obscurity! How
they would bow and bend, if I were called Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt, and
the lawful wife of the prince! Did they not also bend and bow before
the first wife, Elizabeth von Braunschweig, [Footnote: The first wife
of Prince Frederick William of Prussia was the Princess Elizabeth von
Braunschweig, the niece of Frederick the Great. The crown prince was
scarcely twenty-one years of age when betrothed to her. After four years
they were separated, on account of the improper conduct of the princess,
who was banished to Stettin. There she lived until her death in 1840,
after seventy-one years of imprisonment. Never during these seventy-one
years had the Princess 'Lisbeth', as she was called, dared to leave
Stettin. There she was obliged to amuse herself. Her concerts and
evening entertainments were celebrated. The second wife of the crown
prince of Prussia was Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt, the mother of Frederick
William III. She died in 1805.] although every one knew of her shameful
conduct--knew of her intrigues with lackeys and common soldiers? Do
they not now bow before her, although she is banished to Stettin for her
infamous conduct, and lives there a prisoner? A fine imprisonment that!
The whole town is her prison, and when she appears in public every one
stands upon the street to salute the crown princess of Prussia. But
when they see me they pass carelessly by, or they look at me with a
contemptuous laugh, and fancy themselves miracles of virtue, and free
from sin. My only crime is that my father was not a prince, and that I
am of low birth. Am I to blame for that--to blame that the man whom I
love, and who loves me, cannot marry me and make me his lawful wife?"

"Ho! gee, ho!" cried the driver to his horses. "Get up!" The troops had
passed, the highway was now free, and uninterrupted rolled the heavy,
creaking wagon into Berlin. Within all was quiet. The two children and
nurse were asleep. The driver was half asleep, his head hung shaking
about; only now and then he started to give his horses a crack, which
the thin, wheezing animals did not heed in the least. Wilhelmine alone
slept not; in her soul there was no quiet, no peace. She grumbled
at fate, and at mankind. An unspeakable anxiety seized her for the
immediate future, and fear of the king's anger. As the sun was setting
they reached Berlin, and were entering the town, when the guard, in
royal livery, sprang through the gate, calling, in a loud voice,