om Berlin, was this Louisa's place: she had trimmed it
up into a little jewel, of the Dutch type,--potherb gardens,
training-schools for young girls, and the like;--a favorite abode of
hers, when she was at liberty for recreation. But her life was busy and
earnest: she was helpmate, not in name only, to an ever-busy man. They
were married young; a marriage of love withal. Young Friedrich Wilhelm's
courtship, wedding in Holland; the honest trustful walk and conversation
of the two Sovereign Spouses, their journeyings together, their mutual
hopes, fears and manifold vicissitudes; till Death, with stern beauty,
shut it in:--all is human, true and wholesome in it; interesting to look
upon, and rare among sovereign persons.

Not but that he had his troubles with his womankind. Even with this his
first Wife, whom he loved truly, and who truly loved him, there were
scenes; the Lady having a judgment of her own about everything that
passed, and the Man being choleric withal. Sometimes, I have heard, "he
would dash his hat at her feet," saying symbolically, "Govern you, then,
Madam! Not the Kurfurst-Hat; a Coif is my wear, it seems!" [Forster,
_Friedrich Wilhelm I. Konig von Preussen_ (Potsdam, 1834), i. 177.] Yet
her judgment was good; and he liked to have it on the weightiest things,
though her powers of silence might halt now and then. He has been known,
on occasion, to run from his Privy-Council to her apartment, while a
complex matter was debating, to ask her opinion, hers too, before it was
decided. Excellent Louisa; Princess full of beautiful piety, good-sense
and affection; a touch of the Nassau-Heroic in her. At the moment of her
death, it is said, when speech had fled, he felt, from her hand which
lay in his, three slight, slight pressures: "Farewell!" thrice mutely
spoken in that manner,--not easy to forget in this world. [Wegfuhrer,
_Leben der Kurfurstin Luise_ (Leipzig, 1838), p. 175.]

His second Wife, Dorothea,--who planted the Lindens in Berlin, and did
other husbandries, of whom we have heard, fell far short of Louisa
in many things; but not in tendency to advise, to remonstrate, and
plaintively reflect on the finished and unalterable. Dreadfully thrifty
lady, moreover; did much in dairy produce, farming of town-rates,
provision-taxes: not to speak again of that Tavern she was thought to
have in Berlin, and to draw custom to in an oblique manner! What scenes
she had with Friedrich her stepson, we have seen. "Ah,