, Louisa," said the king, riding up, "we have nearly reached our
destination. There are the spires of Berlin; in half an hour we shall be
there. But how pale you are, and your lips quiver! Are you unwell? Are
you suffering?"

"No," she said; "I live only in my heart, which is throbbing as though
it were ready to burst. Oh, I believe that one may die of joy. But such
a death must be very happy!"

"But you shall live in joy," said the king, smiling. "Farewell now,
Louisa; I must leave you. According to the ceremonial, I must be with
the princes at the head of the procession. _Au revoir_ at our house in
Berlin!"

"_Au revoir_," said the queen, leaning back on the cushions of the
carriage. "Charlotte," she said to the princess sitting at her side,
"when we are near the gate, tell me. I want to be surprised, and, until
I have reached the dear city, I will look at the sky, and remember that
it is the same sky that was over us at Memel in the days of our deepest
affliction." She threw back her head. Her eyes, blue and pure as heaven
itself, were looking up, and the bright firmament seemed to inspire her
with devout and grateful thoughts. Prayers were in her heart, and the
memories of other days mingled with her prayers. It was exactly sixteen
years since she made her entry into Berlin as a happy young bride. At
that time, life was as the flowery spring, and she saw before her in her
hopeful dreams only a world of happiness, love, and glory. She was then
a bride, beautiful, loving, and beloved by her young husband, the
inheritor of a kingdom. Now, at her second entry, she was sixteen years
older, a matron of thirty-four, and a mother of seven children. The
storms of life had passed over her, destroying many of her hopes. Her
heart had been shaken as well as the throne of her husband. The ills of
common mortals had befallen the king and his consort, and it was not
their innate dignity and majesty that had enabled them to bear up, but
their warm human feeling; it was not their self-reliance that had
consoled them, but the faith that God, the Father of all, would be
merciful to them, if, conscious of their impotence, they recognized His
providence and believed in His wisdom and goodness.

The queen thought of all this, and compared the entry of the bride,
rejoicing in the dreams of her young love and in the reality of worldly
power, with the entry of the mother and queen, disappointed in her hopes
and robbed of her dominion.