and imperiously,
"Reply to me, I want to know the truth! How is the queen? What hopes
have you?"

"No hopes whatever, your majesty," said Dr. Heim, solemnly. "It is an
organic disease of the heart, and in such cases our skill is powerless.
The queen has but a few hours to live!"

The king staggered back to the wall. He neither spoke nor wept, so great
was his sorrow. The venerable old landgravine went to him and laid her
hand gently on his shoulder. "Hope still, my son," she said, solemnly,
"Louisa still lives, and so long as she lives there is hope. God in His
mercy may yet preserve her to us!"

The king shook his head despairingly. "Ah," he cried in a husky, sombre
voice, "if she were not mine, she would live. But as she is my wife, she
will surely die! But I will see her, I must see her! So long as she
lives she belongs to me!"

"I will go and inform the queen that the king has arrived," said Heim,
and hastened into the sick-room.

A few minutes elapsed, and Louisa's voice exclaimed: "My Frederick! my
beloved husband, come to me!"

The king rushed to her room, the door of which had just been opened by
Dr. Heim. The queen lay on her couch, pale and beautiful as a broken
lily.

"My husband! my beloved friend!" she exclaimed, raising herself and
endeavoring to stretch out her arms toward the king, who stood at her
bedside, but alas, she was unable to do so. "Oh," whispered Louisa,
sadly, "I am a queen, but cannot move my arms!"

The king bent over, and, pressing her against his breast, kissed her
beloved face. Louisa smiled, laid her head on his shoulder and looked at
him long and tenderly. "You are here! You are mine again! But how are
the children? Have you come alone?"

"No," said the king, "our two oldest sons accompany me."

"My sons! Where are they?" exclaimed the queen. "Let me see them, oh,
pray let me see my sons!"

Heim hastened out and returned with the Princes Frederick and William.
With eyes filled with tears, they stepped on tiptoe to the bedside of
the queen.

"My children!" exclaimed Louisa, in a loud, powerful voice, and she
raised herself up. Her maternal love gave her strength to extend her
arms.

"Oh, my children, my beloved children!" She pressed them to her bosom,
kissing them with the passionate tenderness of a mother.

The two young princes, entirely overcome by grief, sank on their knees
at the bedside of their mother. She laid her hands on their heads, as if
to bless them, a