Go on," commanded Carl, whose blue eyes were quite eager with +listening. + +"After that," went on the journal, "the Princesses went to the palace, +where the Princes were waiting. We had to wait for the crowd to thin, +and Monsieur de Paillot and Ludwig fell to talking. He is a French +refugee, I think. Berlin is full of them. + +"'Monsieur,' he said to Ludwig, 'this parade to-day recalls another that +I saw when a Princess came, also, to my kingdom.' + +"We all listened politely. + +"'She came, my friends,' he said, 'from Vienna, that Princess. Her +bridegroom was the Dauphin of France. She, also, was beautiful.' + +"He looked so solemn he took all the pleasure from our procession. + +"A queer wrinkle came in his forehead and he looked almost like a +revolutionist. + +"'Many things have come to pass,' he said, 'since I first saw that Queen +of France.' + +"It was Marie Antoinette, I knew it, then. Poor lady, the wicked French +have beheaded her. + +"Monsieur de Paillot looked at me sternly. + +"'These are troubled times,' he said. 'Old things are passing, new +things are being born. Ours is a day of revolutions, of changes. There +has been a struggle for liberty in America. I had the honour, as you +know, of fighting with the noble Lafayette in the Colonies. I have seen +Washington. I have talked with Thomas Jefferson, with the learned +Franklin. You, here in Prussia, still have serfs, no constitution, and +no patriotism. In America, the women went in homespun, the men starved +at Valley Forge, and all for the rights of man. But here, pardon me, +Madame, but is it not true that you borrow your language, your customs, +everything from France? I fear that lovely young Princess may suffer.' + +"Mother was furious. So was I. But Ludwig nodded. + +"'You are right, Monsieur, quite right,' he said, and I think that +horrid in him, even if he will be my husband. + +"'Monsieur,' I said, 'was the Queen of France as beautiful as our +Princess?' + +"Then he made me a grand bow that made me think he was not quite so +horrid. + +"'Mademoiselle,' he said, 'I have never seen so lovely a woman as this +Princess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, never.'" + +When Marianne read this the children stopped her. + +"Was that our Queen?" asked Carl. + +"Of course," said Ilsa, "first she was Crown Princess, then our Queen." + +At that moment the maid brought in the supper. + +"To-morrow night," said Marianne, "I will read you the next things that +happened. Come, now, Bettina, you may pass the bread, and Ilse, you and +Elsa sit here one on each side of me, and Carl, you may be father." + +"It is nice, Mariechen," said Ilse, "to have you take care of us." + +"Yes," said Elsa. + +"I love you, Mariechen," and Carl hugged her until she was nearly +strangled. + +Marianne, her eyes dancing, was glad that she was trying to be better. +It made her happier, she found, than even "The Sorrows of Werther." + + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE MARRIAGE + + +"Now," said Marianne, next evening, "I will read again in the journal. +Are you ready, children?" + +And she glanced around the little group. + +There were the twins with their tent stitch, Carl with his pencil and +drawing book, Bettina with her knitting. + +Marianne smiled and settled herself most importantly. + +"Carl," she said, "bring another candle. Elsa, will you please draw +closer the window curtain, and Bettina, child, sit nearer the light. +Now, ready?" + +"Our Princess," began the journal, "was married last night, Christmas +Eve, in this year of 1793. When mother lit our tree and my sister +Clarechen's children, Franz and Wolfgang, were clapping their little +hands in joy, Ludwig lifted his hand. + +"'Our Crown Prince has a wife now,' he said, and glanced at the clock. + +"Baron von Sternberg, an old friend of my father's, came to-day to see +mother and told us all that happened last night, for he was at the +wedding. + +"He said that our new Crown Princess was most beautiful in white with a +crown of sparkling diamonds that the Queen herself had placed on her +lovely golden head. Before she was married, the widow of the Great +Frederick gave her a blessing, the blessing of an old woman, she said. +Then came the wedding in the Ritter Saal. The altar was beneath a +baldachin of purple velvet embroidered in crowns of gold, and hundreds +of candles made a splendid light. Oh, how I should love to have seen all +the velvets and jewels and the fine ladies with powdered hair and the +men with their clothes of fine velvet! + +"I long for the Court, and because of my father's fine position, I could +go there, but my mother will not have it. + +"No, she says, it is wicked there. Our King is too gay, and she told me +a sad story of the Countess von Voss, the lady I saw in the procession, +and who, it seems, is mother's old friend from girlhood. This lady went +to Court very young and the King's brother fell in love with her, and it +was all so unfortunate, for he must marry a Princess, and the Countess, +her cousin. + +"But the wedding. + +"Ober-Consistorial Rath Sack performed the ceremony, for he had both +baptised and confirmed our Crown Prince. The Berliners wished a fine +illumination, but the Crown Prince would not have it. + +"'Nay, nay, good Berliners,' he said, 'give the money to the widows and +orphans of the soldiers killed in the war with France.' + +"Ludwig says that he is much worried over the debts of his father, the +King, who is jolly and beloved of the people, but who spends everything +he can lay his hands on. + +"After the wedding came the polonaise. It is an old custom and takes +place at the marriage of every Prussian Crown Prince. + +"The pages first bring in torches and present them to eighteen +ministers of state. Then trumpets sound, the royal family rise from the +semi-circle in which they sit under a baldachin, the Lord Chamberlain +gives a signal, and the dance begins, all in the light of the torches +the performers bear with them. + +"The Baron said that it was most enchanting. The King danced with our +new Crown Princess, the Crown Prince with the Queen and the widow of +Frederick the Great. Round they marched to the pretty polonaise step at +the corner of the room, dividing and changing partners, the torches +blazing, and oh, the lords and ladies so fine and grand! + +"To-day is Christmas, and I was in the old Cathedral, and who should +come in but the Crown Prince and Princess? They seem so in love with +each other that it is beautiful to see. And they are most religious. + +"As we were coming home from church we met Monsieur de Paillot. He told +us something which filled me with the greatest joy. + +"Our King was not quite pleased with the wedding. + +"'There were too many embroidered coats,' he said, 'at the second we +will have a few commoners.' + +"And so the Berliners can go to the wedding of Prince Ludwig and +Princess Frederika, and my Ludwig will take me. Oh, what happiness, for +I shall see our Crown Princess in her robes and her diamonds. + +"The dress I wore to the wedding was most beautiful. A young French girl +designed it with the taste and skill of her nation. It was made for a +great ball at which I am to be introduced to society, but mother bade me +wear it to Court. + +"It was of white tissue, and above the hem of my flowing skirt was +embroidered a border of fleur-de-lys in purple and gold. My kerchief was +fine as a web and edged with rare lace, and for the first time my hair +was raised high and powdered. Mother finished my joy by clasping about +my throat a necklace of purple stones. + +"'Your dear father gave them to me when I was a bride,' she said with a +sigh, for it is but two years since we lost him. + +"'Lovely!' cried my sister Clarechen when she saw me, but Ludwig +frowned. + +"'Why French flowers?' he asked, his eyes on the fleur-de-lys. Ludwig +sees all things. 'Why not something German and blue?' he asked with +great discontent. + +"Ludwig is very strange in some ways. For one thing, he will not speak +French, like all well-bred people. + +"'I am a German,' he will say, 'why not speak my own language?' + +"And he calls mother 'Frau,' and not 'Madame,' and me 'Fraeulein,' and +all my notes to him must be written in German, and German is so hard, +not beautiful, like French, and he scolds me when I make more than a +dozen mistakes in my articles: _die, der, das_. + +"But my dress, my lovely, lovely dress! + +"It might have been blue, or red, or any colour, for all that it +mattered. The crowd was so great no one looked at poor little Erna von +Bergman, and next day she spent hours darning a great rent in her skirt. + +"But I have seen our Crown Princess, and she smiled right at me, so what +else matters? No one could behead her as the French did Marie +Antoinette; no, not even for liberty. + +"She was in white and wore a crown of sparkling diamonds. The Crown +Prince looked at her as if he adored her. He is very earnest and grave, +she, very bright and gay. There is great love between them, I can see +that, because of my own love for my Ludwig. + +"I saw our King at the wedding, and he was most amusing. Of late years +he has grown very stout, and because of his increased size he found it +difficult indeed to pass through the room with his arm laden with the +widow of Frederick the Great, our Queen Dowager. + +"The crowd could not help punching him with their elbows. + +"Think of it! Even Ludwig nudged our King! + +"But he was not the least angry. + +"He winked, actually winked, and then called out in his merry, jolly +way: + +"'Don't be shy, my children. The wedding father can have no more room +to-day than the guests.' + +"The Berliners were delighted. + +"Our King is a great favourite because of his jokes and his calling the +people 'Children.' + +"But Ludwig does not admire him. He says one should weep to think of +such a man wearing the crown of the Great Elector, or Frederick the +Great, that he is like Charles II of England. He believes much in +spirits and has mediums and such people always about him. But he is very +benevolent and gives to the poor. + +"Oh, it was fine at the wedding! I saw all the great people of the +Court, and how I longed to be one of them and live in such splendour! +But with torn dress and tired feet I came home to our humble dwelling. +At least, it isn't so humble--mother would frown at such a word--but one +says that when one goes to Court, where all is the grandest.... + + * * * * * + +"I have decided to always put down what I hear of our Crown Princess, +how the King loves her, and how our Crown Prince forgets his sad nature +when he is with one so happy and gay, and all that the Berliners talk +about." + +Here Marianne paused and turned over some pages. + +"I will skip," she announced, "because all on these pages is about other +things. To-day I have read it all and have marked only that which will +interest you." + +"There are many things we hear of our Crown Princess," she then read. +"She and the Crown Prince play many pranks upon the Countess von Voss, +who loves etiquette and ceremony above all things. But that is on the +surface; in her heart she adores the Crown Prince and the Princess +Louisa, who is now like her daughter. As for them, they are full of +mischief. + +"All Berlin just now is talking of how our Crown Prince and Princess say +'thou' and not 'you' to each other, according to our sweet German custom +of making a difference between friends and strangers. + +"The Court, when this report spread, cried out in horror. It was not +according to French etiquette. + +"The King commanded his son before him. + +"'What is this I hear?' he demanded, 'that you call the Crown Princess +"thou"?' + +"'You hear it upon good grounds,' answered our Crown Prince, with his +slow, good-humoured smile, 'when a man says "_du_" (_thou_) the person +to whom he speaks knows whom is being spoken to, but when I say "_sie_" +(in German written "_Sie_" for "_you_,"--"_sie_" for "_they_") who can +know whether I say it with a capital letter, or not?' + +"From the beginning our Crown Prince had objected to the formal +etiquette which Frederick the Great imposed upon our Prussian Court. He +longs always to have his home life free from formality. + +"'I desire with all my heart,' said he, 'to live as a plain person and +not as a royal one.' + +"One evening the Crown Princess returned from a feast, and ridding +herself of her finery, ran like a girl to her husband. + +"Clasping her hands, he gazed in her wonderful eyes. + +"'Thank God,' he said, 'thou art again my wife.' + +"The Crown Princess' silvery laugh rang through the room. + +"'What?' she cried, 'am I not that always?' + +"The Crown Prince shook his head with an air of sad discontent. + +"'No,' he said, 'thou must so often be Crown Princess.' + +"The Countess von Voss thought it her duty to bring this lively pair to +order. + +"'You do not please me,' she said one day to the Crown Prince. 'French +etiquette rules all Europe, and I, as Court Mistress of Ceremonies, must +lecture your Royal Highness for seeking the Crown Princess without +announcement.' + +"The Prince made a face and looked as if he were going to be +stubborn.--I heard all this from Baron von Sternberg.--Then suddenly +inspired by a secret thought, he laughed. + +"'Good!' he cried like a penitent boy, 'dear Voss, I will reform. So +have the kindness to announce me to my wife and ask if I may have the +honour of speaking with her Royal Highness, the Crown Princess, and +express my hope that she will graciously grant it.' + +"The good Countess beamed her approval. + +"Now, indeed, was the wayward young man behaving as he should. + +"With dignified steps she sought the apartment of the Princess, and was +beginning the announcement when a laugh interrupted her. + +"The Crown Prince, laughing as hard as he could, sat on the couch with +his arm around his wife. + +"Jumping up, he seated the Countess between them. Then he took her hand +and spoke quite decidedly. + +"'See, dear Voss,' said he, 'I hurried in another way to show you that +my wife and I see each other unannounced and quite as often as we will. +That, in my opinion, is the only Christian fashion for married people, +Royal or commoners. You are our charming Court Mistress,' the Crown +Princess gave her one of her enchanting smiles, 'but Louisa and I have +made up a name for you. You are now to be Dame Etiquette.' And all +Berlin now calls her that. + +"Dame Etiquette arranged a drive for the Crown Prince, the Princess, and +herself, only last week, the Baron says. She insisted on a grand +carriage, with bodyguard in costume. Above all the Royal pair hated +this, but Dame Etiquette firmly commanded the equipage and arrayed in +state she seats herself, at the Royal command, to await the others. + +"The Crown Prince, coming out, gave a low order to the coachman, and off +drove Dame Etiquette alone in the splendid state carriage, and behind +her the naughty laughing Prince and Princess in a plain two-horse affair +like commoners. All eyes were fixed on her, and Louisa and Fritz had as +good a time as if they were not Royal. + +"It seems strange to me how we long to be grand like princes and all +they want is to be like us. + + * * * * * + +"Yesterday was our Crown Princess' birthday. All Berlin has made much of +it, but in the palace it was grandly celebrated with a fine masquerade +ball. + +"All Berlin talks of what happened in the palace. When Princess Louisa +came to the King for her birthday kiss he embraced her like a real +father and said: 'You are the Princess of Princesses, my Louisa.' + +"Then a company of Court ladies and gentlemen appeared before her, all +arrayed as citizens of Oranienburg. One made a fine speech and presented +her with a key. + +"'Of our castle,' they said. 'You are to be its mistress.' + +"Then, amid the excitement, the King explained that he gave her the gift +of this castle for a summer residence. + +"Ludwig told me that the wife of the Great Elector, another Louisa, +lived there, and so it is very fitting that our Crown Princess have it +because of her name. + +"The King gave our Crown Princess another gift. + +"At the ball he said quite suddenly to her: + +"'Princess of Princesses, if you had a handful of gold, what wish would +you grant yourself?' + +"'I should make happy the poor of Berlin,' answered the birthday child. + +"'How large, then, must the handful be, Princess of Princesses?' asked +the King with a smile. + +"'As big as the heart of the best king in the world,' answered our Crown +Princess, her eyes dancing. + +"And now we hear that because of this clever answer Berlin is to have a +fine new charity. + +"Ludwig says it would be much better if our King paid his debts, but I +like our King, and so do the people." + +Marianne skipped a little. + +"Our Crown Prince has gone to Poland. We hear much of a brave man called +Kosciusko, but Prussia rejoices that at last we have defeated him. + + * * * * * + +"To-day seventy-two guns sounding from the palace informed us that our +dear Crown Princess has a son. We are glad, indeed, for she lost her +first little daughter, who never lived a day. + + * * * * * + +"For godparents our new Prince has the Queen, the widow of Frederick the +Great, the Prince and Princess Henry, Prince and Princess Ferdinand, and +the Crown Princess' father. His name is Frederick William, for the King, +who held him during the ceremony, when the same clergyman who baptised +his father gave him his name. + +"Our Crown Princess is more beloved than ever and now all Berlin +rejoices over her son. + +"As for me, Ludwig will have it that we marry in a year. I will then be +sixteen and two years older than mother was when she was a bride. There +is much to do. I must fill my wedding chest with linen and all things +for my house." + + * * * * * + +"Our Crown Prince has bought a country home at Paretz. He and our Crown +Princess long for a simple life. We hear much talk of what happens +there, how they ramble in the woods, seek wild flowers, have supper +under the trees and spend their days very happily. + +"Our Crown Princess calls herself 'Gnaedige Frau von Paretz (the Gracious +Lady of Paretz), and takes part in all the village festivities. One +evening all the villagers came in costume and announced that they would +have a dance on the green. Our Crown Princess led the whole Court to +take part. The village fiddler played, the peasants danced, and all was +as merry as possible. + +"But suddenly the Crown Princess had an idea. + +"She ordered the castle thrown open, the Court musicians summoned, and +all went in to dance on the fine polished floors. + +"When Monsieur de Paillot heard this he shook his head. + +"'Marie Antoinette played at being dairymaid, n'est-ce-pas?' and he +looked as if we intended to turn revolutionists and cut off the head of +our dear Crown Princess just for pleasure. + +"Old General Roeckeritz, the friend of the Crown Prince, is much at +Paretz, and Berlin tells a story of him also. + +"He had a way of leaving the table the moment the meal was at an end. + +"No one could imagine what he did with himself, and it worried the +Gnaedige Frau von Paretz to have him leave her. + +"'Let him alone,' said her husband, 'he is old and wants his comfort.' + +"But our Crown Princess was not satisfied. + +"Next day at the end of dinner she appeared with a tray on which were +cigars and a lighted taper. The whole company gazed at her in surprise, +the general, as usual, trying to escape. + +"With a smile the Crown Princess detained him, presenting her tray. + +"'No, no, dear Roeckeritz,' she said, 'do not go away. To-day you must +have your dessert with us.' + +"The old general was enchanted. Now he need not sit alone to enjoy his +cigar." + +Marianne, pausing, began to turn over pages. + +"There is so much, children, I can't read it all. Besides, it is sad. +The Princess Frederika loses her husband, the widow of Frederick the +Great dies, and so does the King. Then the Queen has a second little +son. His name is Frederick William Louis, but you know who he is, our +Prince William. He was the tiniest little babe, it says here. But you +must hear how good our Queen is. 'I am Queen,' she wrote to her +grandmother, 'and what rejoices me most is that I need no longer +economise in my charities.' + +"The citizens of Berlin at once, when she became Queen, waited upon +her," read Marianne. "The Queen made them welcome and said: 'It gives me +great pleasure to know you. The good will of my Prussian subjects and of +you will never be forgotten. It shall be my aim to hold that love, for +the love of his subjects is the best crown of a King. With joy I embrace +this opportunity to know my citizens better.' + +"To Roeckeritz the King said: + +"'My blessed uncle, Frederick the Great, has said that a treasure is the +basis and prop of the Prussian states. We have now nothing but debts. I +shall be as economical as possible.' + +"Then did he propose to continue, as King, to live upon the income he +had made suffice as Crown Prince? + +"'The debts of my father,' said he very earnestly, 'must be paid by +industry, discipline and economy.' + +"Ludwig," wrote Erna, "is much pleased with all this, but he hopes the +King will not forget that France is not yet at the end of her troubles. +There is talk of a young man named Napoleon Bonaparte, who is the hope +now of France. They say he will right everything. + +"There are many stories told about our new King and his hatred of +ceremony. I will write them to amuse myself. My wedding will not be +quite so soon. I am not well and it is best for me now not to work. I do +not know what is my trouble, but I cough and do not sleep well at nights +and all are very, very kind to me. + +"Now for the stories of the King. + +"Immediately after the death of the late King, the Chamberlain threw +open both folding doors for the entrance of Frederick William. One had +been enough for him when he was Crown Prince. + +"'Am I,' he asked in his whimsical way, 'in a moment grown so much that +one door will not do for me?' + +"When the chef added two more dishes to the bill of fare, with a smile +he remarked to his wife: 'It is easy to see that they believe that since +yesterday I have received a larger stomach.' + +"According to a custom established by Frederick the Great, two +Lieutenant-Generals always stood at the Royal table, and, with the Court +Marshal, waited until the King first should drink. + +"When Frederick William saw them standing like posts at his board he +waved his hand toward chairs, inviting them to be seated. + +"'We cannot be seated, your Majesty,' they answered with great dignity. + +"'Why not?' + +"'Your Majesty must first drink.' + +"'And what must I drink?' inquired William, smiling and gazing at the +glasses. + +"'It is not stated, your Majesty.' + +"The King seized a glass of water and drank it standing. + +"'Now sit,' cried he in relief, as if he thought it all foolishness. + +"Soon after the Crown Princess became Queen she went with her husband on +a journey through his realm. It was the first time that a King of +Prussia had taken his Queen with him so far from Berlin, and Ludwig says +the people were delighted. + +"Baron von Sternberg comes in now and then to see mother, and he is +always full of court gossip. At Stargard, in Pomerania, he says, the +King reviewed the troops and then the Queen started towards Custrin. At +one of the villages the people surrounded the royal carriage and begged +our Queen to alight and have some refreshment they had prepared. + +"At once she left the carriage and went right into their houses, seeing +their children and talking with the villagers. + +"They were delighted, the Baron said. + +"At Dantzic there were great ceremonies, and the amber workers gave the +Queen a most lovely necklace. We hear that she wore it all the time she +was in that city. As the Queen loves the country, she made many +excursions. One was to Karlsberg, and now they will always call the spot +where she stood 'Louisa's Grove.' + +"It would take too long to tell everything, how the Queen stayed a week +in the old palace at Koenigsberg, and the people, to please her Majesty, +who always loves to do good, gave a great dinner to the poor, and +everywhere she stepped flowers were strewn before her. So in love with +our Queen were the people of Koenigsberg, that a large body of citizens +insisted on going with her to Warsaw. As they were going down a steep +hill, because of the carelessness of the coachman, our Queen's carriage +was overturned. The Countess von Voss, declaring him to be drunk, +reproved him very sharply. But our Queen can never stand seeing people +unhappy. She touched the Countess on the arm. 'Thank God, we are not +hurt,' she said, 'let it pass over quietly, for the accident has +frightened our people much more than it has us; let us not add to their +troubles.' + +"But how delighted Berlin is over the Queen's reception in Warsaw I +cannot write. Ludwig has explained to me that the Poles do not love +Prussia, who has conquered them, but they forgot all their hatred and +received our King and Queen with cheers, flags, and much waving of +handkerchiefs. And fifty Polish girls in white, with wreaths on their +heads and baskets in their hands, walked before their Majesties, +strewing flowers. And at a village sixteen Polish girls greeted her with +a song. Everywhere there were processions. For myself, I should tire of +so many, but the Baron says that our dear Queen loves gaiety and she +loves her people and smiles are always on her face and kind greetings on +her lips. + +"As she talks she waves a little fan, fast if she is merry, slow if she +is thoughtful or sad. Ludwig brought me one of the fans now the fashion +in Berlin. They are small and all young ladies have them. There is a +picture of the King and Queen on them, and 'Long live Frederick William +and Louisa,' as an inscription. + +"Mine is blue and the pictures have gold frames about them." + +"But I must not forget the Queen's journey. At Breslau there was a great +procession of market gardeners and butchers, and there came a young girl +with a poem in her hand to welcome our Queen. But, alas, she could not +speak for bashfulness. And what did our good Queen do but smile on her +and hold out her Royal hand to encourage her?" + +"And such presents as our Queen received!" + +"There is now a new Princess. Her name is Charlotte, and the people of +Breslau gave her all her clothes, most beautifully embroidered." + +"As the Queen's carriage passed through the country it had to have fresh +horses, and the villagers dressed up their manes with ribbons, put red +nets over their ears and adorned their heads with flowers and gold and +silver paper, this being the custom among the peasants, and it amused +the Queen greatly." + +"In June our Queen came home, and now we often see her in the +Thiergarten, arm in arm with the King, walking quite simply like +every-day people." + +"Mother went last week to pay a visit to the Countess von Voss, and she +told her something I shall write here. + +"The first Queen of Prussia lived in the palace at Charlottenburg, and +her portrait hangs there with many others. One is that of the wife of +our Great Elector. Her name was Louisa, like our Queen, who feels a +great love for her. + +"'Her face,' she told the Countess, 'seems to greet me with a heavenly +smile.' The Countess wrote it in the journal she keeps and writes in +each morning. 'I look upon it until I feel that there must be a living +bond of sympathy between us.' + +"This Louisa, history tells us, had much trouble, and once with her +children was forced to flee before an enemy. All that our Queen +discussed with the Countess. + +"'But oh!' she exclaimed--I can shut my eyes and picture her as she said +it--'what must have been her happiness in finding that she could help +and comfort her husband in the hours of his heavy trial!' + +"But our Queen is not to flee before an enemy, for our King alone in +Europe keeps the peace." + +"But she did, Mariechen," interrupted Ilse. + +"I met her in the snow," said Bettina, her blue eyes filling. + +Marianne nodded. + +"Our Aunt Erna could not know that," she said, and continued the +reading. + +"Our Queen has three children now, and all Berlin says what a good +mother she is, very often in her nursery. Every morning she and the King +go in and kiss each child, and as they grow old enough our King sends a +basket of fruit to each one every morning. And now they begin to give +parties for the Crown Prince." + +"Yes, indeed," interrupted Marianne, "when we lived in Berlin the Royal +children had many entertainments. Once the little daughter of the +famous Madame de Stael was there. She is a writer, children, and she has +written a fine book about us Germans. Her little girl is not so good as +her books," laughed Marianne, "but very spoilt and very rude, and what +do you think she did at the Royal party?" + +The children shook their heads. + +"She boxed the Crown Prince's ears." + +"Oh!" Carl's eyes grew round in horror. + +"Ja," said Marianne, "she did, and the Crown Prince ran to the Queen and +buried his face in her dress, but nothing anyone could say would make +little Mademoiselle de Stael apologise. But she was never asked again to +even one of the masquerades, balls or plays. At Christmas they had +always a tree and our dear Queen decorated and dressed it herself, and +there were dances and jugglers, and once at Paretz they had a lottery +for all the children. I was there with our father and when a child did +not draw a prize, our Queen, with one of her lovely smiles, gave a +present herself." + +Then she returned to the journal. + +"At Paretz, our Queen's country home, all ceremony is laid aside. The +King will be called 'Schulze' (magistrate) and they join in all the +sports and dances of the people who live there. + +"But our Queen loves to be grand, also, and there was once in Berlin a +fine masquerade in her honour, a play where girls represented cocoons, +and at her approach untwisted themselves from their wrappings and danced +out butterflies. And once there was a fine play representing the +marriage of Queen Mary of England and Philip of Spain. Our Queen was +Mary and many people think it a bad omen, for this Queen was so unhappy +and lost Calais to the English. The Duke of Sussex was Philip. But there +are people who do not love our Queen. Colonel York is one. He came +yesterday to pay his respects to mother and he said horrid things, that +our Queen's hands are too big and her feet not well made. Ludwig says +this is because she has influence over the King and because she will +have a well-behaved Court. Colonel York says she does not treat the +military with proper respect. + + * * * * * + +"It is again May, and our Queen has gone on another journey. To-day we +visited Peacock Island, where she lives so happily in the chateau built +like a ruined Roman villa. I saw the very rooms of our Queen, and the +menagerie, and heard from Ludwig and the Baron, who was with us, how +happy our King is when he can throw off affairs of state and come 'home' +to Peacock Island." + +"Yes," interrupted Marianne, "we used to hear a great deal about Peacock +Island when we lived in Berlin before this awful war. Once Bishop Eylert +was sitting beneath the trees with our King and Queen and her Majesty +inquired of a servant where the children were. + +"'Playing in a meadow, Majesty,' said the attendant. + +"Our Queen jumped up in the way she does and cried out that she would go +to them and surprise them. + +"Our King agreed, and they all three got into a boat and the King rowed +them up the Havel, which, you know, makes the Island. + +"Suddenly the boat appeared before the children. 'Where did you come +from, papa?' cried our Crown Prince in surprise. + +"'Through the reeds and rushes,' answered our King. + +"'Amongst reeds is good whistle cutting,' said our Crown Prince quick as +a flash. + +"And then our King asked him what that proverb means, and he answered +that it means that a wise man knows how to take advantage of +circumstances. Then our King wanted to know if he were in the rushes, +what whistle he would cut, and the Crown Prince said he wished they +could all have tea together there on the meadow." + +"And did they?" inquired Carl, who was very fond of picnics. + +"Ja," answered Marianne, "and it was lovely, with our Queen helping them +and laughing, and their father teasing and telling stories." + +"I know a story, too," said Carl. "Mr. Jackson told me." + +"Tell it," begged the twins. "Go on, Carlchen." + +"Two Englishmen went to Peacock Island," said + +Carl, puffing out his words in his eager importance. "They had no right +to go and they went. An officer ran them away. But they met a lady and a +gentleman. It was our King and Queen. They made them stay and they +showed them everything, and the Englishmen did not know that it was our +King and Queen. My story is best, ja, Mariechen; isn't it, Bettina?" + +Marianne nodded. + +"But now, let us read," she said. + +"Peacock Island has also a palm house, and there are many peacocks and +doves and pigeons, of which our Queen is so fond. + + * * * * * + +"Our Queen is so good to all children. + +"'The children's world is my world,' she says, and she is always being +kind to some child, and when she and the King drive out she will salute +the people with smiles long after he is tired and stops it. + +"Often I think of what our poets have said of her. She is one of four +sisters. One is our Princess Louisa; another, Theresa, is the Princess +of Thurn and Taxis; and the third, Charlotte, is the Duchess of +Sachsen-Hildburghausen. Our great poet, Jean Paul Richter, called them +'the four noble and beautiful sisters on the throne.' And famous Wieland +said of our Louisa, 'Were I the King of Fate, she should be Queen of +Europe.' And Goethe," Marianne rolled her voice and the twins giggled, +"who was with the Duke of Weimar in camp and saw our Queen and her +sister, Frederika, when, as princesses, they came to visit their +betrothed with their grandmother, from his tent, wrote in his journal +that they were visions of loveliness which should never fade from his +memory. And she has set the Berlin young girls a fine example in dress. +Ludwig is delighted. She wears very simple muslins, and, indeed, why +should she waste her time over silks and brocades when white so suits +her?" + +Marianne here stopped in her reading. + +"Go on, Mariechen," said Carl, the other three looking up in surprise. + +"That is all, children. Our dear Aunt Erna died the month before she was +to marry Cousin Ludwig. But there are stories I can tell you, which have +happened since our dear Aunt Erna died. + +"Once on a journey she arrived at the place where they were to eat, a +long time before her husband. They entreated her to eat, as the meal was +ready, but, 'No, I will not eat until my husband comes,' she said. 'It +is the duty of every wife to wait for her husband.' + +"And once, children, our dear Queen, when she was gay and happy, and not +sad as now, came to Memel on a visit, and the Czar was here and they had +oh! such feasts. Uncle Joachim has told me about it, and when the next +baby came she was called Alexandrina, because of her mother and father's +great friendship for Alexander. Uncle told me another story. Once the +treasurer told our Queen that she gave too much money to the poor, and +said that he must speak to the King. + +"'Do so,' said our Queen; 'he will not be angry.' And she was right, for +when she opened her writing case she found her purse full of gold, and +the King laughed and told her that a fairy had placed it there. + +"And once, when the Countess von Voss was angry with a poor woman for +making a mistake and sitting in the Royal pew, our dear Queen sent for +her and told her how sorry she was. Oh, children, I could talk all night +of her, she is so good and so kind to everybody. Once she made a grand +lord wait until she could talk with a poor shoemaker who had come first, +because, she said, the shoemaker's time was valuable and the lord's was +not. + +"Once our King came to breakfast with our Queen and saw a new cap lying +on the table. + +"'What does that cost?' he asked the Queen. + +"'It is not good for men to ask the cost of ladies' things,' answered +the Queen, with a laugh. + +"'But I should like to know,' insisted the King. + +"'Only four thalers.' + +"'Only! For that thing?' + +"Then the King ran to the window and called in an old invalid soldier +who was taking his air. + +"'The lady who sits on that sofa has much gold,' he said, and pointed to +our Queen. 'What do you think, old comrade, she gave for that thing on +the table?' + +"'Perhaps, sire, a groschen.' + +"'You hear that?' asked our King. 'She has paid four thalers. Now, go +ask her to give you twice as much!' + +"With a smile the Queen paid the money, and then said: 'Now, see that +gentleman who stands by the window? He has four times as much gold as I +have. All that I have he gives me, and it is much. Go to him, then, and +ask for double eight thalers.' So, you see, children," laughed Marianne, +"our King got the worst of it. + +"I could tell you many other stories, but it is bedtime. I have let you +sit up late, very late, and I can only tell one more, and then to bed. +Franz, Wolfgang, and I were once in the Christmas Markt. We were +choosing our gifts, when the crowd moved back for a gentleman with a +lady on his arm. It was our King and Queen, and they came straight to +one booth where a poor woman was buying her gifts. At once she tried to +get out of the way. But our Queen stopped her with a smile. 'Remain, my +good woman,' she cried; 'what shall this merchant say if we drive away +his customers?' Then she asked the poor woman all about her family, and +when she heard that she had a boy just the age of the Crown Prince she +bought a lovely toy for her boy to send to the poor one. Now, wasn't +that good in her? And is it not fine that she is here in Memel and we +can know her? As for Napoleon, he is wicked to cause her such trouble." + +"I hate him," said little Carl, his cheeks puffing and his face becoming +quite red. + +"Yes, yes," cried the twins; "we hate him." + +But Bettina looked eagerly at Marianne. + +"Gracious, Fraeulein," she said, "when will Frederick Barbarossa awake? I +am always telling the ravens." + +Before Marianne could reply Carl jumped from his seat, the twins started +up in fright. + +A sharp knock had sounded on the window. + +"What is it, sister?" And the twins ran to Marianne. + +At that moment the Professor came in at the door. + +"Nonsense," he said; "who could be at our window?" + +But the children insisted. + +"We heard it, father," they said. + +The Professor, crossing the room, opened the sash, the children +following. + +On the window lay a piece of folded paper. + +His face full of amazement, the Professor brought it to the candles. + +The writing was in German, and the letters like those of a person who +wrote very seldom. + + "Your son, the Herr Lieutenant, has escaped and is in hiding. + Put money and food on the window to-night and it will be + fetched to him. It is not safe to say more. + + "ONE YOU KNOW." + +"One you know," repeated the Professor. Then his eyes scanned the +writing and he shook his head. + +"Grandfather writes that way," said Bettina, her eyes all afire. + +Before anyone could stop her Elsa cried out in surprise: + +"Why, Bettina," she said, "your grandfather can't write. A soldier +brought news to the King that he is dead." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +WHAT HAPPENED TO HANS + + +When Hans left Memel he went at once to the house where he had stayed +the night with Bettina. The woman who had cleaned the dress was standing +in the doorway. + +"It's a cold day," she said in French to a man who had paused with a +bundle to ask her a question. + +Hans started. + +"Ach Himmel," he said, for the look of her face, the way she pronounced +her words told the old man that she was no Prussian. + +He turned in at the next house and begged a lodging. + +The woman took him very willingly. + +"Money is scarce," she said, "and my man will be glad to have me help a +little." + +She was a large, honest-faced woman, not clever looking, but one Hans +felt safe to talk with. + +Ja, ja, her neighbour was French. She and her husband had come there a +month after Jena. He pretended to be a peddler who was prevented from +travel by the war. + +"We do not believe a word of it," said the woman, lowering her voice. +"Too many strangers come there who do not speak honest German. My man," +she shrugged her shoulders, "has his own opinion of what they are here +for." + +Hans looked at her inquiringly and waited. + +"It's Napoleon," said the woman, and she brought Hans his black bread +and cheese. + +The old man reflected as he drank. + +He remembered that a little fellow who looked foreign had sent him to +the house that day when they had entered the village with the Queen's +party. He knew that all along his way the French had been warned against +a messenger bearing a secret letter about the Secretary Lombard, who +was suspected of treachery and dealings with the French. There were +other matters in the letter, matters the King should have knowledge of, +but how to get possession of it again the old man had no idea. + +"I shall watch here, however," he concluded. "I may find out things just +as useful as the letter." + +For three days nothing happened. + +On the night of the fourth he could not sleep because of the rattling of +his window. + +Rising to stop it with paper he was astonished to see a long ray of +light across the snow in the garden. + +"Himmel," said Hans, "it comes from next door. It must be after +midnight. She has visitors." + +He threw on his clothes and crept to the garden. + +Ja, he was right. The light came from the kitchen of the next house. + +"I shall wait," said Hans, "and see what happens." + +It was bitterly cold. The wind cut like a knife, the trees and bushes +cracked their icy dress; but Hans had a fur cap, and he drew it well +over his ears. + +He had been in the cold for a half hour when a sound made him start. + +It was the creaking of the kitchen door of the next house. The light +vanished, and with careful steps a dark figure moved across the snow. + +Hans nodded. + +"You go, I follow," he thought. + +He was a spy himself. The man in the snow, he knew, was another. + +The man left the garden. Hans left his. + +On he went through the snow, Hans always a good pace behind him, +stopping if he stopped, running if he ran, and, two men moving as one, +they came to the open country. + +Pausing, the man gave a low call. + +It was answered with cautious care. + +Then a sleigh with high runners and a driver in a fur cap glided from +the distant darkness. A figure, not the driver, leaned from the fur +rugs. + +"You have it?" was asked in French. + +"Yes," said the man; "the woman told the truth. It is the one we are in +search of." + +The man in the sleigh uttered a sound as of congratulation. + +"Lombard, you mean?" + +"Yes, yes. The woman has had it three days. Here." + +Something white was held in the air--his letter. Hans recognised it. + +The man moved to spring into the sleigh, but a quick hand caught him, a +foot tripped him up, and snow flew everywhere as two bodies rolled in +the whiteness. + +It was all over in a second. + +Paper flew on the wind, torn fiercely in pieces, and then Hans found +himself bound fast with handkerchiefs and woollen scarfs, flat in the +bottom of the sleigh, four feet upon him. + +What matter? + +He had seized the letter in the scuffle and only the swift wind of the +Baltic knew where were the pieces. + +The Prussian King would never know if Lombard were guilty, but the +French would not possess a drawing of certain frontier fortresses. + +The Frenchmen were furious. They vowed Hans should be shot that night +like a dog. + +The driver brought them a piece or two of the letter, but one was half +blank and the other was the address to His Majesty. + +"Dantzic!" ordered the man, when the driver declared further search was +useless. + +Then off they dashed. + +After some talk in low tones they changed their direction, but to what +place they decided to go Hans could not discover. + +One of the men addressed him in French. + +"For safety's sake," he muttered to his neighbour. + +Hans feigned ignorance. + +"I do not understand, monsieur," he said stupidly, in German. + +With relief the two raised their voices and talked steadily as they flew +over the snow. + +Dantzic must fall. It grew daily weaker. + +"The Emperor," said one, "will wipe Prussia out of existence." + +Then he told how it was believed that Napoleon meant to make a new +kingdom. + +"His brother, Jerome, has nothing yet," he said, and he laughed at the +Prussians and called them pigs and cowards, and made jokes about the +generals, and said things that Napoleon had invented about the Queen. + +It was hard for Hans to lie still and say nothing, but the first thing +in life is to know when to hold one's tongue, and Hans knew it was +useful to listen. + +Early in the morning they came to a town, through whose gate they +entered. The sleigh drew up before a great building. A French soldier +came quickly to greet the travellers, one of whom sprang out and entered +the house with him. + +"Coffee," ordered the other. "We are freezing." + +In a few moments several soldiers appeared. They ordered Hans from the +sleigh; handcuffs were locked on his wrists, and he was marched away, +the second traveller and driver following. + +Hans asked the soldier near him in what town he was. + +The man laughed mockingly. + +"Where you are," said he in bad German, "is none of your business, old +man. What you are, you and I know." + +He thrust out his under lip and shrugged his shoulders. + +"Old man, what you are I can tell you--a spy of the King of Prussia and +a prisoner of the Emperor Napoleon!" + +Then he held up his hands to imitate a gun, and half closing his eye +pretended to take aim at the prisoner. + +"To-morrow? Next day? Who knows?" and he led Hans to a cold bare room, +when, locking the door, he left him. + +"What matter?" muttered Hans. "I am old, and the French will never read +the letter." + +Very likely he would be shot, and soon. In Magdeburg they had shot down +Prussians by dozens. The day he had stopped at the farmhouse he had +heard how they had chained a father and son together, marched them +through the town and shot them. + +"It is war," said Hans; "I took my chances. The good Mademoiselle Clara +will take good care of my Bettina." + +The next day came, and the next; a week passed and nothing happened. + +The truth was, the victory at Eylau was uncertain. Napoleon was checked +and all things were waiting. There was hope of peace, and an order came +to march all prisoners to another city. + +It was the good God, Hans believed, who directed his eye to a field as +he was marched to his new prison, a castle the French then were using. +The field itself was white and crusted with snow, but Hans' eye noted a +large spot where the whiteness had been melted and then had frozen, as +if water had flowed upon it. It was near spring now and there were +thaws, then more snow, and then fresh melting and freezing. + +The spot Hans noticed had nothing to do with this. It was as if a large +stream of water had a habit of pouring out there. Yes, he was right, for +he saw that the snow was broken and frozen towards a ditch on the +boundary of the field. + +"It must be a sewer," said Hans, and thought no more about it. + +Life in the castle was easy and pleasant. The place was so strong there +was no danger of escape, so the commander, being easy-going, permitted +the prisoners much liberty, allowing them to walk about for air in the +paved courtyard. + +Hans enjoyed this, being used to the air and freedom of his Thuringian +forest. + +His room in the castle had a window, and that also made him happy. One +day, gazing out, he discovered that the field he had noticed lay quite +near the wall of his prison. + +"Ach Himmel!" cried Hans, with a start. "It is the sewer pipe of this +castle!" + +A thought struck him. He was old, yes, and he had said he did not mind +dying; but his heart beat wildly at the thought of escaping from certain +death by shooting. Day after day he thought on the sewer. Where was the +exit, he wondered, from the castle! He would find it, yes, if it were +possible. + +To get air he went to the courtyard. New prisoners had arrived in the +night. They, too, were walking. + +"Ach Himmel! God be praised!" cried Hans, for he came face to face with +the Herr Lieutenant. + +But what a change! + +He was thin, gaunt, and pale, and his face and figure looked wretched +and hopeless. + +"Hans Lange!" he cried, and then there was much to talk of. + +To his ear Hans confided the idea of the sewer, and hope at once began +to change the expression of the prisoner. + +After the great victory of Friedland there was a truce to discuss peace, +so Hans still remained a prisoner; and one day he was ordered to work in +the garden of the castle. + +"Food is scarce, prisoners are many and idle. We may have some +vegetables; why not?" asked the commandant. + +"The good God again," thought Hans, for he had his own idea about that +sewer. The garden must be drained. The pipe, certainly, must do the +labour, and, the good God helping him, he might again see his Bettina. + +And one day in the garden he came upon the iron lid of a manhole, +overgrown with grass and very rusty. + +"The sewer!" thought Hans, with joy. "It is big enough for a man to slip +through." + +He bent over. He pulled on the bars. Then he glanced up to see if he +were observed. The eye of a sentinel seemed on him, so, seizing a weed, +he pulled hard, tugged, and then rising with the thing in his hand, +flung it aside. Satisfied, the sentinel showed no more curiosity. + +Again and again he tried to loosen the lid, but no effort could move it; +but though he went about his work, he returned now and then to his +prize, and suddenly, while he was in a different part of the garden, an +idea struck him. The bar on which the lid was swung was eaten with rust. +Could he break it, the lid could be lifted at will. + +He returned and examined closely. Yes, he was right; the rust was of +ages. Lifting his spade, he pressed with all his might. God be praised! +It was easier than he had thought. More pressure and it broke like wood. +The other side was more difficult and it occupied days, but at last it +was free. + +"Now the Herr Lieutenant!" thought Hans in glee. + +"The thing for me," cried Franz, his face alight with new hope, "is to +feign illness, entreat for some labour and beg to be allowed to help in +the garden." + +Hans did not believe this would be possible. + +"You, an officer!" he said, and shook his old head. + +"I can try," said Franz, and presented himself before the proper person. + +"Inaction is killing me," he announced. And, indeed, he looked most +dreadful, pale, bloodless, and a ghost of the brave young officer of +Jena. + +The French were always good-natured with the German prisoners until the +time came to shoot them, and that, after all, was Napoleon's affair, not +theirs, and so the Herr Lieutenant was permitted to dig. + +"A strange occupation for an officer," and the commandant shrugged his +shoulders. But the Germans, at best, he thought, were only pigs, so if +this one wanted to root, let him. The walls of the castle were high. +Escape was impossible. + +"Now," said Hans, "now, may the good God help us with the rest!" + +"Amen," said the Herr Lieutenant. + +And it seemed that He did, for on the second day of Franz's digging a +quick, pelting June rain hid them entirely from the view of the castle. + +The rain came down in sheets; all were safe in the castle, not a soul +could see them. The rain changed suddenly into hail. All the better, and +the good God be thanked! + +"Now," cried Hans; "now or never!" + +He jerked the lid off the hole. + +Down went the Herr Lieutenant, his feet landing in the sewer, his head +still in view. + +"Good," he said, "good! There is space enough below." + +Then down he went, and Hans saw him no more. + +The old man had kept for himself the hard task. He must cover the drain +after him with the lid. Down he went, holding the cover in his hand +above him, for the drain was too narrow for him to lift his arm once in. + +"Ach Himmel," he thought, "the rain is ceasing." + +Then he lowered the lid, balanced on his palm, and as he struggled into +the sewer proper it fell into its place with a crash. + +"Ach Himmel," said the old soldier, for he was sure the noise would tell +the story. But he pushed forward eagerly. + +Only the thought of liberty could make such an awful journey possible. + +The Herr Lieutenant, being ahead, kept out the air from one end, and +water came pouring in at the other. But fortunately the way was short, +and the Herr Lieutenant was soon in the field, and the water coming +suddenly with a rush bore Hans like a straw, landing him almost drowned +in the ditch near the Herr Lieutenant. + +For a few moments he could not breathe, but the voice of the Herr +Lieutenant recalled him. + +"Come," said the young man, "come!" + +"Ja, ja," and off they started. + +For an hour they crawled in the ditch, which seemed to be interminable. +Once or twice they heard guns, but who shot them they had no idea, and +then presently the ditch ended. + +"Come; we are safe now," said the Herr Lieutenant, and he raised himself +up from the bushes, Hans following his example. + +"Gott im Himmel!" he cried. + +On the road before them came soldiers in French uniform. + +"Back!" cried the old man, "back; lie flat, or they will see you!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +AT TILSIT + + +It was while the children were in charge of Marianne that something very +important happened at the town of Tilsit, on the river Niemen. + +On that twenty-fifth day of June, in the dreadful year of 1807, all the +people of the place were gathered on the river banks in high +excitement. Actually their faces looked joyful, a thing which had not +happened since Napoleon had entered Prussia. + +"Now we shall have peace. Congratulations!" they exclaimed one to the +other, gazing at a raft gay with flags, anchored midway between the +shores of the river. + +"They have bought every bright rag in Tilsit," said a fat, jolly-faced +merchant, nodding in congratulation. + +"Ach ja," returned a friend, "God be praised! It is many a day since +there has been selling in Prussia." + +Then, "Look! look! Napoleon! Napoleon!" as a man, heavy now to fatness, +stepped into a boat most gorgeously decorated. + +"The monster! the upstart!" muttered the people. But that was of no +concern to the conqueror, whose eyes wandered restlessly from shore to +shore and whose mouth pressed its lips to cruel firmness. Behind him +followed marshals and generals, gay in scarlet, gold, and white, and +blue. + +A boat decorated with the colours of France awaited their coming. + +"The Czar!" cried the people, as a second cavalcade approached. "Our +ally, Alexander!" + +There was no handsomer man in Europe. Tall, majestic in appearance, in +every way a contrast to Napoleon, the ruler of Russia approached a +second boat, opposite Napoleon's, and brilliant with yellow and black. +The monarch was followed by his brother, Grand Duke Constantine, by his +generals and many Russian lords. + +At a signal and amid the cries of the people, off pushed the boats. + +The first to arrive was Napoleon, who sprang to the raft, and with his +own hands opened the door of the pavilion and turned to welcome his +guest. + +Cannon announced the arrival of the Czar, and the two monarchs stood +hand in hand in full view of the allied and French armies, lined up on +both banks, and of the people of Tilsit, who stared at each other in +surprise. + +"Where is our King?" they asked. "Is he to have no voice in the making +of peace?" And their eyes searched everywhere. + +Alone, on his horse, his face troubled and anxious, they saw the one +they sought. There was no boat to bear him to the raft. Prussia's +colours appeared nowhere. The two emperors were to settle the affairs of +Europe. The King of Prussia was conquered and not wanted. Joy faded from +the East Prussian faces. + +"Our King is a good man," they said. "We do not find it good that he is +so neglected." + +The King himself looked neither to the left nor the right. He rode +forward, his splendid figure outlined now against the sky, now hid by +the soldiers. At a certain point he turned. Back he rode, and then +turned again. + +"Our poor King!" said the people, and while cannon roared and soldiers +cheered, their hearts began to beat fiercely against both Alexander and +Bonaparte. + +For an hour the two emperors conferred, the generals waiting in their +boats, Frederick William pacing back and forth on his horse. + +Then presently it began to rain, at first lightly, and then suddenly in +torrents, as if Heaven itself was weeping over blood-stained Europe. + +The King of Prussia rode to and fro, not minding the downfall, but +thinking only of the cruelty of the man who had shut him out of the +conference. + +Everything was against him; he had lost his kingdom, his friend the Czar +was deserting him, and yet, as his wife the Queen wrote her father, he +was "the best man in the world," a King who lived only to help his +subjects; a King who loved right and hated wrong, who believed in good +and tried to do it. + +But, like the Queen, he trusted in God, and even as he rode up and down, +shut out in the rain from the conference, he knew that Napoleon and +wrong could not always have their day, that right and justice always +conquer. But Frederick William, good as he was, had a foe worse even +than Napoleon. At no time in his life could he decide a thing quickly, +or at just the right moment. He must think things over, he must look at +both sides, and while he wavered in came the enemy and took the prize. + +When an hour had passed there came a change. Napoleon summoned all the +generals and counsellors, who, drenched and dripping, entered the door +of the pavilion. + +For two hours more they talked, the King still riding in the rain. + +Surely, he thought, the peace which they were making must be favourable +to poor Prussia. His friend, the Czar, must see to it. He himself had +stood by Alexander; now let Alexander be true to him. + +Had they not sworn an eternal friendship; was not his little daughter +named Alexandrina, and was not the Czar also the friend of the Queen and +the old Countess, to whom he had promised many things? + +When Alexander of Russia entered the pavilion in the Niemen he had at +heart the welfare of Prussia only. In one hour Napoleon did much. Always +he studied citadels, or men, and discovered what we call the weak point. +On it he turned his battery. + +"We all know," he said to Alexander, "that no monarch in Europe has such +thoughts as your Majesty for the welfare of mankind." + +Alexander's face softened. He was truly a philanthropist. + +After a few moments' talk along this line Napoleon mentioned the word +"England." + +The Czar's eyes flashed. + +Napoleon abused that country with vigour. + +Alexander drew nearer. + +"I dislike the English as much as you do," he said, "and am ready to +second you in all your enterprises against them." + +"In that case," said Napoleon, taking note of Alexander's fine head and +the weak lines in his handsome face, and remembering how, when he had +been First Consul, the Emperor of Russia had been his most ardent +admirer, "everything will be easily arranged, and peace already is made. +You and I," he added, with an emphasis very flattering, "understand each +other. It will be better if we do without our ministers, who often +deceive us, or misunderstand us. We shall do more in an hour than our +negotiators would in several days." + +Then he talked as if the Czar and he were Atlases of the world and that +all the earth rested upon their shoulders. + +Alexander, listening, began to think that after all his allies had been +no good. Prussia had dragged him to defeat; England had done nothing to +help either of them. Surely a monarch must consider his own welfare. + +When at last the conference ended and the two mighty emperors came forth +into the sight of the people of Tilsit and their waiting soldiers, their +faces were glowing. Waving their hands again and again, each was rowed +to his own bank of the Niemen. They had formed a friendship--Russia and +France, Alexander and Napoleon--and the whole world was to profit. + +When Napoleon stepped on shore the people of Tilsit were deafened by the +cheers of his soldiers. + +As for Alexander, he gazed up into the gloomy face of the King of +Prussia and a cloud passed over the sun of his joy. + +"The Emperor desires to meet your Majesty to-morrow," said he, and his +eyes fell. "We can go together," he added, and then hastily deserting +the subject, he proposed that they arrange about lodgings, as for the +time they must remain in Tilsit. + +"Very well," said Frederick William, and his heart sank. + +Next day the King of Prussia was admitted to a second and very different +conference, and his noble dignity under his misfortune so struck +Napoleon that he spoke of it. + +"I have nothing to reproach myself with," said the King very simply. + +Napoleon's eyes fell, but only for a moment. + +He answered with a shrug. + +"Nor have I." + +The King was silent. + +"I warned you," Napoleon looked entirely innocent, "against England. It +is she who has caused your troubles. But France," his tones became most +grandiloquent, "can afford to be generous. In a few days all will be +arranged." + +Never was any man treated more cruelly than poor, good, unhappy King +Frederick William. Yet there has never been a King who behaved better in +time of trouble. In peace he had been irresolute and sluggish. In +trouble his figure stands out against a background of woe in outlines of +dignity and nobility. + +Napoleon made him feel absolutely alone, taking away his friend as he +had taken away his kingdom. Though he asked him to dinner, when the last +morsel was eaten, the last wine drunk, he bore off the Czar to his +private apartment, excusing both to Frederick William. When they were +abroad the French soldiers called "Vive Napoleon!" "Vive Alexandre!" but +never a cry from the Imperial Guard for the King of Prussia. + +"It is better for me to be friendly with Napoleon," said the Czar in +excuse. The King was silent. + +As for Napoleon, he utterly refused to have the King near him, unless +absolutely necessary. + +"I can't stand his gloomy face," he told Alexander. + +The Czar and Napoleon embraced in public. The French and Russian +soldiers became like brothers, leaving the Prussians to humiliation and +solitude. The King, who had always suffered from shyness, felt more and +more uncomfortable, being made always an unwelcome third. He had no +opinion of himself, the Queen was not there to cheer him, and each day +he grew more gloomy and sad. + +One day the people of Tilsit saw the three monarchs riding together, the +Czar and Napoleon entirely ignoring the King, who let his horse drop +behind and rode alone. + +"Has not our good King been true to the Czar?" they cried, and in their +hearts the fire against Napoleon and Alexander burned fiercer. "In +January," they said to each other, "we could have made peace if our King +had promised to desert Russia. And now the Czar deserts our King." + +But in spite of his friendship with Napoleon, the Czar truly loved his +friend and wished to help him. His brother Constantine forced him to +many things, threatening him with the fate of his father, who had been +assassinated, if he did not save Russia at the cost of Prussia. + +In the midst of all the great worry an idea entered his head and at once +pleased him. + +Of all living women he most admired Queen Louisa, not only for her +wonderful beauty and lovely ways, but for her goodness and her love for +her husband and her people. + +"Send to Memel for the Queen," he proposed to Frederick William, for he +knew things which were to come to pass that the King did not. "Napoleon +now is very anxious to see her. Who can tell what good she may do for +Prussia? One so beautiful, so spiritual, so unhappy, may soften his +heart and awaken his noblest feelings." + +For a moment or two Frederick William did not answer. Above all things +on earth he loved Queen Louisa. Napoleon had mistreated her. She was +very delicate, like a flower, "the beautiful rose of the King," a poet +called her, and was it right that he ask her to beg favours of her foe? +Of the man who hated her? + +"Do, Majesty, do." General Kalreuth pressed near and gazed pleadingly at +the King. + +"Perhaps," suggested the Czar, "the Queen may bend the iron will of +Napoleon, may she not?" And he looked flatteringly at her husband. + +Frederick William sought pen and ink and wrote Queen Louisa a hasty +letter. + +"I will go to Memel, also," proposed General Kalreuth, as the King +delivered the letter to a messenger. + +Frederick William nodded. + +"Act as escort to the Queen," he commanded, having not a doubt of his +wife's answer. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE ESCAPE + + +The Herr Lieutenant obeyed Hans quickly. + +In breathless silence they lay hid in the bushes. + +For some time they could hear the soldiers, and then all was silent. + +"God be praised!" whispered Hans, "now let us seek the road." And out +they cautiously scrambled. + +All night they walked steadily, meeting no one, but now and then +catching sight of some village burning against the sky. Where they were +they had no idea, but somewhere, they knew, in East Prussia. Everywhere +was desolation. Houses had been burned, fences had fallen, and once they +came upon the blackened remains of a village. For two days and nights +they kept in the fields and woods, Hans going but once to a house to beg +for food and some coffee. + +On the third evening they came upon a farm at some distance from the +road. + +"We might venture there," said Hans, "for it is out of the line of +soldiers. I am sure that, Herr Lieutenant, all is deserted." + +But when he reached the window of the house he returned in a scamper, +motioning the Herr Lieutenant away with his hand. + +"There are French officers eating there," he announced. "Forward, +march," he added, and on they trudged. + +The Herr Lieutenant grew whiter and whiter. + +"I can go no farther," he gasped, and sank on the grass at the side of +the road. + +His old wound had broken out afresh, and for a moment or two he looked +as if he were dying. + +What to do Hans had no idea. While he was perplexing, his brain he heard +the sound of a slow, discouraged step, and presently an old peasant, +with long, unkempt gray hair and a tired, hopeless face, approached from +the wood. + +When Hans told him their trouble he hesitated. Kindness and bitterness +seemed to struggle hard in his wrinkled face. + +"The French have left me almost nothing," he said. Then he hesitated. He +looked at Hans, then at the suffering man on the grass. + +"My house is near here," he said at last, reluctantly. Then he called, +"Heinrich! Heinrich!" + +A stupid-looking boy of thirteen or fourteen was quickly at his side. + +"Help," he commanded, and the three bore Franz to a small peasant house +behind the wood. + +Hans promised to find money at once. + +"You say we are near Tilsit?" he asked. + +The peasant nodded. + +"Can your boy carry a letter to Memel?" + +The man hesitated. + +"There are the French," he said, and went on to explain that if his boy +were seen going into Memel houses he would perhaps be shot as a spy, +their home burned, and then where were they? + +"But at night," urged Hans, "let him lay a note on the window of the +house I mean and they will put out money and provisions." + +After much talk the old man agreed, and Hans, with great difficulty, for +he had little education, wrote the letter that the Professor had found +on his window. + +For days Franz was unconscious, but when he came to himself again Hans, +with a smile, handed him a letter from his father. + +"And we have money now," said the old man with a laugh, "and all the +good food you'll be wanting." + +He did not tell the Herr Lieutenant, however, that since they had found +refuge with the peasant the French army had advanced and they were +surrounded by the enemy. Instead, he announced that he had heard from +the peasant that there was talk of peace. + +Now, all might have gone well had Hans been content to be quiet. But he +was a restless old fellow and he could not bear sitting still doing +nothing. + +"I will go out," he announced next day, "and discover the whereabouts of +the enemy." + +In an hour he returned his face full of excitement, his legs shaking. + +"The soldiers saw me," he cried. "They are coming this way. Ach Himmel, +if I had been quiet!" + +Then he ran for the peasant and told him that they must hide the Herr +Lieutenant. + +The peasant, whose face grew dark with dread, nodded, shrugging his +shoulders. + +"There is a loft," he said, "but hurry." + +In his small barn was this loft, and opening from it and well concealed +by wood, a tiny closet. + +There was just room for Franz, who almost fainted from excitement as +they hurriedly moved him. + +"And you?" he gasped, looking at Hans. + +The old man shrugged his shoulders. + +"What comes, comes," he said. "Auf wiedersehen, and we will bring you +supper, Herr Lieutenant." + +For hours Franz lay in the stuffy darkness. He heard the arrival of the +soldiers, loud voices, the sound of many feet and then it seemed to him +that for an hour he would die of a sudden hotness. There was a smell of +burning, too, which lasted long after it was cool again. + +What had happened? His heart stood still. Would they burn the barn? The +smell of charred wood seemed stronger. + +By and by hunger told him that it was supper time, but all continued +silent. He fell at last into a sleep which lasted until what he thought +must be morning. The closet was quite dark, the only air coming in from +the loft, and he felt suffocated. He must have light and air. Where was +Hans? What had happened? At last he felt that he could stand the +suspense no longer. + +Putting out one foot he kicked open the door, which, kept in place by a +log, went down with a crash like thunder. Franz was in terror, but, +nothing happening, he dragged himself forward to the loft. Then he could +rise, and standing erect he waited until the dizziness in his head had +settled. + +Then seeking the ladder he stepped below. Instead of the neat barn of +the day before, he saw disorder everywhere. Hay was tossed here, horses +had trampled there, and not a sound of a chicken was heard. The day +before he had seen at least a dozen. + +He dragged himself to the door. + +There was now no peasant's house. Only a scene of blackened ruins met +his eye. + +The barn, too, was scorched; but perhaps the wind had blown in an +opposite direction, for it had not burned. + +Franz trembled like a poplar leaf when he thought of what might have +been his fate. + +"Thank God, thank God!" he murmured, and then, before he could reach out +his hand for support, he fell on the floor in a dead faint, and there he +lay while they were making peace at Tilsit. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE FOES MEET + + +Marianne, a few days later, went one morning to the drawing-room of +Countess von Voss. + +The room was full of ladies. Dr. Hufeland was there, the Englishman, and +the Queen herself, busy with her lint. + +The talk was very violent. + +News had come to Memel that the Czar had made a separate peace with +Napoleon, and that the Emperor of the French, in his hatred of Frederick +William, meant to rob him of his kingdom, proposing that he be no longer +called King of Prussia, but only Marquis of Brandenburg. + +"The monster! The upstart! The villain!" The room was full of abuse of +Napoleon. + +"I hate him; I would kill him!" cried one lady, her face hot with wrath. + +The Queen lifted her blue eyes from her work. + +"Dear Mademoiselle," she said, "we cannot lighten our sorrow by hating +the Emperor, and malicious thoughts can only make us more unhappy." + +The lady bit her lips and coloured, but even she had to laugh with the +rest when the parrot of the Countess suddenly called out in French: + +"Down with the upstart! Down with Napoleon!" + +While the room was yet echoing with the merriment, a servant announced a +courier from Memel. + +"A letter from the King," cried the Queen, and seized it with eager +fingers. + +Reading it hastily, all watching, she suddenly burst into tears. + +"My Queen, my dear, dear Queen, what is it?" and the Countess flew to +her side. + +The Queen, recovering herself, clung to her old friend. + +The King wished her to come to Memel, to stay with him and plead the +cause of her country with Napoleon, to entreat for a better peace. + +Her voice quivered as she told of the request, and for a moment her blue +eyes gazed pathetically at her friends in the Saal. + +The whole room was silent, though indignation flashed across a face or +two. + +Each knew that Napoleon had treated the Queen most shamefully, and that +it was cruel that she must plead before him, must entreat a favour. + +"It is the hardest thing I have had to do," at last the Queen's sweet +voice broke the silence, her body quivering as a rose on its stem when +the blasts blow. "It is the greatest sacrifice I can make for my +country." And her lips shook pathetically. + +Then she stood in silence, holding the letter in her hand, while the +company waited. Marianne felt her heart beat until it was near bursting. +They all knew that the Queen could say that she was not well. The winds +and cold of Memel had never agreed with her. As an excuse to save +herself it would be quite justifiable. + +Marianne leaned forward eagerly. It seemed to her at that moment as if +all her life was to be settled. + +"I will do it," said the Queen; "the King wishes it." And then the whole +room relaxed from its tension. + +"Perhaps," added the Queen, folding the letter with trembling fingers, +her lips quivering, "I can do good, be of some service." + +"Most certainly, Majesty," urged General Kalreuth, following the +courier, his face eager to have his way. + +He had brought her a second letter. + +It was from the Czar, entreating her to come, and setting before her all +that she with her talents and beauty might accomplish. + +"To do my full duty, dear General," said the poor Queen, the tears in +her voice, "is my only wish. As the loved wife of the King, as the +mother of my children, as the Queen of my people." + +She swayed, as if faint. Then sudden strength seemed to come, and a +smile, like sunlight after clouds, suddenly illumined her face, which +was even lovelier in her sadness. + +"And, dear friends," she gazed kindly at the people about her, "I +believe firmly in God. And, dear General," again she smiled, "I do not +believe Napoleon will be secure on his throne. Truth and righteousness +only abide. Napoleon is only politically clever." + +So the good Queen, who loved everybody better than her own ease or +comfort, kissed the lively, handsome Crown Prince; simple, honourable, +sensible little William; shy, beautiful Charlotte, and answered jolly +little Carl's many questions as to when she was going, and, loosening +baby Alexandrina's arms from her neck, set forth with the old Countess +and her Maids of Honour to meet her foe in Tilsit. + +She knew that she must smile when her heart was weeping for her country; +she knew that she must be pleasant and beg favours of the man who had +treated her as no woman has ever before been treated in history. + +"Truly," she said to the old Countess, "I am like Atlas, and carry the +sorrow of the world." + +The Countess pressed her hand and listened while the Queen continued, +for to her she might say things which might distress her husband. + +"I cannot, I may not forget the King in this crisis. He is very +unfortunate and possesses a true soul, but how with my broken wing"--she +had not been well and was very nervous, always having to stand the noise +of the children and the laughter of the Maids of Honour in the tiny +house in Memel--"can I do anything? How can I do anything?" she repeated +pathetically. + +Full of foreboding, she and the Countess and the Maid of Honour, +Countess Tauentzein, came to Tilsit, or rather to the village of +Piktupoehnen, where her husband was in lodgings because of the truce with +Napoleon. + +The State Minister Hardenburg, General Kalreuth, and the Czar +surrounded her. + +"Plead with Napoleon," they urged, "for Silesia, for Westphalia, and for +Magdeburg, but especially for Magdeburg." + +Napoleon, who, having all he wanted, was more amiable, sent greetings at +once to Louisa, explaining that according to the terms of the truce he +could not come to Piktupoehnen, and therefore he entreated her to come to +Tilsit that he might pay her his respects immediately. + +His state carriage, drawn by eight horses and escorted by splendid +French dragoons, conveyed them to a plain, two-story house in Tilsit. + +An hour later a messenger announced her royal foe, the Emperor Napoleon +Bonaparte. + +According to etiquette, the Queen awaited him at the head of the stairs, +a smile of welcome forced by politeness to her lips. + +"What this costs me," she had said to her ladies, "God alone knows, for +if I do not positively hate this man, I cannot help looking on him as +the man who has made the King and the whole nation miserable. It will be +very difficult for me to be courteous, but that is required of me." + +The two Countesses were, by accident, in the hall below when the King +met the Emperor and conducted him in. + +The Countess von Voss, who hated him with all her old heart, shrugged +her shoulders at the sight of the small, bloated-looking man who stared +at her rudely. + +With him came Talleyrand, his famous Minister, his eyes alert, his +expression watchful. + +The Emperor lifted his eyes; his whole face softened; for, standing with +her hand on the rail of the stair, he saw a slight, graceful woman, +golden-haired, and arrayed in a white gown of tissue, or gauze, a narrow +ribbon sash tied short-waisted fashion, its ends hanging to the +embroidered border of her gown; her mantle on her shoulders, a tiny +tissue scarf twisted across her throat, like a frame for her face of +loveliness. + +Never had "The Rose of the King" looked more beautiful, for excitement +had brought back colour to pale cheeks, a fire to eyes faded from +weeping. And about her whole figure was a girlish pathos. + +Napoleon mounted the stairs heavily, for he had grown very stout in +Prussia. + +"I am sorry," said the Queen, her sweet voice welcoming him, "that you +have had to mount so inconvenient a staircase." + +Napoleon stared in the bold, rude way he did at everybody. + +"One cannot be afraid of difficulties," he said, with a bow, "with such +an object in view." And he gazed at her with bold admiration. + +"And while reaching up to attain the reward at the end," he added, again +bowing. + +"For those who are favoured by Heaven," returned the Queen, "there are +no difficulties on earth." + +Napoleon made no answer, but stared at her as if enchanted. + +Approaching, he touched the material of her dress, like a child. + +"Is it crepe," he inquired, "or Indian gauze?" + +The Queen's face flushed, but she controlled herself most beautifully. + +"Shall we talk of light things at such a moment?" she asked, and led the +way into the room prepared for his reception. + +Then she inquired concerning his health, adding the hope that the severe +climate of North Germany had agreed with him. + +"The French soldier," he answered bluntly, "is hardened to bear every +kind of climate." + +Then he looked at her curiously, as if making a study of the woman of +whom he had heard so much and whom he had treated so cruelly, and who, +in that poor little house in Tilsit, stood before him as bravely as the +Duchess had in Weimar. + +He admired her beauty, but her sorrows were absolutely nothing to him. +In a short time he was to divorce the wife who had borne with his +weaknesses and who loved him through many long years of both joy and +trouble. So he was not likely to treat the Queen of Prussia very gently, +merely because she was a woman who loved her husband and her country. + +"How could you think of making war upon me?" he demanded. + +Though his manner and tones were irritating, the Queen took no offence, +but answered politely: + +"We were mistaken in our calculations on our resources," she said. + +"And you trusted in Frederick's fame and deceived yourselves--Prussia, I +mean." Napoleon swung his riding whip to and fro as she talked, and +stared steadily. + +The Queen's blue eyes met his bold ones, though they filled a little as +she continued: + +"Sire, on the strength of the great Frederick's fame we may be excused +for having been mistaken with respect to our own powers, if, indeed, we +have entirely deceived ourselves." + +Napoleon's face softened quickly. He tried to change the subject, but +the Queen, treating him as a kind man and a friend, told him in an +almost girlish way of all her sufferings, of all she had endured, and +why she had come to Tilsit. He tried again and again to change the +subject, but she persisted, beseeching him to be kind and merciful, for +the love of man and because of the laws of justice with which God rules +all the kingdoms. + +Napoleon's answer was all kindness. He had never seen such a woman. She +had not a thought for herself, and when she spoke of her husband the +tears splashed down her cheeks on the crepe dress the Emperor had +admired so openly. + +"Sire," implored the sweetest voice that ever had fallen on his ears, +"be kind, be generous, be merciful to your fallen foe. Sire," the Queen +gazed like a child in his face, "give us Magdeburg, only Magdeburg." + +The conqueror of Europe wavered. + +"You ask a great deal," he said dubiously, "but I will think of it." + +Why not make this lovely woman happy? he tells us that he thought, and +kindness for a moment entirely changed his countenance. + +Now, of all men in the world, the King of Prussia was the most unlucky. +There was no one who could so irritate Napoleon as he could, and at that +moment his entering the room probably changed the history of Prussia; at +least Napoleon himself says it did. + +But he had begun to be uneasy waiting below. He thought he could help +matters, and in his zeal entered, and entered at the wrong moment. + +There he stood, handsome, dignified and honest-faced, wanting, as +always, to do the right thing, and blundering. + +For once the Queen had no smile ready for him, and her face showed her +chagrin, for Napoleon, catching himself up hastily, with a relieved face +turned to Frederick William. + +"Sire," he said, "I admire the magnanimity and tranquillity of your soul +amid such numerous and heavy misfortunes." + +The King of Prussia hid his feelings. If he was conquered by the man who +was complimenting his behaviour, he was a Hohenzollern, but alas, too, +he was tactless. + +"Greatness and tranquillity of soul," he answered shortly, "can only be +acquired by the strength of a good conscience." + +Never did a King make a more unfortunate answer. + +Napoleon turned away with a glare, and after inviting the King and Queen +to dine with him, departed, followed by Talleyrand, his whole mood +changed to hardness. + +When they were below the Minister looked inquiringly at the Emperor. + +"I knew," said Napoleon, his eyes firing, "that I should see a beautiful +woman and a Queen with dignified manners, but I found a most admirable +Queen and at the same time the most interesting woman I ever met with." +Again his face looked soft and almost yielding. + +Talleyrand's laughter rang out in sarcastic mockery. + +"And so, sire," he said, with a sneer, "you will sacrifice the fruits of +victory to a beautiful woman. What will the world say?" His voice was +mocking. + +Napoleon flushed and bit his lip, the hard look returning. + +Talleyrand, seizing the moment, hastened to show what a gain Magdeburg +would be to French interests and how its loss would cripple Napoleon. + +"You cannot give it up, sire," he pleaded; "you cannot." + +Napoleon, his lips curling in amusement, shook his head. He was again +the Emperor, the Conqueror. + +"No, no," he answered, "Magdeburg is worth a hundred Queens." + +Then he laughed, as if he had escaped a great weakness, and his eyes +narrowed. + +"Happily," he swung his whip, "the husband came in, and trying to put +his word into the conversation, spoilt the whole affair and I was +delivered." + +As for the Queen, she was repeating every word of Napoleon's to +Frederick William. + +"He promised, Fritz," and she clung to his hand, "that he would think of +it. Moreover," she added, "I shall see him at dinner. Something then may +be done." And she caressed him tenderly, her whole body quivering from +the strain she had been under. + +In honour of Napoleon, Queen Louisa arrayed herself for the dinner in +her most regal splendour. Her dress was white, most delicately +embroidered, a velvet and ermine mantle flowed from her shoulders, a +diamond star shone in her golden hair, and the crown of Prussia was +arranged to surmount her exquisite tissue, or gauze, turban. + +When her maid had given the last touch she stood before her mirror in +the small Tilsit house. Near by stood her dearest friend, Frau von Berg, +gazing at her in loving admiration. + +But the Queen's thoughts were bitter. With a shrug she turned from the +mirror to her companion. + +"Do you remember, dear friend," she asked, with a sad smile, "how the +old Germans of the pagan times used to dress the maidens they would +sacrifice to their gods in gorgeous raiment and jewels?" + +Frau von Berg nodded. + +"Yes, dear Queen," she said, the tears starting. + +"I am such a victim," said the Queen. "But the question is, will the +angry god whom the world now adores be, through me, appeased and +reconciled?" + +Frau von Berg had no answer. + +Then in came the two Countesses in splendid raiment, and off went the +Prussian Court to dine with Napoleon. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE ANSWER + + +Certainly Napoleon was most courteous. + +He was at the carriage door to open it for Queen Louisa. He led her to +the table and placed her by his side, the King of Prussia sitting on his +left, and the Czar by Queen Louisa. + +The table was long, it was well set, and there were many guests arrayed +in court splendour, but one person did the talking, and that person was +Napoleon. + +The Queen, alone, was expected to answer. + +Why, he began, had she been so foolish as to go to the seat of war? Did +she know that Napoleon's hussars had almost captured her? + +The Queen with a smile shook her head. + +"No, no, sire," she said with forced gaiety, "that I cannot believe. I +never saw a Frenchman while I was on that journey." + +"But why did you expose yourself to danger?" persisted the Emperor, +though he knew quite well that it was an old Prussian custom for Queens +to accompany their husbands to the battle. + +"Why did you not await my arrival at Weimar?" he asked. + +"Really, sire," said the poor Queen, trying to be merry, "I felt no +inclination to do so." + +At that Napoleon laughed and changed the subject, without a thought for +all the Queen had endured on her journey. + +"How is it that the Queen of Prussia wears a turban? That," he added, +"is not complimentary to the Emperor of Russia, who is at war with the +Turk." + +Now, the Queen of Prussia knew how to make a pretty answer. It was one +of her charms. + +"I think," and she smiled, "it is rather to compliment Rustan," and she +glanced at Napoleon's favourite Eastern servant, who, wearing a superb +turban, stood behind the chair of his imperial master. + +Napoleon was delighted, and the two began to discuss the province of +Silesia and the old ones of Prussia, which now were perhaps to be ceded +to France. + +Frederick William, who had been silent, at once expressed his opinion, +and, as usual, got into trouble with Napoleon. + +"Your Majesty," he said, and his brow darkened, while he twisted his +handkerchief and knotted it in a way he had, "does not know how grievous +it is to lose territories which have descended through a long line of +ancestors, territories which are, in fact, the cradle of one's race," he +added gloomily. + +Now, Napoleon was a man who had made his own fortunes, his name had not +been royal, and his race had no such cradle. + +A sarcastic smile played on his lips and a laugh of derision rang +through the room. + +"Cradle!" he said, and his lips curled in amusement. "When the child has +grown to be a man he has not much time to think about his cradle!" + +The guests gazed down at their plates. + +Why on earth had the King spoken? + +But the Queen saved the day. + +"The mother's heart," she said, "is the most lasting cradle." + +Then she enquired about Madame Bonaparte, whom above all living people +Napoleon honoured, and the Empress Josephine, and Napoleon's good humour +came back and he talked steadily through the whole dinner, everybody +being forced to listen and eat in silence. + +"That odious man," whispered the Countess Tauentzein, when at last they +arose from dinner; "he has the manners of a peasant." + +"And how ugly," answered Countess von Voss. "Did you notice how fat he +is, and how bloated his face, and how brown his complexion?" + +"He is altogether without figure, the wretch!" answered the other. "See +how he rolls his great eyes, and how severe is his expression!" + +"But his mouth is beautiful," admitted the old Countess, "and his teeth +perfect. But see how he looks the very picture of success!" She lowered +her voice cautiously. "But what a happy day it will be for the world +when God takes him!" + +As for Napoleon, his eyes never left the Queen. He followed her +everywhere. + +For a moment she stood alone in the room, in whose window-seat stood a +pot in which grew a rosebush with one lovely flower. + +Napoleon broke off its stem, and bearing it in his hand he approached +the Queen and offered it to her, smiling. + +"Sire," she said, her blue eyes pleading, "with Magdeburg?" + +[Illustration: "_Sire, with Magdeburg?_"] + +Napoleon still offered the rose, his face flushing. + +"I must point out to your Majesty," he said, "that it is for me to beg, +for you to accept, or decline." + +It was the Queen's turn to flush. + +"There is no rose without a thorn," she said, "but these thorns," she +gazed at the rose, "are too sharp for me." + +And turning, she left Napoleon with a rose in his hand, his lips +pressing themselves together. + +He had given the Queen her answer. Prussia was to lose Magdeburg. The +Queen had appealed in vain. + +The banquet ended in a dance, and at a late hour the King and Queen +returned to their lodgings in Piktupoehnen. + +The next day the King and Napoleon had a talk, and those listening heard +hot words and angry voices. + +Frederick William was entreating for Magdeburg. Napoleon answering with +scowling insolence. + +"You forget," said the Emperor, his eyes narrowing, "that you are not in +a position to negotiate. Understand that I wish to keep Prussia down and +to hold Magdeburg that I may enter Berlin when I wish to. I believe in +the stability of but two sentiments--vengeance and hatred. For the +future, the Prussians must hate the French; but I will put it out of +their power to injure them." + +Again, that day, the Queen was forced to dine with Napoleon. She prayed +to be excused, but all begged her to go. It would appear better, for the +treaty now was signed. + +"I have given Prussia a few concessions because of its Queen," announced +Napoleon, but what they were it was hard to guess. + +The King of Prussia must give up half of his dominions; he must reduce +his army to 42,000 men; he must pay 140,000,000 francs as the cost of +the war, and he must acknowledge the Confederation of the Rhine and all +the kingdoms Napoleon might set up anywhere. Jerome Bonaparte, as King +of Westphalia, was to receive half of the Kingdom of Prussia. + +Knowing this, the Queen sat in her ermine and jewels; she talked with +Napoleon, she smiled, she thanked him for his hospitality. + +When she left he led her to the carriage. + +"I regret, your Majesty," he said, "that I must not do what you asked +me." + +"And I regret," said the Queen, "that, having had the honour of knowing +the hero of the age, whom I can never forget, the impression left on my +mind must always be painful. Had you been generous, sire, I would be +bound to you by an everlasting gratitude." + +"Indeed, your Majesty," returned Napoleon, "I lament that so it must be; +it is my evil destiny." + +"And I have been cruelly deceived," were the Queen's last words, and off +drove her carriage. + +The two Royal Foes parted, never again to meet. + +That day Louisa thought herself the vanquished, and before the world +Napoleon wore the laurels of victory. Seventy years later the President +of France wrote that it was his belief that, at Tilsit, Napoleon was +conquered; that had he then been generous and bound the King and Queen +of Prussia to him by a tie of gratitude his last days need not, perhaps, +have been spent on the island of St. Helena, for in his troubles they +would have been his ally. + +When the Queen reached her room she turned to her ladies in tears. + +"When I am dead," she said, "it will be as with Queen Mary of England; +not Calais, but Magdeburg will be graven on my poor heart in letters of +blood." + +Peace was signed on the seventh, and on June 24 Napoleon, in triumph, +entered Frankfort-on-Main, and three days later he arrived at his palace +at Saint Cloud and immediately was off again, marching armies into +Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Austria. + +"Peace is made," wrote Queen Louisa to her father, "but at a dreadful +price. Our boundary will only go as far as the Elbe. Yet is the King +greater than his adversary. After Eylau he could have made a more +advantageous peace, but then he must have followed wicked principles, +and now he has acted through necessity and not forsworn himself. That +must bring a blessing on Prussia. After Eylau he would not desert a +faithful ally. Once more, I repeat, it is my firm belief that this +conduct of the King will bring good fortune to Prussia." + +Napoleon had insisted upon the dismissal of Hardenburg as Prime +Minister, and in September the King called Stein to his assistance. From +the Queen this great man received a letter. + + "I conjure you," she wrote, for he had made some objections to + remaining in office with a certain fellow minister, "have but + patience in the first few months. For Heaven's sake, do not let + the good cause be lost for want of three months' patience. I + conjure, for the sake of the King, of the country, of my + children, for my own sake, patience! + + "LOUISA." + +As for Baron von Stein, he had at heart only the good of Prussia, and +waited. + +The war was ended. Prussia was in the dust; its King and Queen exiled +from the capital. Crops were ruined, villages were burned, and this +poor, unhappy country must pay its war debt. + +"Now, God be everlastingly praised," wrote the poor Queen, "that my +daughter, who would now be almost fifteen years old, came dead into the +world." + +"I must play my life days in this unlucky time," she said. "Perhaps God +gave me my living children that one of them might bring good to +mankind." + +And there was one who did the great things the Queen dreamed of. + +It was not the handsome Crown Prince, though he was a clever monarch; it +was not Princess Charlotte, though she became Empress of Russia; it was +not Alexandrina, who, a lovely old lady, died only a year or two ago as +Dowager Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg; nor jolly Carl, nor Louisa, nor +Albert, who came later. + +It was simple, honourable, sensible little William. Every pain his +mother felt sank deeply into his heart, and at last the day came when he +led the Prussian army to the great battle of Sedan, where he conquered +the nephew of Napoleon and created the German Empire. + +But no one dreamed of this that dreary summer in Memel, and though the +Queen did her best to be cheerful, all who loved her saw that the +canker-worm of sorrow was drawing nearer and nearer the heart of the +beautiful "Rose of the King," the flower whose stem had been so roughly +handled by its enemy. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE HERR LIEUTENANT + + +When Franz again opened his eyes it was to see a little figure sitting +near by with her knitting. + +"Am I crazy?" He gazed about the room in which he found himself lying. + +He saw a huge porcelain stove of green and white and blue and yellow, +with a pelican on top for an ornament. A chest of drawers boasted a vase +of roses, and there were pretty white curtains to the window. + +"Bettina," he said, "Bettina!" + +She ran to him, her blue eyes eager. + +"Ach ja," said Franz, "but it is the same Bettina." + +Yes, it was the old Bettina with the bright, eager eyes, the golden +hair, but it was Bettina grown older. + +"God be praised," she said, her eyes dancing; "I will call your Frau +Mother." + +He was home, but how had he come there? + +There was Madame von Stork, the tears flowing; there was his father; +Pauline, too; how handsome she was! And Marianne; but how serious she +had grown! And the twins. + +"Come here, Ilse. The other hand, Elchen! And Carlchen, how big you +are!" + +The children, hanging their heads, were pushed to the bed by Marianne. + +Franz's eyes sought other figures. + +"Wolfgang?" he said. "And Otto; where is Otto?" + +It was days before he heard all the news, and it was days before he +learned all that had happened. + +Wolfgang was dead. + +The Herr Lieutenant turned his face away. + +Otto had run off, and no one knew where he was. + +The rascal! That was exactly like Otto. + +As for the Herr Lieutenant himself, the peasant boy had come for the +Professor. The French soldiers had fired the house and the peasants had +fled at once to Memel. + +It was all very simple. Peace was made now, and his father had brought +him in a carriage. He for days had remained unconscious. They were all +soon to move to Koenigsberg, and Franz was to go also, and Otto must come +home now, for the war was over. + +Then Marianne, who came in often and sat with her tent stitch, told him +how the poor Queen had been deceived by Napoleon, how she had believed +in his promise and had not been well from the shock of disappointment +since she had returned from Tilsit. + +And when Marianne was gone, in came his mother and she wept over +Wolfgang and Otto and told him how Ludwig Brandt, who was soon to be +betrothed to Pauline, was always at Koenigsberg, for there were great +plans among the students in which Ludwig was helping, plans for rousing +the nation against Napoleon. + +Then she told of Marianne, and of how she was now a great comfort. + +"And it is all because of our good Queen," she assured him, and related +how Marianne now adored her instead of Goethe, and of how she had gone +all winter to make lint and to read aloud to her Majesty. + +"And she has now a longing to be useful," said Madame von Stork, her +face brightening. "At first it was to be useful in some high-flown way," +she added. + +At that Franz laughed merrily. + +"That is like Marianne," he said, "exactly, dear mother." + +"She wanted to nurse the soldiers," continued Madame von Stork, "but our +good Queen assured her that she was far too young and that home is the +true place for a German maiden. She told her how she herself had never +interfered in politics, but had been content to be a good wife and +mother. + +"And so," concluded Madame von Stork, "each day she becomes more of a +comfort. God be praised," she added, "that we came to Memel. Our Queen +is an example to all German women." + +"She is an angel," said Franz, who like all the soldiers adored Queen +Louisa. + +The very first day Franz asked about Hans. + +"We had thought him dead," explained his father. "The King had news of +his disappearance and believed him to have been shot as a spy. But when +you were brought home the peasant told me the soldiers had marched him +away with them and I could do nothing." + +"He will probably soon arrive in Memel," said Franz, "now peace is +made." + +"The soldiers about Tilsit knew nothing of him. Why they took him +prisoner I have no idea, but can only wonder," added his father. + +But the days passed, and no Hans came, and the weeks went by and turned +into months. + +Bettina, though, was sure that he would come to her. + +"He promised," she said, "that when peace was made we should go back to +our dear Thuringia." + +She had wept bitterly when Elsa had come out with the news of his death, +but only for a moment. + +"That is my grandfather's writing," she had said, "and so he must be +living." + +And now she still believed in his coming. + +Nothing, however, could make Marianne happy, for the Queen's health +seemed to fail entirely. + +As the summer advanced to autumn, and autumn marched into winter the +winds of Memel grew fiercer and fiercer. With their coming the Queen +lost her colour, her cheerfulness was forced, and she drooped like a +flower. + +One thing alone comforted both her and the King, a letter from the +people of Westphalia, who must now belong to Napoleon. + +Frederick William had bade them farewell, telling them that he felt like +a father separating from his children, that it was only necessity which +made him yield them to their new ruler. + +The Westphalians answered him like children. + +"When we read thy farewell," they wrote, "our hearts were breaking; we +could not believe that we should cease to be thy faithful subjects, we +who have always loved thee so much. As true as we live, it is not thy +fault that after the battle of Jena thy scattered armies were not led to +our country to join with our militia in a fresh combat. We would have +staked our lives and have saved the country, for our warriors have +marrow in their bones and their souls are not yet infested with the +canker. + +"Our wives nourish their children with their own milk, our daughters are +no puppets of fashion, we desire to keep free from the pestilential +spirit of the age. Yet we cannot change the decrees of Providence. +Farewell, then, thou good old King. God grant that the remainder of thy +country may furnish thee with wise ministers and truer generals than +those which have brought affliction on thee. It is not for us to +struggle against our fate, we must with manly fortitude submit to what +we cannot alter. May God be with us and give us a new ruler who will +likewise be the father of the country, may he respect our language, our +manners, our religion, and our municipalities as thou hast done, our +dear, good King. God grant thee peace, health, and happiness." + +Such a letter was a great comfort to the Queen, and though her heart was +very heavy, she occupied herself first in the sale of her jewels, then +she and the King sent all their golden dishes to the mint to be turned +into money. She bought only simple dresses and tried to set all the +people of the Court an example of patience and cheerfulness. She talked +much with good Bishop Eylert and Bishop Borowsky. + +One Sunday the Bishop found her alone in her sitting-room reading her +Bible. + +When he entered she greeted him with a smile and they sat and talked +over the 120th Psalm. + +In a firm, clear voice the Queen repeated aloud all its verses. + +"In thy light," she said, "shall we see light." And then she told the +Bishop how, though her foe had conquered her and taken away her kingdom, +she firmly believed that God would send His light and show to all the +reasons of the wars of Napoleon. + +"I think," she said, "it is wise to study a portion of Scripture each +day, really study it." The King, coming in, agreed. + +Then the Bishop suggested that each should choose a book. + +"I," said the Queen, "choose Psalms." + +"And I," said the King, "select the book of Daniel, because it teaches +that kingdoms do not rise and fall by chance. God's ways may often seem +to us dark and mysterious, but we may feel assured that they are always +holy, wise, and salutary. By His wisdom and mercy this world is so +ordered that evil works out its own destruction, and good,--that is, all +that agrees with the will of God,--must avail at last." + +When Marianne heard of this study of the Queen, she, too, selected a +book, and decided upon Psalms because the Queen had selected it for her +study. + +Now and then, however, pleasant things happened. + +The house where the King and Queen lived was so small that there was no +room for the children. Therefore Prince Frederick and Prince William +lived in the house of a wealthy merchant named Argelander. + +"To-day," said the Queen one morning, "is Frau Argelander's birthday. We +hear that for fear of disturbing the Princes she has gone to the country +to have her feast with her friends. Come, then, let us decorate her +house and send a message for her to come and enjoy it." + +Everyone was delighted to see the Queen again lively. Marianne ran to +the Stork's Nest and sent all the children for evergreens, the ladies +hurried to the shops and purchased little gifts, and the great work +began. + +A servant flew about Memel with invitations, and by late afternoon all +was ready and a messenger departed to fetch Frau Argelander. + +"My goodness, oh, Heaven!" cried the ladies when he returned with the +message that Frau Argelander begged to be excused, as she was enjoying +her feast with her friends, and did not need in the least her house, +which the Princes were free to use as they would. + +Nobody knew what to do, but the Queen arranged a plan. + +"You go, Fritz," she said to the Crown Prince, "take the carriage and +fetch Frau Argelander." + +And this time the lady appeared with many apologies to find lights +streaming from her windows, decorations everywhere, garlands wreathing +the doors, and presents spread on a table. Beneath the chandelier in the +Saal stood the Queen, lovely in white, a Prince on each side, Charlotte +and Carl and Alexandrina grouped about all holding bouquets in their +hands to present to the lady who had been so kind to them in their +trouble. + +"Dear Frau Argelander, dear Birthday Child!" cried the Queen, and +slipped on the lady's plump arm a bracelet containing the hair of the +two Princes. + +Then did the Queen begin the festivities, part of the fun being the +reading of a poem on each present, written at the command of the Queen +by a Memel poet. + +Marianne was standing near the table on which were the presents when +Franz, who was well, now turned towards her smiling. + +"Mariechen," he said in German, for after a talk or two with Ludwig +Brandt he no longer spoke the fashionable French, but always his own +language, "do you remember what Schlegel wrote about our Queen?" + +Marianne shook her head. + +"I have never heard it." + +Franz, in low tones, repeated the words: + + "She would be a Queen if she lived in a cottage, + The Queen of every heart." + +Marianne's eyes danced. + +"Oh, Franz," she cried, "oh, brother, how, how lovely!" + +"And it is true," said Franz, gazing about the room, his eye resting on +the handsome old Countess, looking bored because of her love of her own +Saal in the evening, yet brightening if the Queen so much as looked at +her, at the Princes and Princesses hanging on their mother's words, at +the young poet, happy ever in the honour done his verses, at Frau +Argelander, at the people of Memel. + +"Ja, ja," he said, "the Angel of Prussia, the Queen of Every Heart!" + +But there was one person who was determined not to let the Queen of +Prussia be happy. + +"Pay your war debt. Pay me what you owe," Napoleon kept crying. + +The King of Prussia, who had no money, begged for time, and he would pay +everything. + +"Pay me, and at once," insisted Napoleon. + +What was the King to do? He had no money. + +Then his brother, Prince William, had an idea. + +"There is no gold," he said, "how can we pay? I will go to Paris and +entreat Napoleon to have mercy." + +He said this in public, but his real plan, told only to his wife, was to +offer himself as a hostage until Prussia could pay her debt. + +"I will join you," said the Princess Marianne. "Our little Amelia died +in our flight from Dantzic and I can be as happy with you in a prison as +in a palace." + +So the Prince departed, and the King and Queen waited. + +The great scientist, Alexander von Humboldt, prepared Napoleon for his +coming and he was received with both politeness and kindness. + +At once, with glowing face, he offered himself as a hostage for his +country. + +Napoleon embraced him. + +"That is very noble," he said, "but impossible." For he wanted money, +not Princes. + +When the news of this act spread through Germany it fired the people +like a draught of strong wine. + +"We will rise!" they cried. "Our Prince has set us an example! We will +throw off the yoke of the oppressor!" + +And so, in the darkest hour of the Fatherland, patriotism began to blaze +brightly. + +The French having evacuated Koenigsberg, the Queen longed to leave Memel, +whose winds had never agreed with her. + +"Do, Majesty," urged Baron Stein, advising the King, "it is more +dignified that you hold Court in a large city like Koenigsberg." + +While all this was being discussed, to the surprise of the von Storks, +the Queen sent one day for Bettina. + +"What can she want?" and Madame von Stork made Bettina ready, brushing +her hair, putting on a blue dress Pauline had made her, and seeing that +the elastics of her slippers were in exact order. + +Bettina went alone, the Queen requiring it, and with eyes eager, her +bright smile on her lips, the little girl appeared before her. + +"Dear child," said the Queen, "I have sent for you because I have some +news to tell you." + +[Illustration: "_I have some news to tell you_"] + +Then she explained that she feared Bettina's grandfather might not +return to Memel, that Professor von Stork had many to care for, and that +she, the Queen, meant in the future to provide for Bettina. + +"My dear people of Berlin," she told her, "have founded a home for +orphans in my honour. The Luisenstift, they will call it. Now, dear +Bettina, I am to name and support four of these children and I have +selected you as one of them." + +Poor Bettina! Her little heart sank. Must she leave the Stork's Nest, +must she go among strangers? + +The Queen understood. + +"You cannot, dear child," she said like a mother, "always live with the +good Professor. Go happily, dear child, to this Home. It will help the +good Professor to have you cared for. You may visit them in your +holidays, and, if you are a good girl and study well, one day you may +come and live at Court and be a maid to Princess Charlotte, or my little +Alexandrina. Would you not like that?" And the Queen smiled +enchantingly. + +Bettina's eyes glowed. + +To be always near her Majesty! What happiness! + +"But go now," said the Queen, "and tell the Herr Professor that I will +talk this over with him before he moves his family to Koenigsberg, and +after Christmas I shall send you to Berlin, to the Luisenstift. Until +then, be happy!" + +"My grandfather will come," thought Bettina; "the Queen is good, but we +will go to Thuringia and I shall see Hans and the baby, my godmother and +Willy." + +And she believed this so firmly that she hardly worried over the Orphan +Asylum. + +But the Professor was relieved. Money was scarce. He had many children, +and he thanked the Queen over and over for her goodness. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +DAYS OF DARKNESS + + +All the Storks, grown and children, liked their new Nest in Koenigsberg. + +It was a city, and there was more to amuse one than in Memel. But life +still had its troubles both for them, for the Queen, and for Prussia. + +One day Marianne was standing with the children on the bridge of +Kantstrasse. They were looking down at the Fish Market and laughing at +the fish women from the Baltic as they sold their fish. There were Dutch +vessels in the Pregel, and queer sailors, and Marianne told the twins to +look at the queer signs hanging on the houses on the bank. "When the +Poles were here," she explained, "each man painted the sign of his trade +and swung it from his house. See, that was a shoemaker, there was a +tailor." + +While they talked, people were passing along Kantstrasse by the dozens, +professors going to and fro, town people, soldiers, sailors or fishers +from the Baltic. + +Presently along came Franz. + +When he saw the little group he smiled and joined them. + +While they watched the scene he told them a dreadful story of Napoleon, +of something which had helped bring on the war. + +"It roused all Prussia," he said. + +It was the story of the bookseller, Palm of Nuremberg. + +In that quaint old town where they make the toys of the world, where the +famous Albrecht Duerer once lived and drew and painted, had lived a +certain honest young man named Palm, and his young wife, Anna. He was a +bookseller, and respected by everybody. + +One day he received a package of books by mail which he was to sell in +his shop. The name of the book was "Germany in Her Deepest Degradation," +but it was anonymous. + +Herr Bookseller Palm placed the books in his shop as requested. + +A little later he was arrested by order of Napoleon and threatened with +death unless he revealed the name of the author. + +Palm had one answer. The books had been sent him without a name, and +that was all he knew. + +There was much more, but Franz first told how Palm, who had hidden, was +arrested by a trick. A man pretended to be in great trouble from which +only Palm could save him. The kind bookseller came forward to see the +messenger, was seized, dragged off, and shot without proper trial, +though the women of the town appeared before the judges clamouring for +mercy, and his poor young wife implored his life from Napoleon's +officers. Only a good Roman Catholic priest supported him to the end, +although Palm was a Lutheran. "Shot down like a dog!" cried Franz hotly. + +Marianne's tears fell when she heard of the suffering of the wife, of +Palm's goodness, his belief in God, and his bravery in refusing to give +the name of the author. + +"How I hate Napoleon!" cried Marianne. "Oh, if I were a man and able to +fight him!" + +Those were stormy days in Koenigsberg. + +The Stork's Nest was thronged with students and professors, all full of +talk and bitter against Napoleon. + +Ludwig stayed there always now, and he was prime mover in a great plan +among the students, and so when Pauline was betrothed to him many +professors and students came with congratulations. + +"I shall never marry," said Marianne, quite positively. + +Everybody laughed, but she was herself very serious. + +"My heart is with my country," she said. + +In the evenings all the family gathered again about the big table, but +instead of reading they listened now to talking. + +"Stein will save our land," said Ludwig one evening. "God be praised! +The King no longer opposes him, but is guided by his counsel." + +"But will Napoleon permit him to remain?" The Professor looked anxious. + +Ludwig shrugged his shoulders. + +"At all events," he said, "our King's conduct is noble. He had given up +everything, plate, wealth, all he has, to help with this debt to +Napoleon. The future is God's, not ours." + +As for the Queen, all Prussia sang praise of her nobility in going to +Tilsit. + +Marianne had been once to Memel on a visit to her uncle Joachim, who was +happy now with Rudolph at home again, and had been to Court and had seen +Queen Louisa before she herself moved to Koenigsberg. + +She had been reading a wonderful book called "Leonard and Gertrude." + +"I wish," she told Marianne, "that I could get into a carriage and start +off to Switzerland and find the author." + +His name was Pestalozzi, and he was full of new ideas of how to educate +children. + +But what pleased Marianne was the news that the Queen was soon to come +to Koenigsberg. + +"But our dear Queen is not well," said the old Countess to Marianne. +"Since her visit to that monster she lies awake at night and weeps and +often suffers a pain in her heart, though in public she smiles and is +always an angel." + +"Down with Napoleon!" called out the parrot. "Upstart! Villain! Monster! +Down with the Emperor!" + +The old Countess gave him a cracker. + +"Pretty Polly," she said. "But now be quiet." + +"Upstart! Villain!" repeated Polly. + +Then the Countess complained to Marianne of all the noise of the Royal +children and of the conduct of the Maids of Honour. + +"One night when our dear Queen was ill the noise was dreadful. It woke +her from a doze and I went out to see who was making it. And what did I +find?" + +The old lady shook with offended dignity. + +"Why, the Maids of Honour, my child, flirting and laughing with the +generals! I spoke to the King, but, my dear Marianne, what good can it +do? Etiquette has gone entirely out of fashion! The Maids of Honour will +have their ways, will laugh, talk, and behave in a way most unseemly. +But never mind, we shall soon come to Koenigsberg." + +It was deep winter when the royal family arrived. The people of Memel +were sad, indeed, to see them depart, and the King wrote them a letter. + +"I thank my brave citizens of Memel for their true and steadfast +attachment to my person, my wife, and my whole house. Memel is the only +town in my dominions which has escaped the worse calamities of the war, +but it has proved itself capable of enduring them and ready, if called +on, to resist the enemy. I shall never forget that Divine Providence +preserved to us an asylum in this town and that its people evinced the +warmest and most constant attachment to us." + +The people of Koenigsberg on their part were delighted. Immediately they +elected the Crown Prince rector of their famous University. + +"On the sixth of March," they said, "we will confer this honour on him, +give a grand fete, and have a torch-light procession." + +The Crown Prince, who was thirteen now, thought this very fine, and for +a few days walked about with dignity, but then he grew tired of such +stiffness and joined Prince William and his friend Rudolph von +Auerswald, Carl von Stork, and little Prince Carl, in their battles +against the mice and rats in the old castle. + +On February the first all the bells of this old city of the King rang +out most joyfully. + +"We have a new little sister," the Royal children told Rudolph and Carl. + +"Her name," said the King, "shall be Louisa, for her mother." + +"It is because I love thee so dearly," he said to the Queen, "that I +have named our youngest little daughter, Louisa." + +Tears started to the Queen's eyes. + +"May she, dear Fritz, indeed grow up to be thy Louisa." + +"I am weary," the King said, "of lords and ladies. It is the people of +Prussia who have been my friends and helped me. Therefore, it is they +who shall be sponsors at the baptism of my daughter." + +So there came men to represent every class of the Prussian people, and +they sat down to as fine a feast as the King's pocketbook would permit +him to give them. + +The Queen, who was not well, lay on a sofa and received all the +godfathers of the tiny Louisa, and the baptism took place there, and not +in the church, because of the cold weather. + +The Countess von Voss brought the baby to the Princess William and gave +it its name of Louisa Augusta Wilhelmina Amelia for its mother. + +The court ladies all wore round skirts and tunics, and the Queen gave +the old Countess a handsome set of ornaments, but they all wept bitterly +for the little girl whose blue eyes had opened on so cold and cruel a +world as Napoleon and winter had made East Prussia. + +When all sat at the banquet one of the godfathers arose and addressed +the tiny Louisa, whose blue eyes stared at him in wonder. + +"Louisa Wilhelmina," he said, "god-child of the people, thou art a +gentle mediator between the King and us. Mayst thou live to stand a +full-grown blooming virgin amongst thy brothers and sisters; may then +thy royal house be flourishing in renewed glory. Meanwhile, dark hours +will pass like storm-birds over thy head--thou wilt hear the rushing of +their wings, but it will not frighten thee. Thou, sweet one, wilt smile, +feeling nothing but thy childish happiness and the charm of life. Loving +arms will hold thee safely, high above the precipice on the edge of +which we stand. May the future smile on us through thee. In thee we see +thy father's love to us, and by thy bright eyes may the people speak +comfort to the King, saying, 'We are thine, thou art our lord and +master: be strong and true to thyself. Trust not in thy councillors and +thy servants, for they are not all full of courage, nor all of one mind. +What they have done and what they have left undone has brought us near +to ruin. Trust thine own judgment, thine own heart, and we will trust in +thee. We are all thine, master, be strong and true to thyself.'" + +But the people of Koenigsberg had other things to think of than tiny +Louisa. + +All the patriots of Germany came to and fro, among them Schleiermacher, +who had refused to remain in Halle when Napoleon took the city from +Frederick William. He believed that Austria and England would join in +throwing off Napoleon. + +"Now," he said, "while Napoleon is in Spain, let us do what we can." + +For, all over Germany, the French army were still masters, driving +people from their homes, burning villages, doing all that Napoleon +permitted. + +"Now," cried Schleiermacher. + +"Now," cried Ludwig Brandt. + +"Now," cried all the students of the University. + +So in that summer in Koenigsberg was founded a secret society called the +"Tugendbund," or "League of Virtue," whose purpose was to spread +patriotism throughout Germany. Members sprang up everywhere, agents went +to and fro, and the watchword was "Secresy." + +Nevertheless, Napoleon heard of it. + +"Dismiss Stein," he ordered the King, "he is the founder. He shall not +remain as Prussian Minister." + +Then he put a price on this great man's head, and he was forced to flee +for his life to Prague in Bohemia. He had done his best for his country +and, therefore, Napoleon wished to be rid of him. But it was untrue that +he founded the "Tugendbund." + +"I am heartily tired of life," he wrote, "and wish it would soon come to +an end. To enjoy rest and independence it would be best to settle in +America, in Kentucky, or Tennessee; there one would find a splendid +climate and soil, glorious views, and rest and security for a +century--not to mention a multitude of Germans--the capital of Kentucky +is called Frankfort." + +But the Prussians refused to be conquered. + +"We will outwit Napoleon, who has declared that the Prussian army can +consist only of forty-two thousand soldiers," they cried, and they +drilled soldiers, sending set after set home, always keeping the army at +forty-two thousand, but training every man and boy of Prussia. + +Otto von Stork refused to return home, but while he drilled away with +the rest he sent letters telling of the dreadful times of the Berliners, +how they had no food, how even the once rich lived like beggars, how +there was no wax for candles, and how Napoleon had robbed the city of +all he could lay his hands upon. + +So another unhappy year for Prussia passed away and brought in 1809. + +The Queen's pink cheeks had faded to white, her eyes showed that their +blue had been washed with tears, and about her mouth were lines of +sorrow. + +"If posterity," she wrote, "will not place my name amongst those of +illustrious women, yet those who are acquainted with the troubles of +these times will know what I have gone through and will say, 'She +suffered much and endured with patience,' and I only wish they may be +able to add: 'She gave being to children worthy of better times and who +by their continual struggles have succeeded in attaining them.'" + +Sometimes she talked this way to the Crown Prince and little William, +and their eyes would glow and they would promise that they would do +great things for Prussia. + +When she went through Koenigsberg streets, in the warm days when the +flowers were in bloom, it was the joy of all the little children to +offer her nosegays. Never did she decline one, and she always had a +smile for everybody. + +One day came news of Otto which startled his father and sent his mother +weeping to bed. Major Shill, a brave Prussian soldier, refused to stop +fighting against Napoleon, and became a great hero of Prussia, though on +the 30th of December, 1808, while the King and Queen were in St. +Petersburg on a visit to the Czar Alexander, the Emperor had withdrawn +his soldiers from Prussia, and the Brandenburg Hussars and a cavalry +regiment under this Major Shill entered Berlin. + +When Napoleon began again to fight the Austrians Major Shill departed +from Berlin against the French without a declaration of war, angering +the King, but attracting a thousand to his banner. + +Among them was Otto von Stork. + +"Do not grieve, my dear parents," he wrote; "never shall I lay down my +arms until Napoleon is defeated." + +But what were a thousand men? + +The end came quickly. + +Ludwig brought the news to the Professor. + +"Shill is killed," he said; "shot while fighting in the streets of +Stralsund. Twelve of his officers have been taken and shot by the +French, the others sent to the galleys." + +"Otto! Otto!" cried poor Madame von Stork; "Richard, Ludwig, where is my +Otto?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE ENTRANCE INTO BERLIN + + +The years marched on to another Christmas. + +Much had happened. + +Napoleon was still triumphant, for, conquering the Austrians, he had +entered Vienna as victor. + +"All is lost," Queen Louisa wrote, "if not forever, at least for the +present." + +As for Otto von Stork, he was not killed, but continued fighting where +he could find soldiers. + +"All Europe must rise," he wrote his father; "the brave Andreas Hofer is +rousing the Tyrolese, and, oh, dear father, have you heard of the brave +deed of Haydn in Vienna?" + +"Haydn?" interrupted Marianne, and then with a smile she began singing +"With Verdure Clad," from the musician's "Creation." Of course they all +had heard of Haydn. Certainly the old man was a hero. + +When he heard the cannon and knew that Napoleon was entering his Vienna, +he went to a window and opened the sash. + +"Sing!" he cried to the people in the streets, "sing, good people." + +And then the old white-haired musician lifted his voice and sang his own +hymn. + +"God save our Emperor Franz!" rang through the streets, all the people +joining. And when Napoleon entered they were singing at the tops of +their voices. But the excitement was too much for Haydn. He died two +days later. + +Then Otto was off to fight in the Tyrol. + +"He will break my heart," wept his mother, but the Herr Lieutenant's +eyes flashed. + +"If my arm----" he began, but his mother cried out so that he never +finished his sentence. + +Napoleon, in these days of gloom, divorced his wife, married the +Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria, and a son was born to them, the +little King of Rome, they called him. + +The Czar had been again with Napoleon and there had been a famous +meeting at Erfurt, and they had divided the world between them, and then +Alexander had paid his friends a visit at Memel and had been shocked at +the appearance of the Queen. + +"Come," he said, "to St. Petersburg and see the wonders of my capital. +It will do the Queen good." + +And so they went on a splendid journey and met all the Royal family of +Russia and received honour and rich presents. + +But Queen Louisa cared no more for such things as fine clothes, crowns, +banquets and jewels. + +To her friend, Frau von Berg, she wrote: + +"I am come back from St. Petersburg as I went. Nothing dazzles me now. +Yes, I feel it more and more, my kingdom is not of this world. I have +danced, dear friend," she said, "I have been agreeable to the whole +world, but God Almighty have mercy upon me." So much did she feel the +sorrows of her poor kingdom. + +But now the French had left Berlin entirely, and, at Christmas time, the +year 1809, three years after Jena, the King and Queen were returning to +their capital. + +Marianne and her grandmother were standing on Unter den Linden, Ludwig +and Pauline, who was now his wife, not far off. Again there were flags +and garlands, and again the people everywhere. + +"The Berliners have sent our Queen a new carriage lined with her +favourite violet," and Marianne smiled in gladness. + +"Ach, ja," said her grandmother, who now spoke German. "We can do such +things now, but formerly that monster Napoleon would not even permit us +to celebrate her birthday." + +And she told Marianne of the actor, Iffland, who had had courage on +March tenth, her Majesty's birthday, to wear a bouquet of flowers in his +theatre. + +Marianne listened with great interest. She was altogether a changed +girl, and tried always to think of other people. + +"Thanks to our good Queen," her mother always was saying, "God be +praised that Marianne tries now to imitate her, for she is the model for +all German maidens." + +At exactly the same hour that, fifteen years before, as a bride, Louisa +of Mecklenburg had entered Berlin, the Queen appeared in her +violet-lined carriage. + +The Berliners cheered, but at the same moment their eyes filled. + +It was their Queen and as beautiful as ever, some declared even +lovelier, but she seemed like a rose whose stem is no longer erect. Her +cheeks were pale, her eyes were washed with weeping, and about her +mouth, trying so hard to smile as of old, they saw lines of sorrow. + +"How we hate him! How we hate Napoleon!" and the people clenched their +fists when they saw her. + +With her were her niece, Frederika, the Princess Charlotte, now tall and +beautiful, the old Countess, and jolly Carl. + +The young princes were on horseback, the King was with his generals. + +"Long life to our good King! Long live Frederick William!" shouted the +Berliners, but when they saw the Queen and remembered how she had gone +for their sake to Napoleon, her name rang from one side of Berlin to the +other. + +At the palace an old man lifted her from her carriage, folded her in his +arms and led her away from the people. + +"Her father, the old Duke!" cried the Berliners, and they were not +ashamed to weep openly. + +In a few moments Queen Louisa appeared on a balcony. + +The people went frantic with joy, and her cheeks grew pink, and she +tried to smile, and then, the tears flowing from her eyes, prevented +her. + +"It is heartrending," said a stranger to Madame von Bergman, who, +herself, was making use of an embroidered handkerchief. "When, Madame, I +see that poor lady, our Queen, and think of all that she has suffered, +and of our kingdom divided in two, and still ruled by Napoleon, I +cannot restrain my speech." + +"Never mind, Herr Arndt," said Madame von Bergman, "we all feel as you +do." + +The stranger started in alarm. + +"You recognise me? I thought," he said, "that sorrow had so changed me +that no one could know my features." + +"You are safe with me," said the good lady, who knew there was a price +on the head of this patriotic poet. "I am the mother-in-law of Herr +Professor Richard von Stork of the Tugendbund." She lowered her voice as +she said this last word. + +Arndt grasped her hand and then, walking away with her, told how he had +been driven from land to land and torn from his son for the sake of the +little one's safety. + +"When I thrust the child from me," he said, "I could almost have cursed +the French and the Corsican who rules them." + +For a moment he was silent. + +Then he gazed about gay Unter den Linden. + +"But, Madame," his face looked like that of a prophet, "I see to-day in +this splendour, in these loud and continued cheers for the King, a hope +that all hearts may be united in one common German spirit. I see more +eyes wet with sorrow than bright with joy, and who knows what will come +of it for our dear Fatherland?" + +Marianne's eyes sparkled. + +Her one longing was to serve her country. But what could a girl do? + +Her face fell. + +At the corner of Friedrichstrasse and Unter den Linden she came face to +face with Bettina marching homeward with the girls of the "Luisenstift." + +"Come home with us, pray, my child," said old Madame von Bergman very +kindly. + +Permission was given and Bettina joined them. She was now a big girl, +and thirteen. + +"Gracious Fraeulein," she said to Marianne, "how happy I am." Then she +laughed her gay little gurgle. "I think, Gracious Fraeulein, Frederick +Barbarossa is waking. He is stretching himself, I think. He will rise +soon and drive away Napoleon." Arndt looked at her in surprise and then +nodded. + +In the evening there was a grand illumination. + +The Berliners had pressed the King to appear in the theatre. + +"Yes, yes," he said, "but first we will go to church and thank Almighty +God for his mercy." + +To celebrate his return he freed many prisoners, gave money to the poor, +and remembered to thank all who had been loyal. + +On their part, the Berliners had the sculptor, Schadow, make a statue of +the Queen and place it on an island in the Tiergarten. + +The King also founded an Order of Merit, and with grand ceremony +bestowed it upon many, among them the actor, Iffland, and the old +clergyman who had answered Napoleon. + +But, in spite of all this, Prussia had no money. + +"But our King does all he can," said Ludwig to Madame von Bergman one +evening when he and Pauline came to supper. + +"Yes," put in Franz, who was then in Berlin, "he has ordered the Royal +table to be laid with four dishes only at dinner, and at supper with +two." + +"And I heard," said Pauline, looking up from her embroidery, "that when +a servant asked how much champagne to order, the King said none should +be purchased until all his subjects could drink beer again." + +Madame von Bergman shook her head sadly. + +"No hope of that. Look at this coffee," and she poured out a cupful from +the pot on the tray the maid had brought in for the visitors. + +"Oak bark, carrots, and beans burned together, that is our coffee, +thanks to Napoleon." + +While they were talking, in came a visitor. + +"Napoleon has shot Andreas Hofer," he announced, "at Mantua!" + +The two men started from their seats. + +"Impossible!" they cried out, but alas, next day they learned the truth +of it. This brave innkeeper of Innsbruck, who had fought so bravely to +free his people, had been betrayed by a friend to Napoleon and shot in +Mantua, over the mountains. + +The Queen wept tears of sorrow when she heard of this sad tragedy. + +"What a man," she had written, "is this Andreas Hofer, the leader of the +Tyrolese. A peasant has become a captain, and what a captain! His +weapon, prayer, and his ally, God. Oh, that the time of the Maid of +Orleans might return that the enemy might be driven from the land!" + +It was about this time that Napoleon permitted Minister Hardenburg to +return to his duties. At once affairs began to prosper. + +"And the Queen," Marianne wrote to her mother, "is to take a journey. +She is to go with the King and her children to all the places where she +had lived as Crown Princess, to Paretz, to Oranienburg, and Peacock +Island." + +At Paretz the Queen walked up and down the avenues with her husband. +Suddenly she turned to him very solemnly and said: + +"Fritz, you have made me very happy, you and our children." + +But Napoleon had no mind to add to her happiness. + +"Pay your war debt!" he kept crying. + +"We have no money," said the poor Prussians. + +"Then I rule you until you do," was Napoleon's unchanging answer. + +"And the wretch," said Madame von Stork, "has ordered our King to assist +a huge Russian force through Prussia." + +"And I heard," said Pauline, "that when the King heard the news he bowed +his head and said that of all men he was most unlucky." + +"But our Queen," put in Marianne, who was working at tent stitch, "is to +have a great pleasure." + +The two ladies gazed at her in curiosity. + +"She is going to visit her father," answered Marianne. "The Countess +told me. She has not been home for many years, and when she told the +King of her great longing, he consented. She is to leave to-morrow." + +Bettina, who was on her way to the "Stork's Nest," saw her depart. +Catching sight of the girl, the Queen smiled a farewell. For some reason +it made Bettina solemn. + +"It was as if she were saying good-bye forever," she told Marianne +later. Marianne laughed merrily. + +"She will be back in a few days. What nonsense!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +"MY QUEEN, MY POOR QUEEN!" + + +On the night of July 18 a travelling carriage dashed towards +Fuerstenburg, the first town within the Duke of Mecklenburg's dominions, +the driver urging its horses to their utmost. + +Within sat the King, pale and thin from a severe attack of malaria. With +him were the Crown Prince and Prince William, the faces of the boys wet +with tears, their eyes struggling with weariness. + +On dashed the horses. + +"Faster! Faster!" now and then ordered the King, clenching his hands. + +Presently a rosy light heralded the day, the clarion of the cocks +announced the morning, the stars faded from the brightening sky, and the +carriage dashed through Fuerstenburg. + +Two hours more. The King looked at his watch and cried: + +"Faster! Faster!" + +The people of the town, startled by the wheels, wondered who was passing +in such haste. Later came a second carriage, a girl's white, tearful +face gazing from one window, a round, rosy-cheeked boy against her +shoulder. + +It was the King, the Crown Prince and Prince William, and Princess +Charlotte and Prince Carl hastening to Queen Louisa. + +After she had reached Mecklenburg the King had joined her. + +Never had he seen her look happier. + +Like a girl, she told him of how she had been met at Fuerstenburg by her +sister, Frederika, her father and her brothers. Her grandmother, being +old, welcomed her at the door of the Duke's palace, and for the first +time in many years she found herself alone with her own people. + +When the King came they were given a public reception. + +"But only one, let it be, dear father," begged Queen Louisa. "I feel +that this happiness cannot last. Something oppresses me, so please let +us make the most of seeing each other in quiet." + +When she dressed herself for this one reception, her ladies noticed that +she had only pearls for jewels. + +"I have sold the rest," she said with a smile, "but, never mind, pearls +are suitable for me, for they signify tears, and I have shed many. +Moreover," and she took out a miniature worn about her neck, "I have my +best treasure." + +It was a picture of the King, and the Queen gazed at it lovingly. + +"After all these years, my good Fritz loves me quite the same," she +said, and looked as happy as a girl. + +"Come, Fritz," she cried to her husband, and led him about, showing him +this and that and telling stories of her childhood. Never had she seemed +so happy. + +One morning they were to go to see a chapel the King had expressed an +interest in. + +"I will stay with George," said the Queen, who complained of not feeling +well, and so they left her with her brother. + +When her father returned he found on his writing desk a note written in +French, by his daughter, the Queen. + + "My dear father," he read, "I am very happy to-day as your + daughter and as the wife of the best of husbands. + + "LOUISA. + + "New Strelitz, July 28, 1810." + +At once he showed it, to the King, and the two men were silent with +happiness. But little did they think that never again was the woman who +so loved them to touch paper or pen. + +She had not been well, but nothing had been thought of it. And now, in +the early summer morning, the King was hastening to her. + +"Faster!" he called. "Faster!" + +She had told him good-bye with a smile and the hope of soon seeing him, +and he had returned to Berlin. + +There had come despatch after despatch. + +"The Queen is ill. She grows worse. Come! Come!" + +But this poor, always unfortunate King was himself severely ill with a +sudden attack of malaria. For days he could not leave his bed, and it +was not until the twenty-eighth that he set off for New Strelitz. And +then the Queen was so ill there was no delaying. + +It was between four and five in the morning when the carriage reached +the castle. + +The Queen, who lay awake in her room, heard them come. At midnight she +had grown worse, at two she had called out to her sister, who at once +went to her bed. + +"Dear Frederika," she asked in a voice like a whisper, "what will my +husband and children do if I die?" + +But now the King had come. + +In the hall he met the physicians. They explained that an abscess had +formed and burst in one lung. The heart was involved and the Queen was +sinking. + +"Majesty," they said, "there is no hope." + +The Queen's old grandmother, her withered cheeks wet with tears, took +the King's hand in both of hers. + +"While there is life there is hope," she said, her old voice struggling +to comfort him. + +Unlucky Frederick William shook his head. + +"If she were not mine," he said, "she might recover." + +The old Duke joined him. In the night they had called him from his +sleep. + +The Princess Frederika was at the door. + +"Is my daughter in danger?" he asked. + +She pressed his hand. + +"Lord," said the poor old father, "Thy ways are not our ways." + +With trembling hands he now led the King to the room. + +Propped up on pillows, the bed curtains looped back to give her air, lay +poor Queen Louisa. + +On one side was the old Countess von Voss, Frau von Berg held one hand, +and Princess Frederika the other. + +The poor "Rose of the King," whose stem had been so roughly handled, had +drooped forever. + +When the physicians had entreated her to move that she might be more +comfortable, it was impossible for her strength to accomplish it. + +"I am a Queen," she said sadly, "and I have no power to move my arm." + +But when she saw the King, joy made her like the old Louisa. + +The King embraced her as if he would never again see her. + +"Am I then so ill?" she asked. + +The King went from the room. + +The poor Queen gazed from one face to the other, and the strength again +left her. + +"The King seems as if he wished to take leave of me," she gasped. "Tell +him not to do so, or I shall die directly." + +At once he returned and sat on her bed and the minutes wore away, the +arms of the old Countess supporting her dear Queen Louisa. + +"Where are my children, Fritz?" + +The Crown Prince and William came, hand in hand, to her bed. + +"My Fritz! My William!" she said, and gave them each a smile. Then she +struggled to ask about Charlotte, who had sent her a letter about her +birthday full of tears that her mother was absent. + +The effort brought on such pain that they sent the boys away. + +They went from the castle and out into the garden where the air was +fresh and cool and the dew lay on the roses. + +In the room the doctors were begging the Queen to stretch her arms that +she might lie higher. + +"I cannot," said the poor Queen. "Only death will help me." + +Holding her hand, the King sat on the bed, the old Countess knelt, and +Frau von Berg supported her head. + +All through her illness she had repeated over and over the texts which +she loved and found comfort in, but now her lips could only flutter as +the breath came slower and slower. + +The poor King, with bowed head, was thinking of Jena and all his Queen +had suffered. + +Suddenly the Queen drew her head against the breast of Frau von Berg. +Her blue eyes opened and gazed towards heaven. + +"I am dying," she said quite distinctly, "Lord Jesus, make it short." + +In a few minutes the Queen of Prussia had passed beyond the power of +Napoleon to harm. + +"The ways of the Lord," wrote the old Countess, "are implacable and +holy, but they are dreadful to travel. The King, the children, the city +have lost all in the world. I speak not for myself, but my sorrow is +great. My Queen! Oh, my poor Queen!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +AFTERWARDS + + +When his first grief was stilled, the King went to Fritz and Willy in +the garden. Plucking a branch on which grew three roses, he returned +with the little princes to the Queen. The three kissed her, and the King +laid the roses in her hand as the second carriage dashed up to the +palace. + +Charlotte and Carl had come too late. Their mother had been dead a half +hour. The old Countess was all they had now, and she hushed her sobs to +comfort the King and her Queen's poor children, but, poor old lady, her +heart was broken at eighty and she lived only a few years more. + +The doctors who examined the body of Queen Louisa after death declared +that a polypus, formed by grief and worry, had grown on her heart and +killed her, but the people of Prussia would have none of this. + +"A polypus, nein," they said. "It is Napoleon who has done this. We will +rise. We will drive the tyrant from our land, for he has killed the best +friend of Prussia." + +"The ravens, Bettina," said the Herr Lieutenant, "will fly now from +Kyffhaeuser. Wait, old Barbarossa will wake now and save us." + +But the peasants had another hero. + +"Shill is not dead!" they cried. "The brave Shill is not dead. He, too, +loved our Queen. He is in hiding and will lead us against Napoleon." + +"It is as if we had lost a member of our own family," wept Madame von +Stork, as she tried to comfort poor Marianne. + +When they brought the Queen's body to Berlin and it lay in state, +Bettina went, with the girls of the "Luisenstift" to look for the last +time on the face of the Queen who had cared for her. The Berliners who +gazed also, thought their own thoughts, made up their minds, and went +home to await the funeral, which took place on the thirtieth, the Royal +children with their father following the coffin, a nurse bearing in her +arms the new baby, little Albrecht. + +"After Jena," said the Berliners, "we thought we had lost all, but then +we had our Queen." + +Not even the Queen's death, however, moved Napoleon, who, having Prussia +under his thumb, meant to keep her there. Realising this, many patriotic +Germans, refusing to accept French rule, departed to St. Petersburg. +Among them was Baron von Stein, for the Czar, who was beginning to tire +of his friend Napoleon, invited him to be his counsellor. After his +departure Professor von Stork received a letter from Otto. + +"Napoleon rules Prussia," he wrote. "If I return home I must fight as he +orders, for we fear a war with Russia. In St. Petersburg Baron von Stein +is forming a German legion of deserters from Prussia. I shall join it. +Never will I fight under the banners of France. Arndt is in St. +Petersburg, also, and will be Stein's secretary. Between them and with +Hardenburg as Minister, Prussia may yet be saved. Until then, Auf +wiedersehen." + +On the very day that this letter arrived, Berlin was startled by the +news that Napoleon with his soldiers was to march against Alexander. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +THE CHECK + + +East Prussia again was frozen. The snow lay deep on the ground and the +ice rattled on the tree limbs as it had done in that year when Bettina +and Hans met the Queen on her flight to Memel. Never, the East Prussians +declared, had they known a winter so terrible. In the towns the women, +in their wadded cloaks, went still and sad, and the men, in the +high-runner sleighs with the breath frozen on their beards, talked in +mournful sentences, for they knew that the frozen Vistula held fast +beneath its icy crust a secret which, when spring should reveal it, +would turn them sick with horror and make fiercer than ever their hatred +of Napoleon. + +Not that they did not hate him enough already. The Tugendbund had +carried the news of the poor Queen's suffering into every hamlet of +Prussia. Napoleon had killed her, the people cried out, and in secret +they were making ready to fight him. Never, they believed, had a country +been more cruelly treated. Villages had been destroyed, towns burned, +innocent men shot or mistreated. In the free city of Hamburg hundreds of +sick had been driven by Davoust from the hospitals, orphans expelled +from their asylums. Twenty thousand Hamburgers, ordered from the city, +shivering in the icy coldness, watched the French burn their country +houses, the flames blazing up against a winter sky and lighting a +blackened and desolate country. Near Dresden women were ordered out from +their homes and children, and with wheelbarrows, were compelled to bring +in the dead and the dying, while Napoleon enjoyed himself in the +theatre. + +The check, however, had come in that icy winter of 1812-13. + +Along the road from Russia, limping on frozen feet bound with straw, or +marking with blood the snow, came French and Prussian soldiers, dropping +here, dying there, sinking on land or into the Vistula. Five hundred +thousand French and the Germans forced to assist Napoleon in this war +against Russia, had marched with flying banners against Moscow. Instead +of Russians, flames met them, and now twenty thousand, for the others +had perished in the snow, or were frozen in the Vistula, were limping +back to Prussia. The horses had fallen like leaves before the icy blasts +of the Baltic, and their bodies marked the line of Napoleon's retreat +from Moscow. On they struggled, swords gone, their feet like clods, +their glory vanished. Half starved, there was nothing for them to eat, +for in Napoleon's own war against Prussia they had burned her +farmhouses, destroyed her crops and killed her farmers. They had sown +destruction and now were reaping famine. + +"But God be praised," cried Otto von Stork, sitting at the campfire of +the German legion, "Napoleon is beaten." + +"Ja wohl," cried his companions, flushed with their pursuit of the +flying. Then Otto lifted his voice and started a hymn Arndt had written +for German soldiers: + + "What is the German's Fatherland? + Oh name at length this mighty land, + As wide as sounds the German tongue, + And German hymns to God are sung, + That is the land; + That, German, name thy Fatherland! + To us this glorious land is given; + Oh Lord of Hosts look down from Heaven, + And grant us Germans loyalty + To love our country faithfully; + To love our land, + Our undivided Fatherland!" + +And, as they sang, Otto remembered Friedland and his brother, Wolfgang. +He remembered Queen Louisa and how she had often smiled at him in Memel, +he remembered his beloved hero, Shill, and brave Andreas Hofer. Suddenly +he interrupted his song with a laugh. + +"Bettina was right," he thought. "Poor little maiden! Old Barbarossa has +waked up and his sword is the spirit of the German people." + +And when war was over, one day he appeared in Koenigsberg, a great, +handsome soldier. + +"Ach Himmel!" said his mother, "but I am glad to see my boy again." But +Otto had talk only for the future of Germany. + +His father nodded when he declared that good fortune would come again to +Prussia. And then he told how, all over Prussia, and in the smaller +states, the people were refusing to speak French, wear French clothes, +or be anything but good Germans. + +"God be praised!" he ended piously. + +"Where is Bettina, mother?" asked Otto quite suddenly. + +When he heard of the "Luisenstift" his face fell, for he had intended +teasing her about Frederick Barbarossa. + +"And Hans?" + +"Not a word has ever been heard of him," answered his father sadly. + +"Shot, perhaps," said Otto. "Poor old man!" and he offered his arm to +his mother. Nothing pleased her more than to walk out with her fine +soldier boy. She forgot all the trouble he had caused her and remembered +only that he had returned a hero. + +Carl followed him everywhere, and informed the family that he, too, +would be a soldier. + +"No, no!" cried his mother, shrinking. + +But the professor reproved her. + +"All my sons," he said most solemnly, "I give freely to the Fatherland." + +But Madame von Stork, remembering her Wolfgang, set hard her lips. + +"If there comes a war against Napoleon, I shall go as a nurse. I am old +enough now, am I not, dear father?" and Marianne slipped her arm around +his neck. + +The professor nodded. + +"I agree willingly, dear daughter," and he pressed her hand. + +Goethe was no longer Marianne's hero. + +"He sat in his garden in quiet," she said, "when the cannon roared at +Jena, and never in all our trouble has he raised his voice for Germany. +He is the greatest poet, yes, but not a hero. He saw Napoleon, he +admired him, and says he has sympathy with him because of his great +dream of uniting Europe. I cannot forgive it." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +THE PEOPLE'S WAR + + +Bettina's head was shaven like a boy's, and she held out to Marianne her +golden hair, long, heavy and in thick waves. + +As for Marianne, herself, she was laying on a table in the room in which +the two stood, all her books, her beloved Goethe, Schiller, all of them, +her laces and the jewels which had been given her since her childhood. + +"How nice it is, dear Bettina," she said, "to have you again with us, +now that after all these dreadful years, we are again in Berlin." + +Bettina's face glowed. + +"Yes, dear Mademoiselle----" + +Marianne lifted her hand. + +"No French, Bettina, German." + +"Ja, ja, dear Fraeulein Marianne, please excuse me. I was so happy when I +heard that the Herr Professor was to come to the new University here in +Berlin and that the Gracious Frau Mother would need me again." + +Marianne smiled, and then, lifting her hand to stop conversation, for +she heard someone, she called out: + +"Ilse, Elsa, here, come, bring your offerings here!" + +In came the twins, tall like Bettina, and quite young ladies, but as +much alike as ever. + +In their hands were trinkets, books, needlework and laces. + +"Here," they said, and placed them on the table. Then catching sight of +Bettina, they cried: "Your hair, oh, Bettina! Your lovely, lovely hair!" + +"It was all I had," said Bettina blushing. "They tell me it will sell +and for much money." + +Carl came out next, a tall young fellow now with a faint moustache to +foretell his manhood. + +"This is all I have, dear sister," and he added to the pile a little +purse, some books, and a pair of pistols, once his grandfather's. + +Madame von Stork followed, her hair gray now, her face lined with +sorrow. In her arms was a pile of fine embroideries, linen and +lace-trimmed table covers. In one hand was a box of jewels, in the other +the amethyst necklace her sister Erna had worn to the marriage of +Princess Frederika. + +Behind her came the Herr Professor, Franz and Otto, bearing books, old +weapons and each a purse of gold. + +"Now, the maids," cried Marianne. "Here, Gretchen, oh, that is fine!" +for the rosy-cheeked girl laid on the pile her peasant necklace of old +coins. + +Elise, the other, gave the gold pins with which she fastened her +headdress. + +"And the Gracious Frau," they said, glancing at Madame von Stork, "can +give half our wages." + +While they talked, in came Ludwig and Pauline. With them was a tiny +child, bearing in her dimpled, chubby hands an earthen pot or bank in +which people save money. Ludwig led her to the table. + +"For the dear Fatherland," she lisped, and she laid her little offering +with the rest. + +Ludwig and Pauline added theirs, the one, gold, the other, linen, silver +and ornaments. + +For a moment there was silence, then the Herr Professor stepped to the +table. His eye glanced from Bettina's shaven head to the bank of the +tiny Ernchen. Then he held his hands above the gifts. + +"Dear Father in Heaven," he said, "bless the offerings of great and +small, rich and poor, to the use of the dear Fatherland, and let truth +and rightousness prosper." + +"Amen," said all the "Stork's Nest." + +Then he drew forward Carl, Otto and Franz. + +"Our sons, also," he said, and looked at his wife. + +"Ja, ja, Richard," she said, the tears falling. "I, too, am willing +now." + +Marianne held out her hand to Bettina and drew her to the table. + +"We go as nurses, father. You have promised." + +It was the "People's War," the great German rising against Napoleon. All +over the land, men, women, and children were giving their all. Russia +and Austria joined with them and the great battle was fought at Leipsic +in Saxony. The Crown Prince fought with his father, and when the victors +marched into the city Carl, Franz and Otto were with them. + +The battle itself lasted three days. On the last of these the Emperor +Francis, the Czar, and Frederick William were standing on a hill +watching the battle. + +Up dashed an officer. Springing from his horse, he approached the three +rulers. + +"We have conquered!" he cried. "The enemy flies!" + +The three monarchs alighted with solemn joy from their horses, knelt on +the field and thanked God for the victory. + +The entrance into Leipsic was magnificent. The allied armies formed in a +great square about the market place, their sovereigns in the centre. The +Prussians in their blue coats, red and white striped waistcoats, white +trousers, high boots and bearskin caps, held their eagle aloft before +the old Rathaus. The Russians, in blue coats and red collars, their +trousers strapped over their boots, bore their flags of white and +yellow, while the Austrians, in white and red, completed the huge square +of soldiers. + +Bells were rung, flags were waved, and, when the war was declared ended, +Napoleon was banished to the Island of Elba in the Mediterranean Sea. + +"Now we are rid of the monster," said Madame von Stork. "We can all be +happy. Thank the good God, I again have my children." + +But the world was not yet through with the foe of Queen Louisa. + +"Napoleon has escaped! Marshall Ney has joined him! Our foe is loose +again!" was the cry which, not many months later, rang through Europe. + +It was all to be done over again. But this time England joined Prussia. +Off marched Franz, Otto and Carl, and Marianne and Bettina again became +nurses. + +"Ach Himmel!" wept Madame von Stork, "will the world never be rid of +this monster?" + +Ludwig nodded. + +"This is the last," he said. "We now have England to help us." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +THE FOE CONQUERED + + +On the eleventh day of June, in the year 1815, Prince William received +his first communion, all the Royal family being present. The next day, +he and his father, the King, departed to join the army. + +At Merseburg they were stopped by a courier. A great battle had been +fought near Brussels, the English under the Duke of Wellington, the +Prussians under General Bluecher, the brave commander who had wept when +he had given up the keys of Luebeck. + +"Napoleon is conquered!" announced the courier as he handed the +despatches to the King. + +The English call the battle "Waterloo," the Prussians, "La Belle +Alliance." + +Old Bluecher had proved his words by fighting. The English had fought +steadily, Bluecher having promised to come if he heard the firing. The +French, who had defeated him a few days before, were in a position to +render this well-nigh impossible. But when the cannon sounded, the brave +old Prussian thought only of his promise. + +"Forward, children, forward!" he cried to his soldiers. + +"We cannot, Father Bluecher," they answered. "It is impossible." + +"Forward, children, forward!" the old man repeated. "We must. I have +promised my brother, Wellington. I have promised, do you hear? It shall +not be said that I broke my word. Forward, children, forward!" + +And so they came to Waterloo and the Allies conquered Napoleon. + +"The most splendid battle has been fought. The most glorious victory +won," wrote old Bluecher. "I think the Napoleon story is ended." + +In triumph, the Allies entered Paris, and Napoleon, throwing himself on +the protection of the English, was banished to the Island of St. Helena. + +"Alas," wrote a great Frenchman, "had Napoleon made a friend of Queen +Louisa at Tilsit this might never have happened, for then would +Frederick William have refused to join the Allies." + +Napoleon had valued Magdeburg above a hundred Queens, but one Queen had +conquered him, and Europe was free from the man who had warred with it +for twenty years. + +"But," the Queen of Prussia once wrote, "we may learn much from +Napoleon; what he has done will not be lost upon us. It would be +blasphemous to say that God has been with him, but he seems to be an +instrument in the hands of the Almighty to do away with old things that +have lost their vitality, to cut off, as it were, the dead wood which is +still externally one with the tree to which it owes its existence. That +which is dead is utterly useless--that which is dying does but draw the +sap from the trunk and give nothing in return." + +"I did, indeed, enjoy the sight of Napoleon," the mother of Goethe told +Marianne's Bettina Brentano. "He it is who has enwrapped the whole world +in an enchanted dream, and for this mankind should be grateful, for if +they did not dream they would have got nothing by it, and have slept +like clods as they hitherto have done." + +After Napoleon had stirred up Europe with his wars, things changed, and +the ways of the world became what we call "Modern Times," and for this +even the poor Prussians thanked him, for many things improved and +liberty came more and more to the people. They spoke their own language, +they drew closer together, and, in their war against a foe, they learned +to love their Fatherland. + + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +THURINGIA + + +While Franz, Otto and Carl were fighting, Marianne and Bettina were +nursing the wounded soldiers. + +One day Bettina was called to assist with a wounded Thuringian. + +When she saw his face she cried out: + +"Willy! Willy Schmidt from Jena!" + +The soldier's face lit up with welcome. + +"Ach Himmel!" he cried, "if it isn't Bettina Weyland!" + +But the doctor ordered no talking, and so the two could only smile at +each other. But when Waterloo was many days old, and the soldier almost +well again, there was much to talk about. + +Certainly Willy had a strange tale to tell. It was about Bettina's +grandfather. + +"Ach Himmel, child!" he said to Bettina, "he is alive and with mother +and father." And he told how, after the "Peace of Tilsit," the old man +had wandered back to Thuringia. + +"But don't think he forgot you, Bettina," said Willy very hastily. Then +he touched his head. "Poor old man," he added, "he has forgotten +everything," and he told poor, wild-eyed Bettina that old Hans was like +a child, always talking about Frederick the Great and his battles, and +remembering not a word about Jena. + +"But the queer thing," said Willy, "is that he starts at any very loud +noise and he had the mark of a wound on the back of his head. What it +means we have no idea, as he remembers nothing." + +Bettina's tears fell fast. + +"Grandfather," she said over and over, "my poor, dear, old grandfather! + +"I will go home to Jena and see him," she cried. "I will tell Fraeulein +Marianne." + +"And I will take you," announced Willy, "just as soon as I am well +enough to travel." And he gazed at Bettina as if he thought her very +pretty. + +"And little Hans and the baby?" asked Bettina. Willy laughed as loud as +his weakness would permit him. + +"Hans, ach Himmel! That's a joke, little Hans! There's no telling how +many Frenchmen he finished in one battle. The baby is eight now," he +added. + +"Hans a soldier, the baby, a big boy!" How the years had flown! Jena, +yesterday; Waterloo, to-day. + +"Yes," said the girl, "I will go back to Thuringia." + +Then a smile lit her pretty face. + +"Do you remember, Willy, how grandfather left word we would come back +when Napoleon was conquered?" + +"It is nine years," said Willy, "but you can come now, for Napoleon is +conquered." + +Bettina nodded, her face still wet with tears, while her mouth was +smiling. + +"They will all be glad to see you," continued Willy. "Mother and father, +and the Schmelzes, and your grandfather Weyland. He is just the same, +quite as if nothing had happened." + +And so Bettina went back, and old Hans called her "Annchen," thinking +her always his daughter, and when she married Willy and had children of +her own, he used to sing for them the old song of Frederick Barbarossa, +and tell them how he had seen the beautiful Princess Louisa come into +Berlin in a gold coach to be married. + +Marianne went back to the "Stork's Nest," and presently home came her +brothers. Madame von Stork's face lost its troubled look, and only the +memory of Wolfgang came to make their happy home troubled. + +"Marianne is the best daughter a mother ever had," she often told her +husband, "and I owe it to our good Queen, for books and Goethe nearly +ruined her." + +"Not Goethe," the professor always said, but his wife insisted. + +Certainly a great honour was to come to Marianne. + +On March 10, 1816, on the anniversary of the birthday of the Queen, +Marianne was summoned to Court, and conducted to a great room where were +gathered all the Royal family and many grand people, but the old +Countess, however, was there no more. She had been a mother to her dear +Queen's children until she, too, had gone her way to a less troubled +country than Prussia. After a long list of names, "Marianne Hedwig Erna +Wilhelmina Ernestine von Stork" was called. + +In her trembling hand the King placed a golden cross with the letter "L" +in black enamel on a ground of blue encircled with stars. On the back +were the dates, 1813-14. A white ribbon held it, and there was a pin to +fasten it above her heart. It was the medal of the "Order of Louisa," +instituted by the King in memory of the Queen, and given to those women +of Prussia who had so nobly soothed the wounded and the sick in the war +against Napoleon. Marianne was the happiest person in Germany. + +As for her mother, she was never weary of showing the medal and telling +her friends, "My Marianne received it." + +Marianne's friend, Bettina Brentano, wrote a book called "Correspondence +of a Child," into which she put all her wild fancies about Goethe, and +to-day German girls are fond of reading it. She married a German author, +and her granddaughter is a living writer. + +But the story is not quite ended. + +In the year 1872 crowds were again gathered on the streets of Berlin. + +Standing on Unter den Linden was an old man with his grandchildren. His +hair was snow white and his face wrinkled. + +"Ja, Gretchen," he said to a little girl, whose hand was in his, "in a +little time we shall see our new Emperor. This is a great day, Liebchen, +for Germany at last is free and united." + +"I know, dear grandfather," said one of the others, a clever looking boy +they called Richard, "I have learned all about it in the Gymnasium, of +Napoleon and Jena, and Queen Louisa and Napoleon, and of the Crown +Prince who was Frederick William IV, and all Bismarck's and von Moltke's +dreams of uniting our Germany." + +The old man smiled. + +"The Queen kissed me once," he said, "Queen Louisa, I mean, the mother +of our new Emperor." Then he laughed. + +"It's a great day for your old grandfather, children," he said. "Why, +the Emperor and I, he was little Prince William then, used to fight +battles against rats and mice in the old castle at Koenigsburg. It's a +great day. God be praised that I live to see it," said Carl von Stork to +his grandchildren. "Alas," he added, "that none of the 'Stork's Nest' +are left to rejoice with me!" + +"Simple, honourable, sensible" little William had accomplished the great +things his mother had hoped one of her children would do for mankind. +Before he had gone to fight the French Emperor, Napoleon III, at the +battle of Sedan, he had prayed at his mother's tomb that he might do +great things for Prussia. After the Germans entered Paris all the states +had elected him Emperor and Germany at last was one Fatherland. + +And now he was returning to Berlin with Bismarck and von Moltke, his +councillor and general. + +Suddenly Carl smiled. + +"Ah," he said as the Royal guests passed in their carriages, "there is +the Dowager Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. See, Richard, the +pretty old lady with the white hair. She was the Royal baby when we were +at Memel. She was named Alexandrina for the Czar, and how the old +Countess loved her! They called her 'The Little Autocrat.' I remember +Princess Louisa, who was named for the Queen and who was the baby at +Koenigsburg, died during the war. There is 'The Red Hussar,' grandson of +Queen Louisa. Ach Himmel! What a hero!" + +When the people of Berlin saw the kind, good face of "little William," +their new Kaiser, cries rent the air. "Long live the Emperor! Hoch der +Kaiser! Hoch!" There were cheers for his wife, also, the granddaughter +of the Duchess of Weimar, who so bravely answered Napoleon. + +As for old Frederick Barbarossa, there is a poet who tells us that, when +he heard all the noise the Germans were making, he sent a sleepy little +page from Kryffhaeuser to see what the ravens were up to. + +"They have flown away, Kaiser," announced the frightened little page as +he ran back to the table. + +With a great yawn the old Kaiser rose from his chair and stretched +himself. His sword in one hand, his sceptre in the other, a glittering +crown on his flaming hair, he came blinking into the sunlight. + +"Ach Himmel!" he cried, for before him were all the lords of Germany, no +longer fighting and quarrelling with each other, but smiling and singing +the lively tunes of "Germany over all," "United Germany shall it be," +and "The Watch on the Rhine." + +The old Redbeard beamed with delight. + +"One Germany!" he cried, "then God be thanked and praised! One Germany!" + +He turned to little William, standing between Bismarck and von Moltke, +the statesman and general who had made him "Kaiser." + +In his hand he laid the scepter, on his head he placed the crown. + +"These," he said, "I lay in thy hand." + +Then he breathed a long sigh of happiness. + +"God be praised," he said again. "I can now go to sleep and be happy," +and he went back into his cave to his ivory chair and his head sank to +his hands as he settled his elbows on the marble table and the old +Redbeard went again to his dreams. + +They say he still sleeps in Thuringia, but calmly and happily, because +there is one Germany, one Kaiser, and the ravens no longer trouble him. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +THE FOES AT REST + + +To-day, the two Royal Foes sleep in the two famous mausoleums of the +Continent, Queen Louisa at Charlottenburg, Napoleon in Paris. Beneath +the dome of "Les Invalides" is the sarcophagus of Bonaparte. On the +mosaic pavement the names of his battles are inscribed within a wreath +of laurel. Sixty flags that he captured adorn the tomb decorated with +reliefs and lighted by a glow which falls, most golden, about the coffin +of the conqueror. + +With him sleep his faithful Duroc and the Bertrand who brought his +message to Queen Louisa and so offended the old Countess with his bad +manners. + +The words above the entrance are Napoleon's own: + +"I desire that my ashes repose on the banks of the Seine in the midst of +the French people I loved so well." + +On each side is a figure of Atlas, one bearing a globe, the other, a +sceptre and crown. + +All is of earthly glory and victory. + +Queen Louisa sleeps in a spot where she once loved to walk with her +husband and children. A quiet avenue of pine trees leads to a grove of +black firs, cypresses and Babylonian willows, bordered with white roses, +lilies, Hortensia, the favourite flowers of the Queen, and at the end +stands the mausoleum which Frederick William erected to her memory. + +A flight of steps leads through the iron door to the interior, where, in +a violet light, sleeps the Queen, the King, and the Emperor William and +the granddaughter of the Duchess of Weimar. + +The sculptor, Rauch, to whom the Queen once was very kind, carved a +statue of her so beautiful that it is almost impossible to gaze on its +loveliness without weeping. + +At her feet is buried the heart of the Crown Prince, King Frederick +William IV of Prussia, in a case of silver. + +As long as her husband lived he brought wreaths to the tomb. Before +Charlotte went to be Empress of Russia, she wept there. The first +Kaiser, to the end of his long life, prayed there, and little +Alexandrina, who died only a year or two ago, and saw her parent's +prayer answered, never forgot the wreath for her mother's birthday. + +Above the entrance appear two Greek letters. + +"I am Alpha and Omega," they say, "the beginning and the ending, saith +the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty." + +The golden light which falls on Napoleon tells of the glory of the world +and things of victory. + +Queen Louisa's kingdom was not, as she said, of this world; but still +she lives, the "Queen of Every Heart" in the German Empire, "Her name," +writes a German author, "a watchword with the patriot." + +Napoleon was the Emperor of the French, the conqueror of Europe; Queen +Louisa, the heroine of the German Struggle for Liberty. + + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Two Royal Foes, by Eva Madden + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TWO ROYAL FOES *** + +***** This file should be named 34220.txt or 34220.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/2/2/34220/ + +Produced by Darleen Dove, D Alexander, Mary Meehan and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/34220.zip b/34220.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c468699 --- /dev/null +++ b/34220.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bab4c8c --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #34220 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/34220) |
