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 LOUISE 
 
 QUEEN OF PRUSSIA 
 
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LOUISE, 
 
 
 
 QUEEN OF PRUSSIA. 
 
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 BT 
 
 AUGUST ±LUCKHOHN. 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN 
 
 k 
 
 V 
 
 ELIZABETH H. DENIO, 
 
 TEACHER OP GERMAN IN WELLESLEY COLLEGE. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE : Jf^ 
 Prtttteii at tit Htbereilit Press. 
 
 1881. 
 
 Tr 
 

 ^V 
 
 
 Copyright, 1881, 
 By ELIZABPrm II. DENIO. 
 
 ^•'^ 
 
 o,\^ 
 
To 
 DR. C. A. F. MAHN, 
 
 PROFESSOR IN THE ACADEMY OP MODERN LANGUAGES AT BERLIN, GERMANY, 
 
 2rf)i3 Ei'ttle WSiork 
 
 IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED 
 BY 
 
 THE TRANSLATOR. 
 
LOUISE, QUEEI^ OF PEUSSIA. 
 
 The day on which, one hundred years ago, 
 Louise, afterwards Queen of Prussia, beheld the 
 light of this world, deserves to be honored by all 
 Germans as one of the great memorial days in 
 their country's history. The life and sufferings 
 of the noble Princess are joined most closely with 
 a significant and distinct part of Germany's past, 
 and the blessed consequences of her deeds endure 
 even to the present. 
 
 The mother of the illustrious Emperor William 
 early awakened and nourished in him those high 
 virtues which we hope may long prove an orna- 
 ment to the German imperial throne, and con- 
 duce to the welfare of the people. This noble 
 woman, in the days of the deepest abasement of 
 Germany, in spite of unutterable sorrow, was full 
 of confidence in God and full of faith in the bet- 
 ter future of the Fatherland. She inspired souls 
 and strengthened hearts. At last, when the hour 
 of deliverance struck, and the whole nation, in en- 
 thusiastic devotion to the great cause, went forth 
 
4 Loidse^ Queen of Prussia. 
 
 to an earnest and victorious contest, the memory 
 of her and others, m glory, served to fill the cham- 
 pions of the Fatherland with an ideal sentiment, 
 and to bequeath to their sons and grandsons an 
 inexhaustible treasure of moral power. Were not 
 all, too, who were witnesses of the events of 1870 
 and 1871, often reminded of the struggles for 
 liberty in 1813 and 1814, and of Queen Louise ? 
 In fact^ she belongs not to Prussia alone, but to 
 the entire German nation. Queen Louise was de- 
 scended, on her father's side, from the princely 
 house of Mecklenburg ; on her mother's side, from 
 the house of Hesse-Darmstadt. Her father, Louis 
 Frederick von Mecklenburg - Strelitz, was then 
 Field-Marshal in the service of Hanover. Louise 
 was born in Hanover, March 10, 1776. Her 
 mother was the Princess Frederika Caroline Lou- 
 ise von Hesse-Darmstadt, who, March 22, 1782, 
 was taken by death from her husband and ten 
 children, among whom Louise was the sixth. 
 Louise, with her three sisters, was intrusted to the 
 care of a Fraulein von Wolzogen, to whom supe- 
 rior mental gifts are attributed. She found com- 
 pensation for the mother lost so early, in her fa- 
 ther's second wife, her mother's sister. When 
 this wife died, tlie Duke returned in sorrow to 
 Darmstadt to give the half-orphaned children into 
 the care of their grandmother, the Landgravine 
 Maria Louise Albertina. 
 
Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 5 
 
 A Swiss lady, Fraulein von Gelieux, was ap- 
 pointed governess to the Princess, and as she had 
 been educated in French, she gave the lessons in 
 French instead of in the German language. Thus 
 Louise learned in her youth to speak and write 
 French with perfect facility, according to the pre- 
 vailing custom in aristocratic circles at that time, 
 while German remained neglected. This defi- 
 ciency she deplored, and sought later to supply, 
 even when Queen, by industrious study of German 
 writers. 
 
 Although the education of the Princess in her 
 youth was almost entirely conducted in French, 
 yet it had nothing in it of foreign superficiality. 
 Louise often said in praise of her governess, for 
 whom to the end of her life she preserved a touch- 
 ing attachment and gratitude, that she early di- 
 rected her attention to higher things, and brought 
 her to a knowledge of God in this life. With 
 genuine and simple piety, and deep sympathy for 
 the sorrows of others, Louise, even as a child, 
 combined an active impulse to help. Clinging to 
 the hand of her governess, one could see the little 
 Princess often searching out the cottages of pov- 
 erty, in order to aid the needy and suffering as 
 far as her small means allowed. The seriousness 
 of her temperament was profoundly moved by the 
 heavy strokes of fate which had come upon her 
 
6 Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 
 
 father's house. As must be the case in every 
 healthful and gifted nature, trouble did not ex- 
 clude a childlike, cheerful disposition, and suscep- 
 tibility to the pleasures of a rural life. 
 
 A new world opened before the eyes of the 
 youthful Louise when, under the oversight of her 
 grandmother, she made her first journey of any 
 length. 
 
 She visited an aunt, the wife of Duke Maximil- 
 ian von Zweibriicken (afterwards the first King 
 of Bavaria), in Strasburg, in order to travel from 
 Alsace down the Rhine to the Netherlands. It 
 was a pleasant sight to watch the Princess climb 
 the gigantic pile of the Minster, from the plat- 
 form of which she looked with rapture out into 
 the glorious border-land which, torn from Ger- 
 many by French trickerj^ her son and grandson, 
 at the head of the united German armies, were 
 to win back to the new Empire. No less did the 
 populous cities of the Netherlands and the mag- 
 nificent beauty of the ocean make a vivid impres- 
 sion upon her. 
 
 Quite often visits were made from Darmstadt to 
 neighboring Frankfort. Louise looked upon the 
 solemn spectacle of the coronation of the last two 
 German Emperors, who were crowned in Frank- 
 fort in 1790 and 1791. She passed, with her broth- 
 ers and sisters, happy hours in Goethe's father's 
 house, hours which were never forgotten by the 
 
Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 7 
 
 mother of the " Prince of poets," nor by Louise. 
 What " Frau Rath" told of this visit to Bettina 
 (Elizabeth von Arnim), caused the latter to sketch 
 that life-like picture of the stay of Louise v^hicli 
 is found in '' Goethe's Correspondence with a 
 Child," under the date of March 5, 1808. The 
 Princess, together with her grandmother, remained 
 longer at Hildburghausen, where her elder sister 
 Charlotte was married to the reigning Duke. The 
 beautiful days which Louise passed in charming 
 Thiiringia were never forgotten by her. Even 
 better remembered was the return-trip in the 
 spring of 1793, when the Landgravine, with Lou- 
 ise and her younger sister, took the route, by way 
 of Frankfort, in order that the old lady might pay 
 respects to her nephew, King Frederick William 
 IL, of Prussia. From the appearance of the first 
 war of the German powers against revolutionary 
 France, he had his headquarters in Frankfort. 
 The grandmother presented her granddaughters 
 to the King, and when she planned to resume her 
 journey the same evening she was induced to 
 defer her departure by an invitation to take sup- 
 per with the King and the two Princes accompa- 
 nying him. 
 
 It was on this evening that Louise, then seven- 
 teen years of age, radiant with magical grace and 
 noble beauty, made such a charming impression 
 
8 Louise, Queen of Prussia. 
 
 upon the Crown Prince Frederick William that 
 the jfirst glance decided his choice. The deep 
 affection of the Prince, whose stately appearance 
 was still more enhanced by the simple nobility 
 of his nature, was returned by Louise. At the 
 same time, the younger brother, Prince Louis, felt 
 himself drawn towards Frederika, the beautiful 
 sister of Louise. After a month, April 24, 1793, 
 the festival of a double betrothal was celebrated 
 at Darmstadt. 
 
 During the campaign that followed soon after, 
 on the left bank of the Rhine, the two Princesses 
 visited with their grandmother their betrothed, 
 and ventured several times into the varied life of 
 the camp. The youthful Goethe, then at the 
 Prussian headquarters, gives an account of one of 
 these visits, in the following manner : " Toward 
 evening there was prepared for us, but especially 
 for me, a lovely sight. The Princesses of Meck- 
 lenburg had dined at the headquarters of His 
 Majesty the King, and after dinner visited the 
 camp. I confined myself to my tent, and could 
 thus most perfectly observe the high-born person- 
 ages, who walked up and down before me quite at 
 their ease. In this tumult of war, one might 
 really consider the two Princesses as heavenly vis- 
 ions. The impression which they made upon me 
 will never be obliterated." 
 
Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 9 
 
 Toward the end of the year the Crown Prince 
 returned to Berlin. His fiancee, with the sister 
 betrothed to Prince Louis, soon followed him to 
 Berlin, where a grand reception was prepared for 
 her by the citizens. Festive was the entrance 
 into the city, sincere and great the universal joy. 
 The majestic beauty and remarkable grace of the 
 Crown Princess, the enchanting affability and 
 goodness which beamed from her youthful coun- 
 tenance, won to her all hearts. Fouque remarks : 
 '' The arrival of the angelic Princess spreads over 
 these days a noble splendor. All hearts go out 
 to meet her, and her grace and goodness leaves 
 no one unblessed." The venerable Mistress of 
 the Robes, Oberhofmeisterin von Voss, recently 
 assigned to the Princess, did not find her child- 
 like, frank, impulsive demeanor sufficiently cer- 
 emonious. When Louise, entering Berlin, was 
 greeted under a triumphal arch by eighty chil- 
 dren clothed in white, with garlands of flowers 
 and a festive poem, she lifted up to her the little 
 speaker, to the delight of the thronging people, 
 and, overpowered by emotion, clasped the child 
 in her arms and kissed her. The Oberhofmeis- 
 terin, sitting opposite the Princess in the great 
 golden chariot of state, said, alarmed : " Mein 
 Gott, what has Your Royal Highness done ; that 
 is against all etiquette ! " " How, may I not do 
 
10 Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 
 
 that any longer ? " was, according to report, the 
 exact answer. A week later, this strict guardian 
 of etiquette wrote in her diary : ^' The Princess is 
 really adorable, so good, and at the same time so 
 charming, an angel." In the notes of the follow- 
 ing year it is said : '' The more perfectly one be- 
 comes acquainted with the Princess the more is 
 one captivated by the inner nobility, and the an- 
 gelic goodness of her heart." 
 
 The marriage ceremony took place on the even- 
 ing before Christmas in the '' White Hall " of the 
 royal palace, and festival followed festival. But 
 to the newly wedded pair did their quiet domes- 
 tic life, far from the bustle of the court, afford 
 greater satisfaction. The Crown Prince and 
 Louise lived a genuine German family life, full 
 of love and devotion, in glaring contrast to the 
 French gallantry, not to say immorality, which 
 then ruled in the higher circles of society. Ex- 
 ternally, to be sure, the aristocratic world of 
 the Prussian capital offered a dazzling picture. 
 Those were the days when knightly men and 
 witty women reveled in sesthetic enjoyments. 
 
 Sensual and intellectual pleasures were too 
 often associated, and thus the strict discipline 
 of earlier days was displaced by a refined irreg- 
 ularity of life. It is known that the court of 
 Frederick William II. did not preserve its old- 
 
Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 11 
 
 timed reputation for strictness of morals, but 
 showed too much leniency to gallant adventurers. 
 In contrast with this, the simple, pure family life 
 of the Crown Prince and Louise furnished a shin- 
 ing example of the ancient virtuous training. This 
 was due not alone to the pure and pious heart of 
 the Princess, but also to the serious and deeply re- 
 ligious mind of the Crown Prince. Although but 
 twenty-seven years old, he offered a firm support 
 to his young wife, and by his devotion and truth 
 knew how to keep far from her every distressing 
 influence. Frederick William was in a high de- 
 gree worthy of the possession of the noblest of 
 women, and deserved the rare happiness which 
 she brought to him. Louise gratefully acknowl- 
 edged that she herself had become better through 
 the husband, whom she entirely loved and hon- 
 ored as the "best of men." 
 
 Frederick William, in the society of his wife, 
 maintained his right to the use of " Du," then un- 
 usual at courts. The unfeigned serenity and sin- 
 cerity of home-life he would not allow to be dis- 
 turbed by any ceremonies or ostentation. "- 1 am 
 already cramped and annoyed enough without 
 this ; 1 will, at least in my home, follow my in- 
 clination and have the freedom and independence 
 that every private citizen enjoys." 
 
12 Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 
 
 The royal pair felt most happy in rural retire- 
 ment. Since life was not quiet and simple enough 
 at Oranienburg, which King Frederick William II. 
 had given to the daughter-in-law be so higldy 
 honored, the Crown Prince fitted up tbe Paretz 
 estate on tbe Havel as a royal residence for the 
 summer. Here, with sunny Louise, he enjoyed 
 the simple pleasures of a country life, calling him- 
 self, in jest, the "Mayor of Paretz," while the 
 Crown Princess was pleased with '* My Lady." 
 In harvest feasts she took part in the dances of 
 the peasants. Often, too, was this noble lady 
 seen at the village festivals, surrounded by the 
 youth, or, going from stall to stall, she purchased 
 small presents and distributed them among the 
 children, who would call out confidingly, " Some- 
 thing for me, too, Lady Queen ! " 
 
 Louise permitted no opportunity to pass of add- 
 ing to the joys of others and of showing kindness 
 to the poor. King Frederick William IL, who 
 extolled her as the " Princess among princesses," 
 asked, on her first birthday-fete in Berlin, after 
 delighting her with rich gifts, if she had still a 
 wish. The Crown Princess wished for herself a 
 handful of money in order to let the poor people 
 of the capital share in her joy. With a smile the 
 King asked how great did she suppose a handful 
 
Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 13 
 
 of money to be. The answer runs : " As great as 
 the heart of the most gracious of Kings." With 
 royal liberality was her wish fulfilled. 
 
 It was the thought of being able to dispense 
 benefactions to a greater degree that possessed 
 the soul of Louise when her husband, after his 
 father's death, ascended the Prussian throne, No- 
 vember 6, 1797. '' I am now Queen," she wrote 
 to her grandmother, '' and what i-ejoices me most 
 is the hope that now I need no longer count my 
 benefactions so carefully." 
 
 Louise stood at the summit of prosperity, be- 
 loved and honored by all circles of the people, as 
 rarely a queen has been. While one blessed her 
 name on account of the benevolence which she 
 practiced in secret, others praised the gracious- 
 ness and kind condescension that she showed to 
 every one, and again others honored her as an 
 exalted pattern of all virtues. Artists and poets 
 ceased not to glorify her as the sweetest and fair- 
 est of women. According to the testimony of 
 contemporaries, no painter succeeded in doing her 
 complete justice, because no one was able to re- 
 produce '' her winning glance so full of soul and 
 goodness, especially in conversation." The old, 
 distinguished secretary and soldier, Scheffner, de- 
 clared : " I have never seen in any woman's face 
 eyes of a purer, freer expression, sacli gladsome 
 
14 Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 
 
 ingenuousness, almost bordering upon childlike- 
 ness." We must listen to the voices of her con- 
 temporaries to have an idea of the magic that her 
 appearance produced. 
 
 " The Queen," writes an English lady, who 
 saw her at the close of the year 1800, " reminds 
 me of Burke's star, that irradiates life, light, and 
 joy.i She verified such extravagant representa- 
 tions as one gets in childhood from the ' Arabian 
 Nights ' of a young, beautiful, and glorious queen. 
 She is an angel in loveliness, gentleness, and 
 grace. Tall and slender, she is not deficient in a 
 suitable contour of form ; she has light hair, her 
 complexion is delicate and pure, the expression of 
 her face of indescribable graciousness." " She 
 had," as the Oberhofmeisterin expressed herself, 
 "an exceedingly beautiful figure, both noble and 
 lovely ; every one who saw her felt irresistibly 
 drawn to and attached to her." '' Why can I 
 not," exclaims another lady of her time, after the 
 Queen's early decease, — " why can I not hold 
 fast such features of her noble image as still float 
 
 1 " It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the Queen 
 of France, then the Dauphiness, at VersaiUes ; and surely never 
 lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more de- 
 lightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and 
 cheering the elevated sphere she just began to move in ; glitter- 
 ing like the morning star, full of life, and splendor, and joy." — 
 Wisdom and Genius of Darke y p. 148. 
 
Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 15 
 
 fresh in my mind. The nameless grace of her 
 greeting, the inimitable rhythm of her walk and 
 bow, or the childlike repose of her gentle and yet 
 earnest glance, or the gliding of her royal form 
 into a splendid assembly in which, however large 
 it might be, she appeared always the fairest, the 
 first, the only one. Of her was true in its full 
 sense Ossian's praise, ' Beautiful among thou- 
 sands.' If one tried to compare others with her, 
 and considered their forms more beautiful in sin- 
 gle features, none stood the comparison. The 
 character of her beauty lay in the harmony of 
 her nature. Here prevailed tenderness, gentle- 
 ness, and perfect naturalness." 
 
 With justice it has been noticed of Louise's 
 sweet kindness, that she became a gentle bond 
 of union between monarch and people ; where it 
 was important to thank, to answer, to represent, 
 she served the taciturn King as a mouthpiece. 
 She accompanied her husband on the journey of 
 homage to Konigsberg, Warschau, and Breslau, 
 also on many journeys later through the land. 
 She found opportunity to show herself to the in- 
 habitants of remote provinces, as a joy-dispensing 
 mother of her country, who did not appear less 
 winning in the peasant's cottage than in the 
 splendor of the court. 
 
 Gladly did Frederick William and Louise, after 
 
16 Louise^ Queen of Prussia, 
 
 the accession to the throne, withdraAV to Potsdam, 
 Charlottenbiirg, and Paretz, and continued even in 
 Berlin, the simple life of an earlier date. Along 
 with her husband's love mother-love blessed , the 
 Queen. Frederick William, who afterwards was 
 the fourth King of this name, was born in 1795, 
 and William, the Emperor of the new Empire, 
 in 1797. In the course of years were added two 
 children, who died early, the two Princes, Carl 
 and Albert, and the Princesses Charlotte, Alex- 
 andrina, and Louise. The two youngest, Albert 
 and Louise, were born in Konigsberg in the time 
 of her calamity. 
 
 " To train my children to become benevolent 
 lovers of mankind," she expresses herself in a 
 letter of the year 1797, "is my warmest and 
 dearest wish. I even nourish the glad hope of 
 fulfilling my aim." 
 
 The leisure remaining to the Queen, after the 
 exemplary fulfillment of her duties, she employed 
 in nourishing her richly gifted mind with every- 
 thing good and beautiful that literature offered 
 her. By choice she devoted herself to the study 
 of German poetry, which then began to send out 
 its fairest blossoms. Herder, Goethe, Schiller, 
 Jean Paul eno-ag^ed her much. The latter dedi- 
 cated " Titan " '' to the four beautiful and noble 
 sisters on the throne," and wrote a poem on the 
 
Louise^ Queen of Pricssia, 17 
 
 early death of Queen Louise called ^^ Autumn 
 Flowers." He wrote from Weimar, in Novem- 
 ber, 1800, that the Queen took even on the shorts 
 est journey one of Herder's works. In later 
 years, as we are informed, she admired Goethe 
 as the perfect master. 
 
 Thoughts of freedom and patriotic enthusiasm 
 drew her to Schiller, who, in his last great crea- 
 tions, so gloriously gave expression to these senti- 
 ments. She would gladly have seen the poet of 
 " The Maid of Orleans " Q' Die Jungfrau von 
 Orleans ") and " Wilhelm Tell " remain in Ber- 
 lin. Through translations she became acquainted 
 with the Greek tragedians and the great English 
 dramatist, and was also familiar with the most 
 important works of history. Of that which the 
 Queen read she lost nothing. It served for the 
 ennobling of her mind and the deepening of her 
 character. Although in her own consciousness 
 she was a believing Christian, yet, from some of 
 her later letters, we seem to catch sounds in har- 
 mony with ancient views of life. 
 
 Her manner of viewing the world rested on 
 deep religious foundations. In the sunny days of 
 prosperity, when shallow minds are wont to grow 
 effeminate, she was strong; and heroic and sub- 
 missive in bearing the hard strokes of fate which 
 soon fell on her people and her own family. 
 
 2 
 
18 Louise^ Qiteen of Prussia. 
 
 Frederick William III., who came to the throne 
 of the Hohenzollern line when twenty-seven, was 
 a man of superior parts. He had an earnest, 
 straight-forward, upright mind ; in him dwelt sim- 
 plicity, moderation, love of exact order, and strict 
 principle. With the best motives he did not lack 
 clearness and strength of mind; yet perhaps he 
 was wanting in self-confidence and resolution for 
 a sudden responsible action. He had not been 
 well trained, and was accustomed to the society of 
 mediocre and weak, although worthy, men. A 
 certain timidity in the presence of great natures 
 seemed characteristic. " Those that educated, 
 surrounded, and served him," said the best critic 
 of the Berlin court, " were all weak, and crippled, 
 hindered, and disheartened him." 
 
 When Frederick WiUiam III., took the reins 
 of government after his father's death, the state 
 needed more than ever a judicious and firm guid- 
 ance, in accordance with established principles. 
 It was not sufficient that the new monarch es- 
 teemed highly economy and order in the admin- 
 istration of the government, that he put a speedy 
 end to the scandal that was connected with Lich- 
 tenau and her followers, and, instead of the hy- 
 pocrisy which Wollner had favored by his " Edict 
 of Religion," cared for and cultivated convincing 
 godliness. It was a matter of great concern to 
 
Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 19 
 
 animate the life of the entire state, threatened 
 with rottenness, with a new spirit, by means of 
 thorough reforms, and, above all, to place foreign 
 affairs in able hands. But Frederick William, 
 fearing any extensive change, retained in the for- 
 eign service, and in his Cabinet, unprincipled and 
 cowardly men like Haugwitz and Lombard, who 
 urged the state of Frederick the Great along a 
 downward course. Without entering into partic- 
 ulars in regard to the much slandered policy of 
 Prussia at the end of the last and the beginning 
 of this century, it will be appropriate to bring 
 briefly to mind the following facts. 
 
 After the breaking out of the French Revolu- 
 tion, and its first threatening manifestations to- 
 ward other countries, Prussia and Austria joined 
 hands in a common struggle. Influenced by the 
 Peace at Basel, Frederick William withdrew from 
 the war against France, not without the censure 
 of the suspicious and jealous Cabinet at Vienna. 
 Henceforth, while almost all Europe was tilled 
 with contests, Prussia persisted in her feeble neu- 
 trality. Out of this she did not even come when 
 the issue was no longer the assistance of the Ger- 
 man Empire, but when the honor and the position 
 of the state of Frederick the Great as a power was 
 in question. 
 
 In face of Napoleon's increased usurpations and 
 
20 Louise, Queen of Prussia. 
 
 encroachments no one in Berlin could fail to be- 
 lieve that, instead of being intimidated by the 
 Frencli under a mask and show of friendship, it 
 was of the utmost importance resolutely to draw 
 the sword. We know how the King, already 
 long pressed by a patriotic party, with which 
 Louise sympathized, at last turned about com- 
 pletely and began to enter into closer relations 
 with the powers allied against France. 
 
 The continual allurements and offers of alliance 
 with Napoleon were refused. Meanwhile the 
 people did not pluck up heart for participation in 
 the war against Napoleon especially, because Aus- 
 tria and Russia did not take the right means to 
 draw Prussia over to their side. Only the open 
 violation of Prussian neutrality during the French 
 and Austrian campaign of 1805 gave the war 
 party in Berlin ascendency for the time being. 
 Over the grave of Frederick II., Alexander of Rus- 
 sia and Frederick William III., joined hands in a 
 league against Napoleon, to the keen joy of the 
 Queen. Unfortunately when it was of moment to 
 lay before Napoleon an ultimate decision, the 
 King trusted the cowardly H'augwitz with the 
 most important of missions. We know in what 
 manner he discharged his office. Put off by the 
 Emperor, even until the decisive battle of Auster- 
 litz, the weak, dishonorable diplomatist converted 
 
Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 21 
 
 the threat of war into a congratulation for the 
 conqueror, and entered into negotiations with him 
 concerning the importance of which, in the begin- 
 ing, he deceived his own monarch. The patriotic 
 circle in Berlin was full of wrath on hearing of 
 Haugwitz's disgraceful performances, and the 
 King's sense of honor bristled up at being obliged 
 to ratify a treaty with France, wrongfully required 
 of him. Prussia, therefore, provoked Napoleon, 
 and, on account of her isolated position, did not 
 venture to engage in a contest with the arrogant 
 Emperor, but concluded a treaty with him under 
 even more unfavorable conditions. Meanwhile 
 new humiliations and demands on the part of Na- 
 poleon, who now threw off his mask as regarded 
 Prussia, followed quickly. The King at last de- 
 cided on war against the Emperor of Battles, now, 
 to be sure, at the wrong time, and under the most 
 unfavorable circumstances. 
 
 Notwithstanding the warlike feeling in Berlin 
 and the prestige of former victories, notwithstand- 
 ing the remote prospect of help from Russia, the 
 King, having his eyes opened, was not for a mo- 
 ment deceived in regard to Prussia's danger. 
 Meanwhile Napoleon burned with desire to de- 
 stroy at one blow the great state which he hnd 
 cajoled when he fondly thought he could make it 
 his tool, and subject the North of Germany aa 
 well as tlie South and Southwest to his dominion. 
 
22 Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 
 
 The imperfect conduct of the war and the con- 
 dition of the army, spoiled by long peace, made 
 victory only too easy for the mighty commander. 
 A double battle, the day of misfortunes, at Jena 
 and Auerstadt, decided the fate of the monarchy. 
 Five weeks after the catastrophe of October 14, 
 1806, the conqueror entered Berlin. 
 
 As is well known. Napoleon had in his lying 
 bulletins tried to make Queen Louise responsible 
 for the war, and, with the vulgarity of which he 
 was capable, slandered and laughed her to scorn. 
 The Queen was staying at the Baths of Pyrmont, 
 when the fateful war ended, and had no share at 
 all in the momentous deliberations. A few days 
 before the battle of Jena she remarked to Fred- 
 erick Gentz, in a memorable audience, that she 
 had never been consulted about public affairs, 
 and did not aspire to be. On the same occasion 
 the witty statesman and political writer was filled 
 with admiration for the high bearing and noble 
 sentiments, as well as the wisdom, delicacy, and 
 independence of judgment '' of the great, un- 
 happy, and immortal Louise." With decision 
 she repelled the idea of a preference for Russia, 
 falsely attributed to her by the French, and did 
 not conceal that, with all due recognition of the 
 personal virtues of the Emperor Alexander, she 
 never could consider Russia as a chief instrument 
 
Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 23 
 
 for the deliverance of Europe, but she regarded 
 assistance from her as the last source of aid. She 
 was firmly convinced that " the great means of 
 deliverance were only to be found in the closest 
 union of all who felt proud of being of German 
 stock." 
 
 Although the Queen had not advised war, after 
 it was ended she no longer concealed that she ap- 
 proved of it, and showed herself brave and loyally 
 devoted to her husband. She accompanied the 
 King from Charlottenburg to Thiiringia on the 
 opening of the campaign. Here she remained 
 near him until October 14th. Only when the 
 thunder of battle rolled over toward Weimar did 
 she, at her husband's command, hasten back by a 
 circuitous route to the capital. The agitating 
 news of the defeat of the army reached her at 
 the gates of Berlin. She and her children sought 
 protection in Stettin. When the disgraceful sur- 
 render of the best fortresses of the land and the 
 sad fate of the dispersed armies completed the 
 misfortune of Jena and Auerstadt she fled to 
 Kiistrin. Here she met her afflicted husband, 
 but soon had to seek a refuge in Graudenz, and 
 later in Konigsberg, since the enemy, advancing 
 rapidly, followed her everywhere. In those mis- 
 erable days of treachery, when one terrible piece 
 of news followed another, the Queen addressed 
 
24 Louise^ Queen of Prussia, 
 
 words to the Princes, Frederick and William, 
 which, better than I can express, make known 
 the spirit of this sorrowful but heroic woman. 
 " You see me in tears ; I lament the destruction 
 of the army ! It has not answered to the expec- 
 tations of the King." Thus she began, and con- 
 tinued, according to reports at that time, in the 
 following manner : " Destiny has destroyed in 
 one day a structure in the erection of which the 
 great men of two centuries have labored. There 
 is no Prussian state, no Prussian army, no na- 
 tional glory longer ; it has disappeared like that 
 mist which on the fields of Jena and Auerstadt 
 hid the danger and terrors of that ill-starred bat- 
 tle ! — Ah, my sons, you are at an age when 
 your understanding can grasp these heavy afflic- 
 tions. Call back to memory, in the future, when 
 your mother and Queen is no longer living, this 
 unhappy hour ; weep tears as you remember me, 
 as I now at this sad moment lament the downfall 
 of my fatherland. But let not tears alone con- 
 tent you ; act, develop your powers. Perhaps 
 Prussia's tutelary genius will alight upon you ; 
 then deliver your people from the disgrace, from 
 the reproach, of degradation in which she lan- 
 guishes. Seek to win back from France the tar- 
 nished fame of your ancestors, as your grandfather, 
 the Great Elector, avenged at Fehrbellin the de- 
 
Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 25 
 
 feat and disgrace of his father on the Swedes. 
 Oh, ray sons, do not allow yourselves to be swept 
 along by the degeneracy of this age ; become men, 
 and covet the glory of great commanders and he- 
 roes. If you should lack in ambition, you would 
 be unworthy of the name of princes and grandsons 
 of the great Frederick. If vrith every exertion 
 you cannot raise up again the prostrate state, 
 then seek death as Louis Ferdinand sought it." 
 
 Although the men that surrounded the unfort- 
 unate King counseled surrender to the conqueror, 
 at his discretion, one woman saw rescue only in a 
 prolonged resistance. With a greatness of soul 
 which, the Chamberlain von Schladen wrote in his 
 diary, raised her ''above every event," she ex- 
 pressed her views about those men who had con- 
 tributed to her country's misfortunes. She fell 
 into the greatest excitement when, without mercy, 
 all the foul slanders that Napoleon had caused to 
 be spread everywhere against her were communi- 
 cated to her. At his command, these had been 
 even publicly printed in Berlin. " With stream- 
 ing eyes the noble Queen repeated the expres- 
 sions of this scandalous libel. " No ! " she cried. 
 " Is it not enough for this wicked man to rob a 
 King of his estates? Must also the honor of his 
 wife be sacrificed, because he is base enough to 
 publish about me the most shameful falsehoods ? " 
 
 Well might the Queen, in looking back upon 
 
26 Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 
 
 her own life, have felt personally lifted above 
 that lying insult ; yet in dark hours she kept be- 
 fore her the question whether the state and the 
 people and her own family were not mistaken in 
 resisting the visitations of fate. What Louise 
 felt in such moments of anxious suspense, bowed 
 under the weight of the power of fate, the words 
 of Goethe express, which she wrote in her diary 
 on the 5th of December, 1806. I mean the words 
 from '' Wilhelm Meister : " — 
 
 " Wer nie sein Brod in Thranen ass, 
 Wer nie die kummervoUen Nachte 
 Auf seinem Bette weinend sass, 
 Der kennt euch nicht, ihr himmlischen Machte ! 
 
 " Thr fiihrt ins Leben uns hinein, 
 Thr lasst den Armen schuldig werden ; 
 Dann iiberlasst ihr ihn der Pein, 
 Denn alle Schuld racht sich auf Erden." i 
 
 At Konigsberg the weak body of the heroic- 
 souled woman succumbed to the blows of fate 
 
 1 " Who never ate his bread in sorrow, 
 Who never spent the darksome hours 
 Weeping and watching for the morrow, 
 He knows ye not, ye gloomy powers. 
 
 '* To earth, this weary earth, ye bring us. 
 To guilt ye let us heedless go ; 
 Then leave repentance fierce to wring us, — 
 A moment's guilt, an age of woe." 
 
 Thomas Carlyle. 
 
Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 27 
 
 coming upon her from all directions. Haying 
 fallen ill of a nervous fever, which had brought 
 one of her children, Prince Carl, to the verge of 
 the grave, she was in imminent danger for two 
 weeks. Not quite recovered, she had to leave the 
 old coronation city of the Prussian Kings, and to 
 seek an asylum in the most remote corner of the 
 monarchy, in Memel, because the divisions of the 
 hostile army advanced farther and farther. "I 
 prefer to fall into the hands of God rather than 
 into the power of that man," she declared to 
 Hufeland, the physician to the King. January 
 3d, in the severest cold, during a most fearful 
 storm of driving snow, she was put into a car- 
 riage, and transported twenty miles over the Cur- 
 ish flat coasts to Memel. " We spent three days 
 and nights on the journey, our road covered partly 
 by the stormy waves of the ocean, partly by the 
 ice ; the nights we passed in the most wretched 
 quarters. The first night, without nourishing 
 food, the Queen lay in a room whose windows 
 were broken, and where the snow blew upon her 
 bed." In Memel, where she joined her husband 
 and children, her condition was improved, and 
 the situation of military and political affairs jus- 
 tified new hopes. The remnant of the Prussian 
 army, led by General Lestocq, combined at last 
 with the advancing Russian troops, and in heroic 
 
28 Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 
 
 contests not only restored Prussia's military honor, 
 but seemed to hold out the possibility of obtaining 
 by their valor, and with the aid of the allies, a 
 passable peace. 
 
 In the battle at Eylau, where Lestocq accom- 
 plished marvels of bravery with six thousand 
 men, Napoleon suffered such severe losses that, 
 notwithstanding his official report of a victory, he 
 offered to make a favorable peace with the King, 
 if he would break off with his ally, the Emperor 
 Alexander. This proposal Frederick William re- 
 jected decidedly. Louise hoped for further suc- 
 cesses in the continued struggle when the Emperor 
 Alexander came to Memel, and in the presence of 
 his guards pledged his faith to the King. " This 
 glorious union," she wrote to her father, " founded 
 in misfortune, supported by steadfast faith, fur- 
 nishes the strongest hope for endurance. I am 
 convinced that sooner or later we shall conquer 
 through constancy." 
 
 In April the Queen went to Konigsberg, to visit 
 her sister Frederika, living there, and passed some 
 weeks in seeking to mitigate the miseries of war, 
 and in helping to care for the wounded and des- 
 titute. But further advances of the French, the 
 fall of the fortress of Danzig, and the menacing of 
 Konigsberg, caused her to return to Memel in the 
 beginning of June. Here she faced the severest 
 
Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 29 
 
 trials, when the battle of Friedland destroyed all 
 hopes, when Konigsberg fell, and the Russian 
 forces withdrew, and Napoleon shifted his head- 
 quarters to Tilsit. 
 
 She says, in a letter to her father, June 17th, 
 '^ Again a terrible trouble has come upon us. We 
 are on the point of forsaking the kingdom. Con- 
 sider how I feel in so doing, but I implore you 
 do not misjudge your daughter. Do not believe 
 that pusillanimity bows my heart. There are two 
 principal reasons why I am lifted above every- 
 thing. The first is the thought, we are no sport 
 of blind chance, but we are in God's hand, and 
 his Providence guides us. The second is, we 
 shall go down with honor. The King has demon- 
 strated to the world that he does not wish dis- 
 honor, but honor. Prussia would not voluntarily 
 wear the chains of slavery. The King could not 
 have acted differently without becoming untrue to 
 his character and his people. Only he who has a 
 true feeling of honor can know what support this 
 thought gives." " I am going," she says, later, 
 " as soon as the danger is imminent, to Riga. 
 God will help me live through the moment when 
 I must pass over the frontiers of this realm. 
 There will be a need of strength, but I shall 
 turn my eyes to Heaven, from whence come both 
 good and ill, and it is my firm belief that He 
 
80 Louise, Queen of Prussia, 
 
 will not send more than we are able to bear. 
 Once more, dear father, we shall go down with 
 honor, esteemed by nations, and shall ever have 
 friends, because we deserve them, I do not need 
 to tell you how consoling this thought is. I shall 
 endure all with such repose and calmness as peace 
 of conscience and pure trust can give. Therefore 
 be convinced, dear father, that we shall never be 
 wholly unhappy, and that many a one burdened 
 with a crown and prosperity is not so happy as 
 we. For your comfort, I will say that never has 
 anything been done on our side that is not con- 
 sistent and does not comport with the strictest 
 honor. Do not think of the details of our mis- 
 eries. This I know will console you, as well as all 
 who belong to me. I am ever your faithful, obe- 
 dient daughter, who loves you warmly, and thanks 
 God that she can say so. — Your friend, Louise." 
 Some days later, after the conclusion of the arm- 
 istice between Napoleon and Alexander, she adds, 
 '' To live and die in the way of right, and, if 
 need be, eat bread and salt, will never make me 
 wholly unhappy, but I can no longer hope. If 
 good fortune comes, oh, no one will receive it 
 more gratefully than I ; but I no more expect it. 
 If misfortune comes, it will stun me for a time. 
 When not deserved it can never overwhelm me. 
 Only wrong on our part would bring me to the 
 
Louise J Queen of Prussia. 31 
 
 grave. That will never take place, for we stand 
 too high." 
 
 Thus, by a consciousness of honor and right, 
 the spirit of the royal woman was cheered, when 
 she was in danger of being driven over the bor- 
 ders of the lost kingdom into banishment. This 
 cup was spared her, but what awaited her at the 
 headquarters of the arrogant victor at Tilsit put 
 her magnanimity and readiness to make sacrifices 
 to a scarcely less severe test. 
 
 It is known that after the truce concluded re- 
 luctantly by Alexander, Napoleon cleverly suc- 
 ceeded in ensnaring him by his flattering arts, so 
 that the easily moved Tsar entered into terms of 
 peace and friendship with him, and laid Prussia's 
 fate in the hands of an embittered and insolent 
 foe. This he did notwithstanding his pledged 
 word to his ally, notwithstanding the new assur- 
 ance of fidelity given recently in the presence of 
 the troops. We know, also, in what manner the 
 French Emperor displayed to the utmost his con- 
 queror's pride at Tilsit. Only out of regard for 
 the Emperor who had recently become his ally 
 would he allow the wrecks of the Prussian mon- 
 archy to exist. 
 
 Then it was that the noble Queen brought to 
 the seriously imperiled state a sacrifice of self-re- 
 nunciation which it would have been better not 
 
32 Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 
 
 to have demanded of her. After Alexander had 
 shown such a lamentable weakness in his rela- 
 tions with Napoleon, and, as one might say, had 
 betrayed the allies, recognizing the power that 
 the noble appearance of Louise, her character and 
 speech, exercised over the minds of men, he ad- 
 vised that she attempt to obtain by entreaty more 
 just conditions from the mercy of this powerful 
 man, who had so deeply injured the unhappy lady 
 by his base contumely and derision. Could one 
 have expected from the soldier Emperor, intrins- 
 ically brutal at heart, from this perfectly selfish 
 man, that he would bow before the greatness of 
 soul and the moral nobility of a conquered Queen ? 
 Louise did not hesitate to do what was desired 
 of her, but she did it with a sorely wounded 
 heart. With indignation she had heard at Memel 
 that Napoleon manifested to her husband, who 
 had gone on before to Tilsit, studied indifference 
 and coldness. The unhappy husband, in his hon- 
 orable and open way, did not know how to flatter, 
 but with a feeling of his kingly worth he met the 
 haughty victor with noble pride. What he could 
 not obtain, should she seek to attain through her 
 woman's tact ? We can comprehend that the let- 
 ter that bade her come to Tilsit caused her many 
 tears. " Never shall I forget," writes her physi- 
 cian, Hufeland, '' the moment when the noble 
 
Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 33 
 
 Queen received the King's command to come to 
 Tilsit, in order, if possible, to obtain still more 
 advantageous conditions of peace from Napoleon. 
 This she had not expected. She v^as beside her- 
 self. Amid a thousand tears, she said : ' This is 
 the most painful sacrifice that I can make for my 
 people, and only the hope of being useful to them 
 thereby can bring me to it.' " Louise says in her 
 diary : " God knows what a struggle it cost me ! 
 For although I do not hate the man, yet I look 
 upon him as the one who has made the King and 
 his land wretched. I admire his talents. I do 
 not like his character, which is obviously treach- 
 erous and false. It will be hard for me to be 
 polite and courteous to him. But just this hard 
 thing is required of me. I am accustomed to 
 make sacrifices." 
 
 July 4th, the Queen drove to the village of 
 Picktuponen, situated in the neighborhood of Til- 
 sit, whither the King, and on the following day 
 the Emperor Alexander, came. In regard to the 
 pending questions, Louise allowed herself to be 
 accurately instructed by Minister Hardenberg, 
 whose dismissal Napoleon had just succeeded in 
 obtaining. In answer to her greeting, the French 
 Emperor sent General Caulaincourt. At the same 
 time he inquired if Her Majesty would do him 
 
34 Louise^ Queen of Prussia, 
 
 the honor of dining with him. As soon as she 
 arriyed in the city he hoped to visit her. 
 
 Under the escort of French dragoons, on the 
 afternoon of July Gth, Louise reached the dwell- 
 ing of the King in Tilsit. A quarter of an horn- 
 later, Napoleon drove up to the door of the house. 
 At the foot of the staircase he was received by 
 the Oberhofmeisterin von Voss and the Countess 
 Tauentzien. " He was," reported the first-men- 
 tioned lady, " very polite, talked a long time 
 with the Queen, and drove away. Toward eight 
 o'clock, we repaired to him, since out of regard 
 for the Queen he had ordered an early dinner. 
 During dinner he was in good humor, and talked 
 much with the Queen. After dinner he had a 
 long conversation with her. She was quite satis- 
 fied with the result. God grant that it may help 
 to some purpose." 
 
 From another quarter we know that the Queen, 
 after the dinner, returned to Picktuponen with 
 the most sanguine hopes ; yes, that even after the 
 first conversation with Napoleon, full of joy, she 
 believed that she had attained her purpose, and 
 had induced her foe to more equitable conditions 
 of peace. 
 
 Some of the words spoken at this memorable 
 meeting have become known, especially the beau- 
 tiful answer which Louise gave to the haughty 
 
Louise J Queen of Prussia, 35 
 
 Emperor in response to the disdainful question, 
 '' But how could you ever begin war with me ? " 
 " Sire," answered the Queen, " Even if we have 
 been imposed upon in other respects, could the 
 glory of Frederick deceive us in regard to our 
 powers?" Quick-witted, full of spirit and fine 
 tact, the Queen ever kept her ground as the mis- 
 tress of the conversation. Her noble grace made 
 such a deep impression on the hard soldier nature 
 that the Emperor was, against his inclinations, 
 exceedingly polite, and by no means repulsed her 
 representations and petitions. 
 
 On the following day, when those about the 
 King cherished the hope that Napoleon, moved by 
 the humiliation of the unfortunate Queen, would 
 really moderate his demands. Count Goltz, re- 
 turning from an audience with the Emperor, an- 
 nounced that he had already revoked what he had 
 promised the previous day, and had even gone 
 still farther in the severity of his demands than 
 before the interview with her. "All," he de- 
 clared with bluntness, ^' all my words to the 
 Queen were only polite phrases, that bind me 
 to nothing ; for I am resolved to give the King 
 the Elbe as a frontier line. There will be no ne- 
 gotiating farther, for I have already planned 
 everything, in concert with the Emperor Alexan- 
 der, whose friendship I prize. The King owes 
 
36 Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 
 
 his position only to the knightly adherence of this 
 monarch, since without this my brother Jerome 
 would have become King of Prussia, and the 
 present dynasty have been expelled." It was the 
 common report that Talleyrand was to blame for 
 Napoleon's not allowing himself to be softened. 
 " Sire, shall posterity say that on account of a 
 beautiful woman you have not duly profited by 
 your fairest campaign ? " With such words the 
 diplomatist is said to have counseled his imperial 
 master to the severity which he stood in danger 
 of moderating. 
 
 Under such circumstances, when Louise and 
 her husband were once more invited by Napoleon 
 to dinner, she could only go with the deepest re- 
 luctance. " Napoleon," the Oberhofmeisterin re- 
 ports, '' looked embarrassed, and at the same time 
 treacherous and malicious. The company soon 
 took their seats at table. The conversation was 
 constrained and monosyllabic. After dinner the 
 Queen talked once more with Napoleon ; on going 
 away, she told him that she was about to depart, 
 and felt deeply that she had been deceived." She 
 repeated the same when General Duroc, on the 
 next day, brought her the Emperor's parting com- 
 pliments : " She had not believed it possible that 
 she could be so duped." 
 
 In the last conversation Louise sought to wring 
 
Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 37 
 
 from the hard conqueror at least the promise that 
 he would leave to the King strong Magdeburg on 
 the left bank of the Elbe ; but the Emperor re- 
 mained, as he says of himself in a letter to his 
 wife, Josephine, " like a waxed cloth, from which 
 all this slipped off." Louise, on the other hand, 
 says, a year later, in calling to mind this talk with 
 Napoleon : '' Ah, what a recollection ! What I 
 suffered then, I suffered more on account of 
 others than on my own account. I wept ; I im- 
 j)lored in the name of love and of humanity, in 
 the name of our misfortunes and of the laws 
 which govern the world. I was only a woman, 
 a weak being, and yet raised above this adver- 
 sary, so unfeeling and hard of heart." The story 
 may be doubted that at her departure Napoleon 
 offered her a fresh rose, which the Queen first de- 
 clined, but, overcoming herself, then accepted, 
 with the words, sounding like a condition, " At 
 least with Magdeburg. " Napoleon answered 
 harshly, " I must remark that it is I who give 
 roses, and it is you who receive them." The 
 fact is, however, true and well attested, that the 
 unhappy Queen, on going away, complained to 
 Napoleon unreservedly in regard to the deception 
 prepared for her. 
 
 Even less pleasantly passed the conversation 
 which, two days later, the afflicted but dignified 
 
38 Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 
 
 King held with the arrogant and powerful man. 
 The French did not refuse Frederick William 
 recognition, because he did not conceal his true 
 feelings and would in no wise humble himself 
 before the victor. Napoleon, also, did not con- 
 ceal his feelings; with great harshness, he said 
 the most irritating and cutting things to the 
 King. 
 
 The Peace of Tilsit was humiliating and bitter 
 enough, without these undeserved mortifications. 
 While the King lost the half of his territory, the 
 other half was left to him, to be sure, but as a 
 '' testimonial of the respect " which Napoleon 
 cherished for the Emperor Alexander. Russia 
 enlarged her borders with a piece of Prussia, by- 
 way of return for the fidelity of an ally. The 
 agreement concerning the evacuation of Prussia 
 by the French troops concluded by Kalkreuth 
 July 12th, with criminal inattention, was utterly 
 ruinous. The treaty made the departure of the 
 hostile army dependent on payments, which the 
 victor had resolved to increase beyond what could 
 be supplied. Henceforth, mutilated, defenseless, 
 and exhausted, Prussia was given wholly into 
 Napoleon's hands. At pleasure, he could put an 
 end to the hated state, and more than once he 
 threatened to do so, in reality. 
 
 " My poor Queen is wholly in despair," wrote 
 
Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 39 
 
 the Countess Voss, after the last talk with Napo- 
 leon. Even more painfully in the coming days 
 the Queen felt that all she had done for the sake 
 of the King, her children, and the people, for the 
 mitigation of the fate of the state, had been in 
 vain. She appeared sad and cast down, and spent 
 many gloomy hours in tears. " The poor Queen 
 weeps too much." However, her strong soul did 
 not succumb to grief. She comforted herself with 
 a trust in God, and the consciousness that the 
 King had acted only in accordance with honor. 
 She believed all the more in the better future of 
 Prussia, since the entire range of the Peace of 
 Tilsit could not be seen. 
 
 "Peace is concluded," she wrote to Frau von 
 Berg, '' but at a painful price : our frontier will 
 in the future extend only to the Elbe. Neverthe- 
 less the King is greater than his adversary. He 
 might have made an advantageous peace at Ey- 
 lau: there he would have entered into negotia- 
 tions voluntarily with an evil genius, with whom 
 he would have been obliged to ally himself. Now, 
 he has made a peace forced by necessity, and will 
 not league himself with him. This will one day 
 prove a blessing to Prussia ! Also he must in 
 that case have deserted at Eylau a true ally ; this 
 he would not do. It is my firm belief that this 
 course of action will bring good-fortune to Prus- 
 sia." 
 
40 Louise^ Quee7i of Prussia. 
 
 Thus the noble-minded Queen was enabled to 
 be a support to the King in the severe trials that 
 befell him. It is not true that Frederick William, 
 in stepping back into a place without rank, and in 
 relinquishing the government to more fortunate 
 hands, ever entertained the thought of yielding 
 to destiny. It is also not correct that the King 
 ever lacked in his outward appearance that firm- 
 ness and dignity which became a Prussian mon- 
 arch. He perhaps showed himself so depressed 
 and sad, when engaged in familiar conversation, 
 that, as the Countess Voss says, " it touched one's 
 heart to the quick, and one could not listen to him 
 without hot tears." Then the King needed all 
 the consolation and strength which a close union 
 with his noble wife could furnish him. " The 
 Queen," the oft-quoted diary informs us, " now 
 goes walking every morning and every evening 
 alone with the King, and she is with him as much 
 as possible, in order to cheer him." Supported 
 by her love, Frederick William found strength 
 to exercise the duties of a royal office under the 
 most difficult circumstances conceivable, while he 
 willingly resigned what usually makes the life of 
 a prince attractive. 
 
 The royal household was reduced to what was 
 most necessary. Servants and equipages were les- 
 sened ; costly liveries were given up ; even the 
 
Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 41 
 
 great service in gold plate, an heir-loom of their 
 ancestors, was coined into money, to make paj^- 
 ments for the land and the heavily oppressed sub- 
 jects. To the same end, Louise gave away, when 
 the need grew constantly greater, her brilliants, 
 and retained only one ornament of pearls, which, 
 according to her own expression, she loved more 
 than her diamonds, and considered more suitable 
 for her; ''for pearls betoken tears, and I have 
 shed so many of these." 
 
 The Queen indeed dispensed with external or- 
 naments in these days of misfortune, and every- 
 thing that surrounded her was plain and simple. 
 The royal table in Memel was so frugally ap- 
 pointed that one could dine better at the family 
 table of burghers. In the midst of these priva- 
 tions which the royal family, in noble resignation, 
 imposed upon themselves did the Queen present 
 a most sweet and exalted pattern. " Not a thou- 
 sand court feasts, with golden uniforms and stars," 
 said a Russian diplomatist, who spent a night at 
 Memel with the royal family, " would I give in 
 exchange for the memory of that night. A Queen 
 sits at a poorly furnished table, that, like herself, 
 is divested of all external adornments ; but her 
 grace, beauty, and dignity shine all the brighter. 
 By her side sits the eldest Princess, Charlotte, as 
 the bud by the unfolded rose. She shared with 
 
42 Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 
 
 her mother the little household duties. Both de- 
 lighted by their amiable attentions, and left be- 
 hind in my soul a living picture, which no after- 
 event can efface." 
 
 Previously, the Queen had kept herself aloof 
 from public affairs, and avoided with just tact ex- 
 ercising influence, or even wishing to show out- 
 wardly anything different from perfect conform- 
 ity with the will of the monarch. " She disdains," 
 says Frau von Berg, in a letter addressed to Baron 
 vom Stein, " the little expedients which power 
 might afford her ; one must esteem her the higher. 
 Feeling her duty as a wife, she shares all the 
 King's sympathies and opinions, defending those 
 that he defends. Could one reproach her for 
 that ? Meanwhile, the misfortunes have been so 
 great and cruel that her eyes are opened to many 
 things. She is a mother, and she cannot permit 
 the future of her son, of her children, to be a mat- 
 ter of indifference; for this reason, she clings 
 closely to her country." 
 
 The afflicted condition of the state, after the 
 great catastrophe, naturally procured for her in- 
 fluence on many decisions of the King. It hap- 
 pened, with her cooperation, that Frederick Will- 
 iam, soon after the conclusion of the unlucky 
 peace, made up his mind to intrust the restora- 
 tion of the fallen state first of all to the man 
 
Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 43 
 
 whom posterity as well as his own age has hon- 
 ored as the restorer of Germany, the Baron Yom 
 und zum Stein. Sprung from an old knightly 
 family on the Lahn, educated by worthy, strictly 
 religious parents in the good old training. Stein, 
 when a young man, had entered the state service 
 of Frederick the Great. As Councilor of Mines, 
 he was active in Westphalia. He rose step by 
 step, thanks to his eminent talents and the excel- 
 lency of his character, until he stood as President 
 of the Westphalian Chambers, and at the head of 
 the civil government there. In 1802 the propo- 
 sal was made to him to enter the service of Han- 
 over. This he declined, stating this memorable 
 reason: that his conviction of the necessity of a 
 union of the scattered and dismembered powers 
 of Germany would not be compatible with the 
 discharge of the duties which he should then have 
 to assume. He saw the future of Germany in 
 Prussia, and therefore devoted himself entirely to 
 this state. 
 
 Soon Baron vom Stein was appointed by King 
 Frederick William IH., Minister of Commerce 
 and Trade. As minister of a department, he 
 could exercise no influence on the great policy, 
 but only in his Bureau introduce many impor- 
 tant improvements. He foresaw that the short- 
 sighted and weakly guided state was steering 
 
44 Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 
 
 towards a precipice. He represented in a memo- 
 rial presented to the Queen the necessity of dis- 
 missing the Priyy Council and Minister Haugwitz. 
 He did not gain his object, but rather drew upon 
 himself the censure of the King. Only too soon 
 did the catastrophe which he had predicted, but 
 could not avert, come. After the battle of Jena, 
 when the other ministers lost their heads, he 
 saved and carried to Konigsberg the funds of 
 his department, and thus furnished the means 
 of at least restoring Prussia's military honor in 
 the campaign of 1807. When, at last, Frederick 
 William removed the corrupt Haugwitz forever 
 from the helm of the state, he offered Stein the 
 Bureau of Foreign Affairs. Stein proposed Har- 
 denberg for this place, and considered himself 
 better fitted for the Bureau of Finance, which, 
 however, he would superintend only on condi- 
 tion that the King wholly break up the Cabinet, 
 with its hindering influence. Thereupon arose a 
 violent conflict in January, 1807, and Stein was 
 dismissed in disgrace. 
 
 No one grieved more keenly for the loss of the 
 great statesman than the Queen. " You were 
 here," she wrote later to her confidential friend, 
 Frau von Berg, " when Stein fell, — when his 
 power, in such a wholly undeserved way, came 
 to an end. You know, too, how it affected me : 
 
Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 45 
 
 how much anxiety I endured in regard to the re- 
 sults ; how dissatisfied I was with everything." 
 
 Deeply wounded, Baron yom Stein retired to his 
 ancestral home in Nassau. But the calamities of 
 his Fatherland moved the great patriot more than 
 the injuries he had received. He was still ill 
 of a fever at home, when, after the Peace of 
 Tilsit, the King honorably recalled him as the 
 only man who could bring help. Stein did not 
 withhold his services. Still suffering in body, he 
 set out for distant Memel, upborne by the hope 
 that he should succeed in rebuilding the pros- 
 trate state, in filling the people with a new spirit, 
 and in rousing all their strength for the deliver- 
 ance of the fallen Fatherland. 
 
 Queen Louise looked with eagerness for the 
 arrival of the great statesman. When, in the be- 
 ginning of September, it was reported by Kno- 
 belsdorf , from Paris, that despotic France sought 
 to profit to the utmost by the right of the 
 stronger, Louise, almost in despair, broke forth 
 in the following words: ''Ah, my God, why hast 
 thou forsaken me ? " At the same time she cried 
 with ardent longing, " Why does Stein tarry ? 
 He is my last hope. With his great heart and 
 comprehensive mind he will perhaps know of ex- 
 pedients which are hidden from us." '' Stein is 
 coming," she says, in another letter, " and with 
 
46 Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 
 
 him I begin to see light." Later, she writes, 
 " How happy I am that Stein is again here ; yes, 
 I feel, since I know that he is at the head of 
 affairs, as if I could raise higher and carry more 
 easily my head, burdened with a weight of care." 
 The Queen was right in greeting Stein as a 
 helper in need. The day on which this states- 
 man, received by the King with complete confi- 
 dence, took the head of affairs, can be designated 
 even to-day as the beginning of the new birth of 
 Prussia and the preparation for the deliverance 
 of all Germany. Of course we do not mean to 
 say that none of the far-reaching reforms, which 
 made the ministry of Stein forever memorable, as 
 for example, the emancipation of the peasants, 
 the municipal regulations, and his pioneer work 
 for the Estates of the Empire, had been in some 
 degree prepared for, in a preceding age. The 
 catastrophe of Jena and Tilsit gave, perhaps, the 
 mighty impulse to the accomplishment of that 
 which without this would have been advanced 
 only slowly or would not have been even touched. 
 The point in question was not alone the politi- 
 cal organization of the people, but also a radical 
 change in the organization of the army, which, as 
 is well known, was taken in hand under Stein's 
 active interest, but in pursuance of Sharnhorst's 
 enthusiastic ideas. It was especially here that 
 
Louise, Queen of Prussia. 47 
 
 the King, with deep insight and untiring effort, 
 trod the path of epoch-making reforms. 
 
 But what has Queen Louise in common with 
 that which Sharnhorst, Stein, and their co-work- 
 ers in these days of peril accomplished? Noth- 
 ing more or less than this : it was she, Avho, for 
 those men, smoothed the ways at court and helped 
 to overcome the difficulties, obstacles, and preju- 
 dices with which they had to contend. " I im- 
 plore you," wrote Louise to Stein, soon after his 
 coming, " have patience during the first months ; 
 the King will certainly keep his word. Beyme 
 (a councilor of great influence) will leave, but not 
 till we are in Berlin. Be compliant until then. 
 I pray God that the good may not come to naught 
 on account of the patience and delay of three 
 months. I implore you for the sake of myself, my 
 chiklren, my country, the King, have patience!" 
 
 Often the Queen had personal intercourse with 
 the leading statesmen. Stein, Sharnhorst, Gneise- 
 nau, and others. But most closely was she con- 
 nected by friendship with the Princess Louise 
 Radziwill, an enthusiastic admirer of Stein, as well 
 as with the cultured and patriotic Princess Ma- 
 rianne, wife of the noble Prince William (young- 
 est brother of the King and father of the Queen- 
 mother of Bavaria). In this circle, one might 
 call it the central point of the patriotic Reform 
 
48 Louise^ Queen of Prussia, 
 
 party, the affairs of the Fatherland were zeal- 
 ously supported. Often enough the task devolved 
 upon the Queen of strengthening, in her delicate 
 and winning way, her royal husband in his senti- 
 ments friendly to reform, and hostile to the still 
 powerful party of the selfish, idle, and cowardly. 
 Quite often she influenced by soothing, conciliat- 
 ing, and mediating, when Stein, who in his out- 
 ward appearance proclaimed the born ruler rather 
 than the servant, the only one whom Sharnhorst 
 compared with Bliicher as being wholly without 
 the fear of man, in his fiery zeal offended personal 
 views, and little regarded the usages of the court. 
 Without being intrusted with questions of ad- 
 ministration and legislation, Louise shared the 
 views that animated the statesman, and perfectly 
 comprehended the ultimate object which the bold 
 Baron steadfastly pursued after his entrance into 
 ofl&ce. Stein, as he himself says, started out with 
 the great idea of putting into the nation a moral, 
 religious, and patriotic spirit, of infusing into it 
 new courage, self-confidence, and readiness for 
 any sacrifice, in order to obtain independence from 
 foreign rule, and national prosperity ; and of seiz- 
 ing the first favorable opportunity for beginning 
 the bloody conflict hazardous for both parties. 
 In all this he was sure of the assent and support 
 of the Queen. 
 
Louise^ Queen of Pritssia. 49 
 
 Other anxieties, troubles of the most painful 
 kind, soon followed. In the previously mentioned 
 agreement of July 12th, the gradual evacuation 
 of the territory, restored to the King by the 
 French, was made dependent on the payment, or 
 placing in security, of the war-contributions, whose 
 amount had not yet been estimated. General 
 Daru, in Berlin, intrusted with the formulation 
 of the demands, was expressly directed to make 
 them as extravagant as possible. He discharged 
 his commission with masterly rapacity, while the 
 French armies, in an unheard-of manner, exacted 
 from the subjects their last piece of property. 
 The French commanders, with exceptional in- 
 solence, removed as spoil, to Paris, from royal 
 castles, works of art and treasures of all kinds. 
 Finally, in October, the demands were fixed at 
 154,000,000 francs. The five best fortresses of 
 the land, garrisoned at Prussia's expense, with 
 40,000 men of the enemy's troops, were demanded 
 as pledges. Even Stein was in the presence of 
 the unbounded claims of the conqueror, as the 
 Queen says, " for the first time, wie zu Stein,'''' 
 " This is our dreadful condition, everything here 
 lies prostrate. All strength will soon forsake me, 
 too. It is fearful, terribly hard, especially since 
 it is undeserved ! My future is most gloomy ! If 
 we can only keep Berlin ; but often the thought 
 
50 Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 
 
 falls like a weight on my foreboding heart that 
 it, too, will be torn from us and made the capital 
 of another kingdom. In that case I have only- 
 one wish, — to go far away, to live as a private 
 person, and to forget — if possible ! Ah, God, to 
 what has Prussia come ! Forsaken on account 
 of weakness, — persecuted out of sheer insolence, 
 — weakened by misfortune, — thus must we per- 
 ish ! " If there is still deliverance the Queen 
 hopes it only from Stein. '' God be praised, that 
 Stein is here ! This is a proof that God has not 
 yet wholly forsaken us." A couple of weeks 
 later, October 29, 1807, when crushing tidings 
 again came from Berlin by Napoleon's plenipo- 
 tentiaries, it was a consolation to her to express 
 her pain to the sympathizing statesman and to 
 hear his wise counsel. She ends a letter to him 
 thus : " To what a pass has it come ! our death- 
 sentence is spoken ! " 
 
 It was determined, with the support of Russia, 
 to try and influence Napoleon. The Queen set 
 aside all thoughts of self, and addressed a letter to 
 him. Then Prince William, the King's brother, 
 was sent to Paris with commissions which Stein 
 drew up. But Napoleon's crafty policy prolonged 
 the negotiations until the summer of 1808. Until 
 this time not forty but almost two hundred thou- 
 sand Frenchmen remained on Prussian territory 
 and lived at its expense. 
 
Louise y Queen of Prussia. 51 
 
 The Queen, who expected her confinement, and 
 suffered not a little in Memel by reason of the 
 cold, humid air, had hoped toward the end of the 
 year to be able to return to Berlin. She must 
 have rejoiced when, at last. Napoleon was per- 
 suaded to order the evacuation of East Prussia. 
 '' The Queen," he caused to be announced to her, 
 " can now go to Konigsberg ; there is therefore 
 no necessity for her to go to Berlin." "He is 
 a villain without a conscience, a despicable man," 
 adds the Countess Voss. 
 
 » The court and its appurtenances moved, Janu- 
 ary 15 and 16, 1808, to Konigsberg, but not with- 
 out expressing deep gratitude for the numerous 
 and touching proofs of love and attachment which 
 had been given to the royal pair by the inhab- 
 itants of Memel during this troublous time. The 
 great misery that the war and occupation by the 
 enemy had produced here did not prevent a hearty 
 and festive reception. The Queen received from 
 the citizens the present of a chaise longue of green 
 velvet. In taking the Estates of Prussia as god- 
 parents, the King showed anew that it was a ne- 
 cessity of his heart to knit ever closer the bond 
 between his family and his people. This bond 
 was strengthened in the days of universal calam- 
 ity, when Frederick William and Louise set an 
 example to the whole nation of steadfastness, sub- 
 
52 Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 
 
 mission, and greatness of soul, as well as in alle- 
 viating the distress of others, and freely choosing 
 privation. 
 
 In the spring the royal family moved from the 
 Castle to the Hippel garden (Die Hufen), near 
 the Steindammer Gate, and lived here, practicing 
 retrenchment, as in Memel. The Queen read 
 much, and devoted herself by preference to the 
 study of the history of her own country. ^' I am 
 busy reading history, and live in the past, because 
 the future is no longer for me." Could Louise, 
 in this quiet country life, retire wholly within 
 herself, and be unmoved by the outer world and 
 its troubles ? It even seemed so. " I have good 
 books, a good conscience, a good piano-forte ; and 
 thus one can live more quietly amid the storms 
 of the world than those who stir them up." 
 
 But soon great events claimed the attention of 
 the Queen. Napoleon, with unheard-of craft, had 
 dethroned the Bourbons in Spain, in order to ele- 
 vate his brother to the dignity of king. Louise 
 felt keenly what this wanton sport in Madrid and 
 Bayonne augured for other courts dependent on 
 Napoleon's mercy. " What do you say to the 
 news from Spain ? " she writes to her trusted 
 friend, Frau von Berg. ^' Are they not new fin- 
 ger-traces of the iron hand which so heavily rests 
 on the bowed brow of Europe ? A warning are 
 
Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 53 
 
 they not also for us ? In the midst of peace, to 
 banish his first allies ! To sow the seed of discord 
 between father and son ! To tear the infante 
 from his father's heart, from his country ! What 
 have we, we in our situation, to await ? " — 
 That which followed the dethroning of the Bour- 
 bons in Spain would have a still- higher signifi- 
 cation for Prussia. That marvelous uprising of 
 the Spanish people against Napoleon's foreign 
 usurpation, could it not also in Prussia, in all 
 North Germany, kindle the thought of national 
 self-help? England, whose troops were already 
 fighting against the French in the Pyrenean pe- 
 ninsula, would not let Germany want pecuniary 
 assistance. Austria was quietly making prepara- 
 tions for war. Prussia, thanks to the activity of 
 the King and his incomparable co-workers, could 
 furnish a well-equipped army of 60,000 men, and 
 Napoleon, in order to quell the insurrection in 
 Spain, w^ould have to withdraw the greatest part 
 of his troops in Germany. What if Prussia, then, 
 in unison with Austria, should begin the decisive 
 conflict, and take advantage of the animosity that 
 prevailed in all Northern Germany toward the 
 oppressor, for the deliverance of the Fatherland ? 
 Was not this decided and bold policy to be pre- 
 ferred to the unworthy dependence which Napo- 
 leon sought to perpetuate ? Just then, the nego- 
 
54 Louise^ Queeii of Prussia. 
 
 tiations in Paris, in regard to the evacuation of 
 Prussian territory, took the most critical turn. 
 Entrance into the Confederation of the Rhine was 
 demanded. Napoleon, before he set out for Spain, 
 wanted to assure himself positively of the subordi- 
 nation of Prussia. At length, with this design in 
 view, the treaty about which Prince William ne- 
 gotiated was to be concluded. 
 
 Like rocks on the sea-shore stood now in Ko- 
 nigsberg the men of ardent sentiments and de- 
 termined action, — such as Stein, Sharnhorst, and 
 Gneisenau, — opposed to the partisans of a policy 
 friendly to the French, to the unprincipled and 
 cowardly. The King hesitated before taking the 
 responsible resolution that might lead to Ger- 
 many's deliverance and Prussia's destruction, and 
 waited for the arrival of the Russian Emperor, 
 since he considered success impossible without 
 Russian consent. In the middle of September 
 Alexander arrived at Konigsberg, on his journey 
 to Erfurt. In vain were all the efforts of Stein 
 to lay before him the dangers of his policy so 
 friendly to France. On the other hand, Alex- 
 ander promised to do what he could for Prussia 
 with Napoleon, at Erfurt, and the King and 
 Queen now hoped everything from him. 
 
 In the mean time, there appeared in the news- 
 papers a letter of Baron vom Stein, intercepted 
 
Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 55 
 
 by the French authorities, wherein the secret 
 thoughts of the bold statesman were imprudently 
 disclosed. Stein's position was endangered. Seiz- 
 ing the opportunity, numerous and very powerful 
 foes in Konigsberg and Berlin worked both in 
 public and in the dark for the fall of the Minister 
 and his system. Even the King believed that he 
 could no longer retain Stein without danger to 
 the state. Or ought he, notwithstanding the dis- 
 suasions of Russia, to rush with Austria into the 
 struggle against the tyrant of Europe ? Then the 
 King, without consulting Stein, ratified the disas- 
 trous Treaty of Paris, which imposed on the land 
 exorbitant sacrifices, limited the army to 42,000 
 men, and bound Prussia by an oath to take the po- 
 sition of an auxiliary power, in the wars of France. 
 Stein asked for his dismission and received it, but 
 only after a delay of weeks, and with expressions 
 of warm thanks for his unmeasured services. But 
 Napoleon hurled from Spain, at the fallen states- 
 man, that notorious decree which declared a '' cer- 
 tain Stein," who sought to stir up sedition in 
 Germany, an enemy of France and the Confeder- 
 ation of the Rhine, confiscated his estates and or- 
 dered his arrest, wherever he might be found. 
 The outlaw fled to Austria ; from thence he went 
 later to Russia, and, at the side of the Emperor 
 Alexander, did his best for the deliverance of Ger- 
 many and Europe. 
 
56 Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 
 
 But what did Queen Louise in those critical 
 days, when the point in question was the down- 
 fall of the Minister whom she so highly regarded, 
 or the bold execution of his plans at home and 
 abroad ? '^ I suffer," she wrote to Frau Yon Berg 
 on the 8th of July, 1808, " I suffer unspeakably. 
 Only too often reproaches fall on me — on me 
 who bear a burden of sorrows as Atlas bore the 
 world. What answer can I return ? I sigh, and 
 check my tears." 
 
 Who can doubt that Louise stood now, as be- 
 fore, on the side of the determined patriots. If, 
 however, she did not satisfy these, rather seemed 
 to lend an ear to the adversaries of Stein, it hap- 
 pened only because she could not do otherwise. 
 For if men on whom she could bestow confidence 
 represented Stein to her as a desperate man, who 
 would set himself, with the King, on a powder 
 keg, in order to blow himself up, who can blame 
 the Queen because she was filled with fear for her 
 husband, her children, her people ? 
 
 Even in regard to another question in dispute, 
 Stein and his friends did not see the Queen act in 
 accordance with her own opinion. The Emperor 
 Alexander had invited the royal pair to visit him 
 in St. Petersburg. Stein advised them not to go. 
 The Queen declared herself in favor of it, perhaps 
 with the hope of binding Russia, the last prop of 
 
Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 57 
 
 the imperiled state, more firmly to Prussia ; per- 
 haps, also, from fear of the return to Berlin de- 
 manded by the French, where, according to the 
 judgment of Stein, who often enough had warned 
 them of the fate of the Spanish Bourbons, the 
 King would find himself in a mouse-trap, out of 
 which the French would not again let him escape. 
 
 Towards the end of the year, the King and the 
 Queen set out for St. Petersburg. The hearty re- 
 ception, planned on a very grand scale, was fol- 
 lowed by brilliant festivities. No less than 16,000 
 persons were invited to a masked ball, and at an- 
 other time a ball-room was radiant with 20,000 
 tapers, besides 6,000 lamps. 
 
 Did Louise find pleasure in all this glitter ? 
 She felt her heart more oppressed than cheered, 
 and even the studied attentions with which the 
 imperial family, and especially Alexander, distin- 
 guished her, could not banish a certain melan- 
 choly. " 1 have returned as I went," she wrote 
 to Frau von Berg, having arrived at Konigsberg 
 again after an absence of six weeks. "Nothing 
 will blind me any more, and I say to you again : 
 my kingdom is not of this world ! " 
 
 Different and yet somewhat similar may have 
 been the impression whicli the King brought away 
 from the Russian capital. The counsel of his 
 imperial friend to reserve himself by a quiet 
 
58 Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 
 
 endurance of the present oppression, in lieu of 
 which Alexander promised to break forth, with 
 him, at a fitting time, had not failed of its effect. 
 The ministers entering upon office after Stein's 
 dismission counseled the King to take an active 
 part in the war soon to break out between Aus- 
 tria and France as the only way to save himself 
 and his people. Their advice was not taken. 
 The reorganization of the army, the providing of 
 war materials, the equipment of the fortresses, 
 had advanced so far by spring, that by taking ad- 
 vantage of the secret confederations spread over 
 North Germany, and by entering into a close 
 union with Austria, Prussia's prospects of success 
 seemed favorable. The King distrusted, we dare 
 not say without cause, the preparations for the 
 uprising of the people, as well as Austrian weap- 
 ons and Austrian policy. Meanwhile Prussia held, 
 herself in readiness for war, the payments to 
 France were discontinued, and it appeared to need 
 only an Austrian victory to bring things to a 
 crisis. Those were days of the greatest excite- 
 ment ; the uprising in the Tyrol, the calling to 
 arms in Hesse by Dornberg, Schill's marching 
 out of Berlin with his hussars, kept all souls 
 breathless. Of course, the King had to censure 
 and punish Schill's attempt ; but when the fear- 
 ful battle at Aspeiii checked Napoleon's victo- 
 
Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 59 
 
 rious march, the time seemed to have come for 
 Prussia to act. But the King delayed his de- 
 cision. '' There is yet time," he said, in reply to 
 the Austrian negotiator ; '' give the enemy an- 
 other blow, and we are united." But the blow at 
 Wagram failed of the intended effect ; the truce 
 of Znaim was concluded, the Tyrolese heroes still 
 fought in an unequal contest, and at last came 
 peace, and Austria's alliance with Napoleon. 
 
 We cannot doubt that Louise followed with 
 anxious attention the events in the Austrian field 
 of war, the rash deed of Schill, and the sad fate of 
 his band of heroes, and that she sincerely wished 
 for Prussia's entrance into action ; but we do not 
 know whether, after the treaty concluded with 
 Napoleon, after such relations with Russia, and 
 after considering the entire situation of the State, 
 she could advocate war. The Queen has only told 
 us what she suffered, not what she did. She 
 wrote on the 12th of March, 1809, two days after 
 her thirty-second birthday, "I have to-day suf- 
 fered as if the world with all its sins were rest- 
 ing upon me. I am ill, and I think that so long 
 as affairs go on thus I shall never recover." She 
 then expressed her fear that Russia, in the im- 
 pending war, would be forced at last, by its new 
 connection with Napoleon, to fight with France 
 against Austria. The sequel might be that Prus- 
 
60 Louise^ Queen of Prussia, 
 
 sia, too, must go oyer to that side. " Prussia 
 against Austria ! What is to become of Ger- 
 many ? No, I cannot express what I feel ; my 
 heart feels as if it would burst ! And we are here 
 in this banishment, in this climate, where all 
 storms rage, remote from everything homelike. 
 O God, have we not yet had trials enough?" 
 "My birthday," she continues, "was to me a 
 dreadful day. In the evening, a great, splendid 
 feast, which the city gave in my honor ; previous 
 to that a rich, gay banquet at the Castle, — it is 
 not possible to tell you how sad all has made me ! 
 My heart was rent ; I danced, I smiled, I said 
 pleasant things to the givers of the feast ; I was 
 friendly tow^ards every one, and in my distress I 
 did not know which way to turn ! To whom a 
 year hence will Prussia belong? Whither shall 
 we all be scattered ? Almighty Father, have Thou 
 compassion ! " 
 
 That which Louise had most dreaded, the union 
 of Prussian troops with French, did not take place, 
 but the war brought her sorrow and anxiety 
 enough. " Ah, God, much has befallen me. Thou 
 alone canst help, — I look for no future on earth. 
 God knows where I shall be buried : scarcely on 
 Prussian soil. Austria will sing her swan song, 
 and then farewell Germania ! " 
 
 About the same time, in the summer of the 
 
Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 61 
 
 year 1809, she addressed a letter to her beloved 
 father, which so well discloses the greatness of 
 her soul, the inner worth of her heart, that it de- 
 serves a place here. 
 
 In the first half of this long letter she lays be- 
 fore him her thoughts about the present condition 
 of the world, and the future. She did not hope 
 to obtain a better state of things for herself, but 
 for the succeeding generation. Without miscon- 
 struing the historical warrant for the French Rev- 
 olution, and for Napoleon's policy, she foresaw 
 the future downfall of the new order of things, 
 which the tyrant of Europe fancied he had founded 
 so securely. She is firm in the belief of a moral 
 order in the world, and in the final triumph of 
 good. 
 
 "With us it is all over for the present, even 
 if not forever. I look for nothing more during 
 my life. I have resigned myself ; and in this 
 resignation, in this submission to the will of God, 
 I am now tranquil and at peace ; if I do not pos- 
 sess earthly happiness I have what means more, — 
 spiritual blessedness. It becomes more and more 
 clear to me that everything had to come as it has. 
 Divine Providence is unmistakably introducing a 
 new order of things in the world ; there will be a 
 different arrangement, since the old order has out- 
 lived itself and is falling to pieces. We have 
 
62 L^uise^ Queen of Prussia. 
 
 fallen asleep on the laurels of Frederick the Grreat, 
 who, as the master of his century, created a new 
 epoch. We have not kept pace with the age, 
 therefore it has left us behind. No one is better 
 aware of this than the King. I have just had a 
 conversation with him, in which he repeatedly- 
 said, as if speaking to himself : ' This also must be 
 changed among us.' Even the best and most ma- 
 turely considered plans fail, and the French Em- 
 peror is at least more cunning and astute. If the 
 Russians and Prussians had fought bravely as 
 lions, even if unconquered, we should neverthe- 
 less have been obliged to quit the field, the en- 
 emy would have had the advantage. We may 
 learn much from him, and what he has done and 
 achieved will not be lost upon us. It would be 
 blasphemy to say that God is with him ; but evi- 
 dently he is an instrument in the hand of the Al- 
 mightly to bury the old era, which no longer has 
 life, but which is almost overgrown with excres- 
 cences. 
 
 ''Better times will certainly come. Faith in the 
 most perfect Being is a guaranty for this. But 
 only through goodness can the world become bet- 
 ter. Therefore, I do not believe that the Em- 
 peror Napoleon Bonaparte is firm and safe on his 
 glittering throne. Only truth and justice are 
 strong and secure. He is only politic, that means 
 
Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 63 
 
 worldly-wise, and he does not conform to eternal 
 laws but to circumstances, as they happen to be. 
 With such a policy he stains his government by 
 many deeds of injustice. His intentions are not 
 good, even if his cause is good. In his boundless 
 ambition, he thinks only of himself and his per- 
 sonal interest. We must admire him, but not 
 love him. He is dazzled by his success, and he 
 fancies himself able to accomplish everything. 
 Moreover, he has no moderation ; and he who can- 
 not observe moderation loses his balance and falls. 
 I have a strong faith in God, and also in His 
 moral government of the world. This I do not 
 see in the rule of might; therefore, I have the 
 hope this present evil age will be succeeded by a 
 better one. All good men hope and wish for this, 
 and await it, and one must not be misled by the 
 panegyrists of present heroes, that seem to them 
 great. What has taken place is unmistakably 
 neither final nor abiding, nor for the best good 
 of all, but only the opening of a path to a better 
 end. This end appears to be at a great distance ; 
 we probably shall not see it, and shall die before 
 it is reached. As God wills ; all as He Avills. 
 But I find comfort, strength, courage, and serenity 
 in this hope, which lies deep in my soul. Life is 
 but a passage, yet we must go through it. Let us 
 only care for this, to become each day riper and 
 better. 
 
64 Louise, Queen of Prussia. 
 
 "Here, dear father, you have my political creed, 
 as well as a woman can construct one. It may 
 have gaps, but I shall not suffer by that. But 
 pardon me for annoying you with this ; from it 
 you can at least see that you have a pious and at- 
 tached daughter, and that the principles of Chris- 
 tian piety, which I owe to your teachings and 
 your godly example, have borne their fruits, and 
 will bear them as long as I live." 
 
 The second half of this beautiful letter discloses 
 to us a heart-stirring view of the conjugal and do- 
 mestic life of the Queen. 
 
 " Gladly will you hear, dear father, that the 
 calamities which have befallen us have not forced 
 their way into our wedded and home life, rather 
 have strengthened the same, and made it even 
 more precious to us. The King, the best of be- 
 ings, is kinder and more loving than ever. Often 
 I think I see in him the lover and the bridegroom. 
 Always showing more by his actions than by his 
 words, I see the watchfulness that he has for me 
 in all points. Only yesterday he said to me in 
 his plain and simple way, looking at me with his 
 true eyes : ' Thou, dear Louise ! Thou hast be- 
 come to me in misfortune still more precious and 
 beloved. Now I know from experience what I 
 have in thee. It may storm without, if only it re- 
 mains fair weather in our wedded life. Because 
 
Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 65 
 
 I love thee so I have called our latest-born little 
 daughter Louise. May she become a Louise.' — 
 This goodness moved me to tears. It is my pride, 
 my joy, and my happiness to possess the love and 
 approval of this best of men; and because I heart- 
 ily love him in return, and we are so united that 
 the will of the one is also the will of the other, 
 it becomes easy for me to preserve this happy 
 union of sentiments, which has become closer with 
 years. In a word, he pleases me in all points, and 
 I please him, and we are happiest when we are 
 together. Pardon me, dear father, that I tell this 
 with a certain boastfuhiess. There lies in it the 
 artless expression of my happiness, which inter- 
 ests no one in this world more deeply than you, 
 dear, fond father ! How to treat others ; that^ 
 too^ I have learned from the King. I cannot talk 
 upon this subject it is enough that we understand 
 it. 
 
 " Our children are our treasures, and our eyes 
 rest upon them with satisfaction and hope. The 
 Crown Prince is full of life and spirit. He has 
 superior talents, which are happily developed and 
 cultivated. He is true in all his sentiments and 
 words, and his vivacity makes dissimulation im- 
 possible. He Inarns history with especial success, 
 and the great and the good attract to them his 
 imaginative mind. He has a keen appreciation of 
 
66 Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 
 
 what is humorous, and his comical and startling 
 ideas entertain us agreeably. He is especially at- 
 tached to his mother, and he cannot be purer than 
 he is. He is very dear to me, and I often talk 
 with him of how it will be when he at some fut- 
 ure day is King." — He who is acquainted with 
 the life of the talented, cultivated, and eloquent 
 Frederick William IV., will find the description 
 which his mother has given quite striking. This 
 King certainly was not lacking in mind, wit, or 
 heart, and how much he was alive to the political 
 thoughts which Louise stirred up in him he has 
 himself declared in the words : *' The unity of 
 Crermany concerns me deeply : it is an inheritance 
 from my mother^ However, the richly gifted 
 but gentle nature of Frederick William IV., was 
 not called to establish the unity and greatness of 
 Germany. This required, apart from the consum- 
 mation of the times, and the assistance of the 
 right men, an unusually manly and resolute en- 
 ergy, such as is inherent in the second son of 
 Louise. Of him she says, in the letter previously 
 quoted : — 
 
 " Our son William will be, if everything does 
 not deceive me, like his father : simple, upright, 
 and wise. Also, in his outward appearance he 
 bears the greatest resemblance to him, only he is, 
 I think, not so good looking. You see, dear fa- 
 ther, I am still in love with my husband." 
 
Louise^ Queen of Prussia, 67 
 
 Prince William was then eleven years of age. 
 The eye of the mother had correctly discerned the 
 characteristics of his nature, but she could not 
 know what rare and noble powers besides, still 
 dormant in him, would wake to activity through 
 time and its great events. " Our daughter Char- 
 lotte (later Empress of Russia) gives me more 
 and more pleasure; she is, to be sure, reserved and 
 introspective, but, like her father, hides behind 
 an apparently cold exterior a warm, sympathizing 
 heart. Seemingly indifferent, she has much love 
 and interest. From thence it comes that she has 
 a certain stateliness of manner. If God spares 
 her life I anticipate for her a brilliant future. 
 Carl is good-natured, mirthful, open-hearted, and 
 gifted. He is developing in body as finely as in 
 mind. He often has na'ive ideas, which provoke 
 us to laughter. He is bright and witty. His 
 never-ending questions often embarrass me, be- 
 cause I cannot or I must not answer them, but 
 this shows a desire for knowledge, and — some- 
 times, when he smiles slyly, also curiosity. He 
 will pass through life lightly and joyfully, Avith- 
 out losing interest in the weal and woe of others. 
 Our daughter Alexandrina is, like other girls of 
 her age and natural disposition, clinging and 
 child-like. She shows a faculty of correct appre- 
 hension, a vivid fancy, and can often laugh heart- 
 
68 Louise^ Queen of Prussia, 
 
 ily. For what is comical she has sense and sus- 
 ceptibility. She has a turn for satire and looks 
 in saying satirical things very serious; this, how- 
 ever, does not harm her good-nature. Nothing as 
 yet can be said about little Louise. She has the 
 profile of her excellent father and the eyes of the 
 King, only somewhat lighter in color. Her name 
 is Louise ; may she resemVjle her ancestress, the 
 amiable and devout Louise of Orleans, the esti- 
 mable wife of the Great Elector." — Louise be- 
 came, as is known, the wife of Frederick, Prince 
 of the Netherlands ; Alexandrina, Grand Duchess 
 of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. The seventh of the 
 children, who survived their mother, was born 
 October 11, 1809, and therefore could not here 
 be mentioned. 
 
 This remarkable letter ends thus : " Here I 
 have presented to j'Ou, beloved father, my entire 
 gallery. You will say, this is a woman who dotes 
 upon her children, who only sees good in them 
 and has no eyes for their deficiencies and faults. 
 And truly I do not find in any a bad disposi- 
 tion that might make me anxious about the fut- 
 ure. They have, like other human children, their 
 naughty ways, but these will disappear in time as 
 they become wiser. Circumstances and relations 
 train men, and it may be well for our children 
 that already in tlieir youth they have learned to 
 
Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 69 
 
 know the serious side of life. If they had grown 
 up in the lap of plenty and ease then they would 
 suppose everything must ever be thus. But they 
 see by the grave countenance of their father, and 
 the grief and frequent tears of their mother, that 
 things can change. It is especially salutary for 
 the Crown Prince that he become acquainted 
 with misfortune while Crown Prince. He will 
 prize prosperity the higher and guard it the more 
 carefully, when, as I hope, a better time will come 
 for him. My solicitude is ever for my children, 
 and I ask God daily in my prayers for them that 
 He will bless them, and not take from them his 
 good Spirit. I sympathize with my excellent phy- 
 sician, Hufeland, in this. He does not merely 
 care for the physical well-being of my children, 
 he is also mindful of their spiritual good ; and the 
 upright and ingenuous Borowsky, whose society 
 the King enjoys and whom he loves, helps to the 
 same end. May God preserve them to us, pre- 
 serve my best treasures, whom no one can snatch 
 from me. Come what will we shall be happy in 
 one another and in our good children." 
 
 " I have written this to you, beloved father, 
 that you may think of us without anxiety. I 
 commend to your kind remembrances my hus- 
 band, also all our cliildren, who kiss the hands of 
 their venerable grandfather. I am and remain, 
 dear father, your grateful daughter." 
 
70 Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 
 
 A place may here be found for another word of 
 the noble Queen about her children. It includes 
 both a wish and a prophecy. " Even if posterity 
 does not mention my name among illustrious 
 women, yet, when it learns the sorrows of the 
 time, it will know what I have suffered through 
 them, and will say : She endured much, she re- 
 mained patient in the midst of suffering. Then 
 I could wish that at the same time they might 
 say : She gave birth to children, who were worthy 
 of better times, she endeavored to lead them on 
 and at last her care has borne rich fruit." 
 
 In the summer of 1809 the Queen, who had 
 suffered so much in mind, began to suffer also in 
 body. An intermittent fever wasted her strength, 
 and earlier than usual she had to exchange her 
 country residence for the castle. The court 
 preacher, Borowsky, who had almost daily inter- 
 course with her, and whose uprightness and sin- 
 cerity Louise commended, stated at that time : 
 '' Our dear Queen is, at this Lenten season, far 
 from joyful, but her seriousness has a quiet se- 
 renity, and the calmness and repose which God 
 gives her, sheds over her entire life a noble grace. 
 Her eyes, it is true, have lost their former sparkle, 
 and one sees that they have wept much, and still 
 weep ; but by this they have received an expres- 
 sion of gentle sorrow and quiet longing, which is 
 
Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 71 
 
 even more charming than that which mere enjoy- 
 ment of life would give. The bloom on her coun- 
 tenance is indeed gone and a soft pallor over- 
 spreads it, yet her face is still beautiful, and now 
 the white roses on her cheeks please me almost 
 more than the red of other days. At times is 
 seen a slight trembling of the mouth, around 
 which formerly a sweet, happy smile hovered. 
 Sorrow is implied by this, but it is not bitter. 
 Her dress is ever exceedingly simple, and the 
 choice of colors indicates her frame of mind. The 
 piety of our honored Queen is sound, simple, nat- 
 ural, and perfectly in accordance with her sensi- 
 tive mind and disposition, far from everything 
 forced, artificial, and sentimental." 
 
 Louise was a genuine Christian, who with com- 
 posure and humility received all her sufferings as 
 dispensations sent from God for her purification. 
 Therefore the numerous disappointments and 
 mortifications did not steel her heart, rather this 
 remained open to kindness and love. To help her 
 fellow-men, to become useful to them, was and 
 remained to her a source of the purest joy. 
 
 With increasing interest the Queen devoted 
 herself to the advancement of the education of the 
 young.. When she saw in St. Petersburg the no- 
 ble institutions, founded by the Empress mother, 
 for the education of girls, she lamented that she 
 
72 Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 
 
 was not in circumstances to follow her example. 
 The Louise Institution in Berlin was founded one 
 year after the death of the Queen and dedicated 
 to her memory. The Orphanage in Konigsberg 
 was, through her influence, managed after the 
 methods of Pestalozzi, and became a model train- 
 ing-school. The wi'itings of the great teacher had 
 deeply interested her ; she invited a scholar of the 
 master, Director Zeller, to Konigsberg, and sus- 
 tained him in his philanthropic exertions. She 
 did not disdain to visit the schools, and in an in- 
 telligent and enthusiastic manner acquiesced in all 
 that concerned teacher and pupil. When in Me- 
 mel the subject of founding a university in Berlin 
 was agitated, Frederick William gave his assent 
 with the warm words : '' That is right, that is 
 excellent ; the State must recover through intel- 
 lectual strength what it has lost through physical 
 force." In this Louise agreed entirely with her 
 husband. 
 
 The moral and religious elevation of the people 
 interested her deeply. Therefore she perceived 
 with joy the beginnings of a revival of religious 
 life, the precursors of that genuine, I might say, 
 noble piety, through which the people in the days 
 of calamity regained their moral strength. '' Be- 
 cause we have back-slidden, therefore have our 
 misfortunes come," she declared, and to speak in 
 
Louise, Queen of Prussia. 73 
 
 the words of a Russian historian, " in her living 
 faith she was the silent guardian of every noble 
 germ of the awakening Christian life." 
 
 But above everything else, she desired to rouse 
 a national spirit. The setting up of monumental 
 tablets in the churches, to the memory of war- 
 riors who had rendered service to their country, 
 she hails as one of the sparks, " from which, per- 
 haps, the flame of God can rise, which will con- 
 sume the scourges of the people." She alludes to 
 the Tyrol as well as to Spain, and extols Andreas 
 Hofer, the brave leader of the Tyrolese. She 
 longs to have a Maid of Orleans appear to van- 
 quish the foe, the wicked foe. " Also in my 
 Schiller," she continues, " I have read again and 
 again. Why was he not induced to come to 
 Berlin ? Why did he die ? I wonder whether 
 the poet of Tell was also blinded as Johannes von 
 Miiller, the historian of the Swiss Confederacy ! 
 No! no! only read the passage. 'Base is the 
 nation that does not risk all for its honor.' Can 
 these words be false ? And still I must ask : why 
 did he die? Whom God in these times loves. He 
 takes to himself ! " 
 
 Long had the Queen desired to be able to take 
 residence again in the capital of the land, which 
 since the misfortune of Jena she had not visited. 
 In a letter to her sister, Frederika, written in Au- 
 
74 Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 
 
 gust, 1809, she says : " If only I could go to Ber- 
 lin, thither, thither, I would like to go now, it is 
 real homesickness which makes me long for it and 
 my Charlottenburg." At last, on the 15th of 
 December, the day of departure could be ap- 
 pointed. Then with the joy, gloomy forebodings 
 were roused in her soul. " So I shall soon be in 
 Berlin again, and restored to so many faithful 
 hearts that love and esteem me. At the thought 
 I am quite oppressed with joy. I shed many tears 
 here when I think that I shall find everything so 
 wholly different there. Dark forebodings distress 
 me ; I would like to sit alone and abandon myself 
 to my thoughts. I hope it will be a change for 
 the better." 
 
 Amid the most touching proofs of attachment 
 and respect, which met the King and Queen from 
 all directions, they moved as in a triumph from 
 Konigsberg to Berlin. The day of the festive 
 entrance was December 23d. Louise was in a mag- 
 nificent carriage, a gift from the citizens of Berlin, 
 the King on horseback, the Crown Prince and 
 Prince William on foot as officers of guards with 
 her regiment. 
 
 As on this day, so as often as the Queen ap- 
 peared in public, enthusiastic demonstrations of 
 respect were paid her. When March 10, 1810, 
 drew near the genial poet, Kleist, composed in 
 
Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 75 
 
 honor of the birthday of the Queen, a festive 
 poem, in which his respect, bordering on adora- 
 tion, has found a classical expression. Only the 
 beginning of the poem, to which later Kleist gave 
 the form of a sonnet, can here find a place. 
 
 " Du, die das Ungluck mit der Grazie Schritten 
 Auf jungen Schultern herrlich jungsthin trug, 
 Wie wunderbar ist meine Brust verwirrfc 
 In diesem Augenblick, da ich auf Knien, 
 Um Dich, zu segnen, vor Dir niedersinke, 
 Ich soil Dir uDgetriibte Tag* erfieh'n, 
 Dir J die der hohen Himmelssonne gleich, 
 In voller Pracht erst strahlt und Herrlickkeit, 
 Wenn sie durch Jinsfre Wetterwolken bricht. 
 O, Du, die aus dem Kampf emporter Zeit, 
 Die einz' ge Siegerin hervorgegangen : 
 Was f iir ein Wort, Dein wiirdig, sag' ich Dir ? *' 
 
 Louise's frame of mind was not in harmony 
 with the festive joy and splendor with which her 
 birthday was celebrated. She was full of anxious 
 solicitude for the State, whose imperiled condi- 
 tion, since the termination of the Austrian-French 
 war, had grown continually worse. Napoleon's 
 resentment was excited by the wavering attitude 
 of the Prussian government during the year 1809. 
 From the moment Napoleon alienated himself 
 from Russia, and formed a family alliance with 
 Austria, he had no longer any reason to show 
 regard for Prussia. He made his contempt and 
 
76 LouisSy Queen of Prussia. 
 
 hatred undisguised and evident, and only seemed 
 to desire to drain the State before he annihilated 
 it. Already the surrender of Silesia was hinted 
 at as indemnification for the money due; again 
 and again the fate of the Spanish Bourbons pre- 
 sented itself threateningly to the mind of the 
 Queen. Had not Napoleon demanded the return 
 to Berlin, in order to have the court wholly in his 
 power ? Could he not do with it what he liked ? 
 We know how much in earnest the Queen was, 
 when on the fete-day, March 10th, she expressed 
 her feeling to some confidential friends in the 
 words : ''I think this will be, perhaps, the last 
 time that I shall celebrate my birthday here." 
 
 The Queen was induced to address once more a 
 letter to Napoleon, which her sister, the Princess 
 of Thurn and Taxis, delivered in Paris, March 
 15th. But the Emperor continued his insulting 
 reproaches, threats, and demands ; and even Alten- 
 stein. Minister of Finance, did not hesitate to ad- 
 vise the King to abandon Silesia to the oppressor. 
 In furthering the appointment of the former Cab- 
 inet Minister, Hardenberg, to the head of the gov- 
 ernment, Louise rendered the land her last great 
 service. 
 
 In the spring of 1810 the Queen was for a long 
 time seriously ill. Lung difficulties, accompanied 
 with fever, grew worse, until she had spasms. 
 
Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 77 
 
 The physicians in attendance cautioned against 
 all excitement, at a time, when the heart of the 
 Princess was more than ever solicitous for lier 
 husband, her children, and her people. However, 
 she recovered, so far, in Potsdam, whither she 
 moved at the end of April, that a long-cherished 
 wish, to visit her father in Strelitz, could be real- 
 ized. 
 
 Louise left Charlottenburg on the 24th of June. 
 During the morning, as the Oberhofmeisterin, 
 who accompanied her, tells us, the Queen was 
 very cheerful. " But when we approached the 
 frontier (Prussia-Mecklenburg), suddenly a mys- 
 terious melancholy came over her, but she quickly 
 composed herself, and it passed off." Was it a 
 dim foreboding of that which she was going to 
 meet ? 
 
 In Fiirstenberg, she was warmly welcomed by 
 her father, and brothers, and sisters, in New-Stre- 
 litz, by her venerable grandmother. She felt her- 
 self even more blessed, when her husband reached 
 her, June 28th. '' I am very happy to-day, dear 
 father, as your daughter, and the wife of the best 
 of men," such were the last words that she wrote. 
 
 At the Villa of Hohen-Zieritz, whither the 
 Duke went with his guests on the evening of this 
 day, the Queen was taken ill. She had again 
 trouble with her lungs, and a violent attack of 
 
78 Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 
 
 fever. The Duke's physician, summoned hither, 
 apprehended as yet no danger, and the King, 
 called back by urgent business of State, left his 
 sick wife, July 3d, with the hope of soon being 
 able to return for her. Instead of this, he was 
 himself taken ill in Charlottenburg, and only saw 
 the Queen again when she was already struggling 
 with death. 
 
 For ten days her condition continued almost un- 
 altered; fever, a cough, and weakness, only the 
 weakness grew greater and the breath shorter. 
 But it is hardly necessary to say that the Queen 
 bore her sufferings with patience and submission 
 to God. Her thoughts lingered much with her 
 husband and children. A letter from the King 
 so rejoiced her, that she could not be separated 
 from it. '•• Ah, what a letter," she said, more than 
 once. "How happy is she who receives such let- 
 ters ! " 
 
 Early in the morning of the 16th of July vio- 
 lent spasms in the chest set in, and the physicians, 
 summoned hither from Berlin, considered the sick 
 lady in great danger. The difficulty in breathing 
 and the fever increased. In the night of July 18th 
 the Queen, with uplifted hand, suddenly said to 
 Heim, the physician, watching by her side : " Con- 
 sider if I should be taken away from the King — 
 from my children." Towards five o'clock, in the 
 
Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 79 
 
 morning of July 19th, the monarch, who had been 
 sent for by special messengers, arrived at Hohen- 
 Zieritz. '' But the Queen," says the Countess 
 Voss, "had already death written on her brow. 
 And yet how did she receive her husband ? With 
 what joy did she embrace and kiss him, while he 
 wept bitterly. The Crown Prince and Prince 
 William had come with him. As far as the poor 
 Queen was able, she tried still to speak. She 
 would so gladly have gone on talking with the 
 King, but could not ; so it went on, and she grew 
 weaker and weaker. The King sat on the edge 
 of the bed and I knelt beside it. He endeavored 
 to warm the cold hands of the Queen ; then he 
 held one hand and laid the other in my hands, in 
 order that I should rub it warm. It was about 
 nine o'clock. The Queen had turned her head 
 gently on one side, and raising her great, wide- 
 opened eyes steadfastly up to heaven, said : ' I am 
 dying. O Jesus, make it easy ! ' Sobbing, the 
 King fell back and hardly could he find self-com- 
 mand to close the eyes of the glorified one, those 
 eyes " which had so faithfully lighted up his dark 
 path.' " 
 
 Never did a people mourn more deeply for a 
 sovereign than did Prussia and a great part of 
 the rest of Germany for Queen Louise. The 
 grief was soon converted into a feeling of anger 
 
80 Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 
 
 and revenge, of revenge toward those v^ho had 
 tortured to death this noble woman. It was uni- 
 versally said that the foe had killed the tutelary- 
 goddess of the people ; and thus the name of the 
 gentle, saintly sufferer became the watchword in 
 conflict and war. '' Our saint is in heaven," said 
 Bliicher, whom Louise esteemed highly, even as 
 he reverenced his patriotic queen ; and the hero 
 felt more and more forcibly that he was chosen 
 by Providence to become her avenger on the ene- 
 mies of Germany. When, March 30, 1814, after 
 all the bloody contests on German and French 
 soil, he led his victorious army to the heights of 
 Montmartre, and saw beneath his feet the great 
 capital of France conquered, he gave expression 
 to his thought in the proud words, " Louise is 
 avenged.'''* 
 
 Not only brave warriors, but also patriotic poets 
 of those days have exalted the name of Louise to 
 a battle-cry. This clearly shows the feeling which 
 ruled all hearts ; that at sight of the glorious mar- 
 ble figure of the sleeping Queen, which the master- 
 hand of Rausch created for the beautiful mauso- 
 leum erected by Frederick William III. at Char- 
 lottenburg, not so much a thought of peace as 
 of conflict moved the youthful Theodore Korner, 
 when he sang : — 
 
Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 81 
 
 " Du schlafst so sanft, die stillen Ziige hauchen 
 Noch Deines Lebens schone Traume wieder; 
 Der Schlummer nur senkt seine Flugel nieder, 
 Und heiliger Frieden schliest die klaren Augen ! 
 
 " So schlummere fort, bis Deines Volkes Briider, 
 Wenn Flammenzeichen von den Bergen rauchen, 
 Mit Gott versohnt die rostigen Schwerter brauchen, 
 Das Leben opfernd fiir die hochsten Giiter ! 
 
 " Tief fiihrt der Herr durch Nacht uns zum Verderben, 
 So sollen wir im Kampf uns Heil erwerben, 
 Dass unsere Enkel freie Manner sterben ! 
 
 " Kommt dann der Tag der Freiheit und der Rache, 
 Dann ruft dein Volk, dann, deutsche Frau, erwache, 
 Ein guter Engel fiir die gute Sache ! " ^ 
 
 1 
 
 " Thou sleep'st so soft ! thy features in their sleep 
 Have all the beauty aye that life could bring ; 
 Except that slumber waves o^er thee its wing. 
 And peace hath closed thine eyes, no more to weep ! 
 
 " So slumber on, until thy people rise, 
 
 Waked by the flames on every beacon height, 
 And, wielding all their sabres for the fight. 
 Yield up their life a willing sacrifice ! 
 
 " For Heaven now leads us through death and night. 
 And we must earn e'en with our warm life blood 
 The meed of freedom, life's divinest good. 
 Oh let it soon but dawn upon our sight ! 
 
 ** Then rouse thy nation ; then, sweet saint awake, 
 A guardian angel, for thy people's sake ! " 
 
 G. F. Richardson. 
 6 
 
82 Louise^ Queen of Prussia. 
 
 When, three years after her death, the hour of 
 deliverance for the people struck and the glorious 
 struggles for independence began, the departed 
 one was the Lady of the Knighthood in the Wars 
 of Liberation. She inflamed, as Fouqu^ says, 
 from higher spheres the warriors of her royal 
 husband with a twofold enthusiasm for victory 
 or death. 
 
 Then sang with fervor and fire the poet of the 
 " Lyre and Sword " : — 
 
 " So soil Dein Bild auf unsern Fahnen schweben, 
 TJnd soil uns leuchten durch die Nacht zum Sieg. 
 Luise sei der Schutzgeist deutscher Sache, 
 Luise sei das Losungswort zur Rache." 
 
 Not with such feelings did King William, July 
 19, 1870, on the sixtieth anniversary of the death 
 of Louise, make his annual visit to the mauso- 
 leum at Charlottenburg, to the tomb of his never- 
 to-be-forgotten mother. On this same day the 
 French declaration of war was delivered in Ber- 
 lin. If the King, in memory of the sacred hour 
 when sixty years before he knelt by the death- 
 bed of his mother, gathered strength for the con- 
 duct of a difficult war, the issue was not a war of 
 revenge, but the warding off of a wanton attack 
 that the nephew and heir of the first Napoleon 
 had attempted against Germany. Perhaps no 
 thought came before the mind of the monarch 
 
Louise^ Queen of Prussia, 83 
 
 more clearly than this : that it would be important, 
 after a victorious repulse of an arrogant enemy, 
 to secure peace to Germany for the future in 
 the way that Queen Louise had discerned as the 
 only means of deliverance : namely, the closest 
 union of all those who glory in their German 
 name. The founding of the new Empire took 
 place in the spirit of Louise ; its establishment 
 was the fulfillment of her hopes and desires. 
 Moral power is a nation's only strength. We 
 trust, relying upon God, that the same spirit may 
 even to the distant future rule the German Fa- 
 therland. 
 
H 106 89 
 

 
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