ct our language and customs, our faith and rights, as
you always did, dear and beloved king! Health, joy, and peace!"

"And you call us poor and disgraced when such hearts are throbbing for
us," exclaimed the queen, with radiant eyes. "No, we are rich, for our
subjects love us, and even when compelled to part with you, they send
you their love-greetings!"

"But I cannot reward their love; I have no means of showing how my heart
appreciates it," exclaimed the king, mournfully. "Oh, Louisa, I am a
poor, wretched man; my heart is desponding, and even your cheering words
are unable to console it. Wherever I look, whatever plans I form, I see
nowhere a prospect of change for the better. My country is occupied by
hordes of foreign soldiers. My subjects, exposed to the overbearing and
avarice of the French, who think they are sovereign rulers of my states,
are vainly praying to their king to come to their assistance. Their
courage is exhausted; their strength gone; commerce is prostrated;
manufacturers and mechanics are idle; the farmers have no seed-corn, nor
courage to cultivate their fields, for they know that they will be
robbed of the fruits of their labor. Our soldiers walk about with bowed
heads, and scarcely dare to wear their uniforms, for they remind them of
Jena and Auerstadt, of the capitulation of Prenzlau, of the surrender of
so many fortresses, and, like myself, they wish they had been buried on
the battle-field of Jena. Want, misery, and suffering are everywhere,
and I am unable to help! I must still permit the enemy to inundate my
states, although it was expressly stipulated by the treaty of Tilsit
that the French army was to evacuate Prussia in the course of two
months. I must also permit the Emperor Napoleon (though after the
conclusion of peace, and contrary to the treaty) to take New Silesia,
and add her to the kingdom of Warsaw; to transform the two leagues of
the new territory of Dantzic into two German miles, and, without even
asking my consent, to deprive me of my property. But I am determined to
suffer this injustice and humiliation no longer, and to make the last
sacrifice."

"What are you going to do, my husband?" exclaimed the queen, laying her
hand with an anxious gesture on the arm of her husband. "What
sacrifice?"

"Myself!" said the king, gloomily, "for it is I alone who bring
misfortune on my people. A sinister fatality pursues me, and has pursued
me from my earliest youth. Only one star e