"The army of Frederick the Great, the army of my king has nothing to fear from the hordes of the barbarian!" exclaimed the queen, with flaming eyes.
The king shrugged his shoulders. "I stand in need of allies," he said; "alone I am not able to sustain such a struggle. If the courts of Northern Germany should comply with my invitation, if they should ally themselves with me, finally, if Austria should accept my proposition and unite with me, in that case I should hope for success. All this will be decided to-day, for I am now looking for the return of two important envoys--for the return of Hardenberg, who has delivered my propositions in Vienna, and for the return of Lombard, whom I have sent to the smaller German courts to offer them an offensive and defensive alliance in opposition to Napoleon's Confederation of the Rhine. I confess to you, Louisa, I await their replies tremblingly; I cannot think of any thing else; this feeling has haunted me all day, and now you know why I even forgot to greet you this morning. I intended not to betray the uneasiness filling my heart, but who is able to withstand such an enchantress as you? Now you know every thing!"
"And do you know already the new misdeed which the tyrant has committed?" asked the queen. "Do you know that he is ruling and commanding on German soil as if Germany were nothing but a French province, and all princes nothing but his vassals? In a time of peace he has caused a German citizen to be dragged from his house; in a German state he has ordered a court-martial to meet, and this court-martial has dared to pass sentence of death upon a German citizen merely because he, a German bookseller, had circulated a pamphlet deploring Germany's degradation!"
"I have already known it for three days," said the king, gloomily.
"I concealed it from you in order not to grieve you."
"But public opinion now-a-days conceals nothing," exclaimed Louisa, ardently, "and public opinion throughout Germany cries for vengeance against the tyrant who is murdering German honor and German laws in this manner! In every city subions have been opened for Palm's family, for his young wife and his little girls. The poor as well as the rich hasten to offer, according to their means, gifts of love to the widow and orphans of the martyr; and believe me, the money which Germany is now collecting for Palm's family will be dragon's seeds from which armed warriors will spring one day, and Germany's vengeance will blossom from this blood so unjustly shed. Permit me, my friend, to contribute my share to these seeds of love and vengeance. They brought to me this morning a list on which the most distinguished families had subscribed considerable sums for Palm's family, and I was asked whether my ladies of honor and the members of my household would be allowed to subscribe for the same purpose.
I should like to allow it and do even more--I should like to contribute my mite, too, to the subions. Will you permit me to do so?"
"They will take that again for a demonstration," said the king, uneasily; "they will say we were stirring up strife and discontent among the Germans. I believe it would be prudent not to make a public demonstration prematurely, but to wait and keep quiet till the right time has come."
"And when will the right time come, if it has not come now?" exclaimed the queen, mournfully. "Remember, my beloved husband, all the mortifications and humiliations which you have received of late at the hands of this despot, and which, in your noble and generous resignation, did not resent in order to preserve peace to your people. Remember that he alone prevailed on you to occupy Hanover, that he warranted its possession to you, and then when your troops had occupied it, applied secretly, and without saying a word to you, to England, offering to make peace with her by proposing to restore Hanover to her."
"It was a grievous insult," exclaimed the king, with unusual vivacity; "I replied to it by placing my army on the war footing."
"But our armies remain inactive," said the queen, sadly, "while General Knobelsdorf is negotiating for peace with Bonaparte in Paris."
"He is to negotiate until I am fully prepared," said Frederick William--"until I know what German princes will be for and against me. Above all, it is necessary to know our forces in order to mature our plans. Hence, I must know who is on my side."
"God is on your side, and so is Germany's honor," exclaimed the queen; "moreover, you may safely rely at least on one faithful friend."
"You refer to the Emperor of Russia?" asked the king. "True, I received yesterday a letter from the emperor, in which he announced 'that he would come to my assistance with an army of seventy thousand men under his personal command, as a faithful friend and neighbor, and appear in time on the battle-field, no matter whether it be on the Rhine or beyond it.'"
"Oh, the noble and faithful friend!" exclaimed the queen, joyfully.
"Yes," said the king, thoughtfully, "he promises a great deal, but Russian promises march more rapidly than Russian armies. I am afraid events will carry us along so resistlessly that we cannot wait until the Emperor of Russia has arrived with his army. As soon as Napoleon suspects that my preparations are meant for him, he will himself declare war against me. He is always prepared; his army is always ready for war. Whatever he may be, we cannot deny that he is a brave and great general; and I do not know," added the king, in a low voice, "I do not know whether we have got a general able to cope with him. Oh, Louisa, I envy your courage, your reliance on our cause. Do you feel then, no uneasiness whatever?"
