to. The Queen kept shrieking, her firmness had
quite left her: she wrung her hands, and ran in despair up and down the
room. The King's face was so disfigured with rage, it was frightful
to look upon. The little ones were on their knees, begging for
me,"--[Wilhelmina, i. 265-267.]--poor little beings, what a group:
Amelia, the youngest girl, about six; Henri, in his bits of trousers,
hardly over four!--For the rest, I perceive, this room was on the first
or a lower floor, and such noises were very audible. The Guard had
turned out at the noise; and a crowd was collecting to see and hear:
"Move on! Move on!"

"The King had now changed his tune: he admitted that my Brother was
still alive; but vowed horribly he would put him to death, and lay me
fast within four walls for the rest of my life. He accused me of being
the Prince's accomplice, whose crime was high treason;--also of having
an intrigue of love with Katte, to whom, he said, I had borne several
children." The timid Gouvernante flamed up at this unheard-of insult:
"'That is not true,' said she, fiercely; 'whoever has told your Majesty
such a thing has told a lie!' 'Oh, spare my Brother, and I will marry
the Duke of Weissenfels,' whimpered I; but in the great noise he did
not hear; and while I strove to repeat it louder, Sonsfeld clapt her
handkerchief on my face.

"Hustling aside to get rid of the handkerchief, I saw Katte crossing
the Square. Four soldiers were conducting him to the King; trunks, my
Brother's and his own, sealed, were coming on in the rear. Pale and
downcast, he took off his hat to salute me,"--poor Katte, to me always
so prostrate in silent respect, and now so unhappy! A moment after, the
King, hearing he was come, went out exclaiming, 'Now I shall have proof
about the scoundrel Fritz and the offscouring (CANAILLE) Wilhelmina;
clear proofs to cut the heads off them.'"--The two Hofdames again
interfered; and one of them, Kamecke it was, rebuked him; told him,
in the tone of a prophetess, To take care what he was doing. Whom his
Majesty gazed into with astonishment, but rather with respect than with
anger, saying, "Your intentions are good!"

And so his Majesty flung out, seeking Katte; and vanished: Wilhelmina
saw no more of him for about a year after; being ordered to her room,
and kept prisoner there on low diet, with sentries guarding her doors,
and no outlook but the worst horror her imagination pleased to paint.

This is the celebrated a