tion into less
impetuous channels. "Oh, I know that all Prussia idolizes her beautiful
queen, and henceforth I shall not wonder at it. Happy those who are
permitted to bear your chains!"

She cast on him a glance so contemptuous that Napoleon shrank, and
lowered his eyes. "Sire," she said, "no one who bears chains is happy,
and your majesty--who once said to the Italians, 'You need not fear me,
for I have come to break your chains and to deliver you from degrading
servitude!'--will not now reduce a state to servitude. For to wrest it
from its legitimate sovereign, and to compel it to submit to another
prince is chaining it--to distribute a people like merchandise, is
reducing them to slavery. Sire, I dare beg your majesty to leave us our
nationality and our honor! I dare beg you in the name of my children to
leave them their inheritance and their rights."

"Their rights?" asked Napoleon. "Only he has them who knows how to
maintain them. What do you call the rights of your children?"

"Sire, I refer to their birth, their name, and history. By their birth,
God conferred on them the right to rule over Prussia. And the Prussian
monarchy is rooted in the hearts of the people. Oh, your majesty, do not
overthrow it! Honor in us the crown adorning your own victorious head!
Sovereigns ought to respect each other, that their people may never lose
the respect due to them; sovereigns ought to support and strengthen each
other, to enable them to meet their enemies now carried away by the
insane ideas of a so-called new era--ideas that brought the heads of
Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette to the scaffold. Sire, princes are not
always safe, and harmony among them is indispensable; but it is not
strengthening one's own power to weaken that of others--it is not adding
lustre to one's own crown to tarnish another's. O sire; in the name of
all monarchies--nay, in the name of your own, now shedding so radiant a
light over the whole world, I pray for our crown, our people, and our
frontiers!"

"The Prussians," said Napoleon, rising, "could not have found a more
beautiful and eloquent advocate than your majesty!"

He paced the room several times, his hands folded behind him. The queen
had also risen, but she stood still, and looked in breathless suspense
at Napoleon, whose cold face seemed to warm a little with humane
emotion. He approached, and fixed his eyes in admiration on her sad but
noble countenance. "Your majesty," he said, "I be