"The king asked him to
suggest measures by which the liabilities we had incurred might be
discharged. But Altenstein replied that he did not know of any, and he
then proposed to the king to pay the debt by ceding the province of
Silesia to Napoleon."

"Dreadful!" exclaimed Madame von Borg, indignantly. "A Prussian minister
does not shrink from advising the king, although we are at peace, to
sacrifice the best province that has remained, and which even the
defeats of Jena and Friedland, and the intriguing days of Tilsit did not
endanger!"

"And if we do not consent to such a sacrifice (and we shall not), what
next?" exclaimed the queen, despairingly. "Napoleon will send his army
and expel or imprison us, as he treated the unfortunate royal family of
Spain. Oh, Caroline, I shall be uneasy night and day. Dreadful
apprehensions are constantly meeting me. I think of Spain, and fears
oppress me lest my husband have the same fate as King Charles. Believe
me, his life, his liberty is threatened, and he is every day in danger
of being suddenly seized and taken away as a hostage, until we have
fulfilled the behests of the tyrant, and given him all that still
belongs to us--our honor, our crown, and, perhaps, our lives. We are
surrounded by French spies: every word, every look, is watched; only a
pretext is sought to ruin us, and it will be found, as it was in Spain.
Oh, he will take my husband from me! he will drag him as a prisoner from
one place to another as he did the King of Spain; he will sow the seeds
of discord in our family as he did in that unhappy country. He, the
tyrant Napoleon, brought about a quarrel between the Infante and his
father; he compelled, with his iron hand, the unfortunate King Charles
to write that his son's guilt had raised a barrier between father and
son. But whose hand was it that constructed it? Can there be any doubt?
It was his alone! Oh, will there be a time, and shall I live to see it,
when the hand of God will at length write the 'Mene, mene, tekel,' on
his wall?"

"Your majesty will live to see that time," exclaimed Madame von Berg.
"You will witness the judgment of Heaven and of the nations overthrowing
the tyrant."

The queen shook her head. "No," she whispered, "I shall not live to see
it. I think this will be the last time that I celebrate my birthday
here."[51]

[Footnote 51: The queen's own words.]

"Oh, Louisa," cried Madame von Berg, bursting into tears, "do not titter
such