her oldest sons, the queen hastened through the suite
of rooms, hallowed by the remembrances of other days, and which now
seemed to her as beautiful as the halls of a fairy-palace. "How
tasteful, how brilliant!" exclaimed Louisa. "Formerly, the magnificence
of these rooms did not strike me at all; but now I am able to perceive
and appreciate it. Our houses at Memel and Koenigsberg were much plainer,
and I thought of the beauty of our residence at Berlin.--Ah, and there
is my piano! Oh, how often have I longed for it! Will you grant me a
favor, my king and husband?"

"The queen is in her own rooms; she has to ask no favors here, but only
to command," said the king.

"You will then permit me to salute the good spirits of our house with
music, and to sing a hymn of welcome to them?" asked the queen.

The king smilingly nodded, and Louisa, hastening to the piano, quickly
took off her gloves, and sat down on a chair in front of the instrument.
Her fingers swept over the keys in many brilliant cadences. Her face was
cheerful, but gradually she became grave, and, turning her large eyes
toward heaven, her concords were slow and solemn. She thought of the
past--of the day when, seized with forebodings, she sang here a hymn
which she repeated at the peasant's cottage during her flight to
Koenigsberg, when her presentiments were fulfilled. Her hands played
almost spontaneously that simple and beautiful air, and again she sang
with emotion:

"Who never ate his bread with tears,
Who never in the sorrowing hours
Of night, lay sunk in gloomy fears,
He knows you not, ye Heavenly Powers!"[49]

[Footnote 49:

"Wer nie sein Brot mit Thraenen ass,
Wer nie die kummervollen Naechte
Auf seinem Bette weinend sass,
Der kennt Euch nicht, Ihr himmlischen Maechte!"

CHAPTER LIV.

THE EMPEROR FRANCIS AND METTERNICH.

The Emperor Francis was pacing his cabinet in evident uneasiness and
excitement. Count Clement Metternich, since Stadion's withdrawal from
the cabinet, prime minister and confidential adviser, was standing at
the emperor's desk, and whenever Francis, in walking up and down, turned
his back to him, a scornful smile overspread his handsome countenance;
this manifestation of contempt disappeared, however, as soon as his
master turned again toward him.

"It will stir up a great deal of ill-feeling throughout Germany," said
the Emperor Francis, hastily. "No one will believe that I, who