"Thanks, my Louisa! thanks for your joyful love. Your eyes
gladden my life, and your voice is the only music that can lull my
grief. That is the reason I come to you now. I seek here consolation in
my affliction, for when you help me to bear the burden, it is less
oppressive. I have received two letters to-day which gave me pain, and
which I desire to communicate to you."

"I shall be grateful to you, my husband, for doing so," said the queen.
"Come, let us sit down together, and communicate the letters to me. Who
wrote them? Whence did they come?"

"One is from Koenigsberg, from our daughter Charlotte."

"From Charlotte!" exclaimed the queen, starting. "Has any thing happened
to her? Has she been taken ill?"

"No, she is well, and nothing has happened to her. She is, on the
contrary, in excellent spirits, and, like all young girls, wishes to
dress well. She writes to me, asking me to send her money that she may
renew her winter wardrobe. Here is the letter."

The queen quickly glanced over it. "Oh, the dear, good child," she
exclaimed, "how tenderly she loves us--how prettily and affectionately
she gives expression to her feelings! And yet she often appears
outwardly cold and indifferent.--She resembles her noble father: she
does not wear her heart on her tongue, but it throbs lovingly in her
bosom. She is seemingly reserved and haughty, but she is affectionate.
If God permits her to live I anticipate a brilliant future for her."[35]

[Footnote 35: The very words of the queen.--Vide "Queen Louisa," p. 302.
This prophecy was fulfilled, for the Princess Charlotte afterward
married the Emperor of Russia.]

"A brilliant future!" echoed the king; "for _my_ daughter--for the
daughter of a king without a kingdom--of a man who is so poor as to be
unable to gratify her just and modest wishes! She asks for money to
replenish her winter wardrobe. Now, do you know what I have written to
her? I have sent her five dollars, and given her at the same time the
wretched consolation to be content with that sum, for it was all I could
spare."

"Well," said the queen, with a gentle smile, "at all events, five
dollars will enable her to buy a warm winter dress, and by and by our
finances will improve."

"I do not see any such prospect," exclaimed the king, vehemently.

"All our resources are exhausted; all the public funds are gone, and
even your generosity will be unable to create new ones. My noble queen,
in generous self-deni