side. "Here," she said, sighing, and handing the paper to
him, "take it, the sacrifice has been made. Will my people," she added,
weeping, "will my children be hereafter grateful to me for having
humbled myself for their sake? Will they ever think how painful must
have been these sacrifices? Will they remember and thank me for them in
happier days?"

"Your majesty," said Stein, enthusiastically, "never will they forget
such devotion to your country; and when our great-grandchildren talk of
these days of wretchedness, they will say: 'Prussia could be
humiliated, but she could never perish; for Louisa was her good genius,
praying, acting, and suffering for her.'"

"Well," whispered the queen, sadly, "my slumber in the grave will be
sweet." Starting suddenly, she laid her hand on her heart. "Oh," she
groaned, "how long before this troubled life of mine shall cease!--I
will tell you something, Baron von Stein. Death is not far from me, and
I feel that he comes nearer every day. There is no future for me on
earth. But God's will be done. I read the other day somewhere,
'Sufferings and afflictions are blessings when they are overcome.' Oh,
how true that is! I myself say, in the midst of my afflictions that they
are blessings! How much nearer I am to God!--how clear and true my ideas
of the immortality of the soul! Seen through these tears, the solemn
facts of the future come to me with resistless power. Adversity, if
rightly used, does instruct and bless. I do not complain therefore that
I have been called to weep." A low knocking at the door interrupted her,
and the footman announced the arrival of Prince William.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

PRINCE WILLIAM.

The queen met her husband's brother with a pleasant smile, and offered
him her hand. "I suppose, my brother, you come to bid me farewell?" she
asked.

"I come to get from my noble sister the letter that I am to deliver to
the Emperor Napoleon," said the prince, respectfully kissing the hand of
his sister-in-law.

Louisa turned her eyes toward the minister. "The king knew, then, that
you were to request me to write the letter?"

"Yes, but he forbade me to say that he deemed it necessary. It was to
depend on your majesty's unbiassed judgment whether it should be written
or not."

"You see, my sister," exclaimed the prince, "I had no doubt whatever as
to your decision."

"Nor I that you would set out to-day," said Louisa, smiling.

"But will your majesty pardon