at the palace to which they were not
invited.

Even in these fearful times, balls and fetes were given at the court.
Anxious and sad faces were hidden under gay masks, and the loud sound of
music and dancing drowned the heavy sighs of the desponding. While the
Austrians, Russians, and Prussians strove with each other on the bloody
battle-field, the Berlin ladies danced the graceful Parisienne dances
with the noble prisoners. This was now the mode.

Truly there were many aching hearts in this gay and merry city, but they
hid their grief and tears in their quiet, lonely chambers, and their
clouded brows cast no shadow upon the laughing, rosy faces of the
beautiful women whose brothers, husbands, and lovers, were far away on
the bloody battle-field If not exactly willing to accept these strangers
as substitutes, they were at least glad to seek distraction in their
society. After all, it is impossible to be always mourning, always
complaining, always leading a cloistered life. In the beginning, the
oath of constancy and remembrance, which all had sworn at parting, had
been religiously preserved, and Berlin had the physiognomy of a lovely,
interesting, but dejected widow, who knew and wished to know nothing of
the joys of life. But suddenly Nature had asserted her own inexorable
laws, which teach forgetfulness and inspire hope. The bitterest ears
were dried--the heaviest sighs suppressed; people had learned to
reconcile themselves to life, and to snatch eagerly at every ray
of sunshine which could illumine the cold, hopeless desert, which
surrounded them.

They had seen that it was quite possible to live comfortably, even
while wild war was blustering and raging without--that weak, frail human
nature, refused to be ever strained, ever excited, in the expectation
of great events. In the course of these three fearful years, even the
saddest had learned again to laugh, jest, and be gay, in spite of
death and defeat. They loved their fatherland--they shouted loudly and
joyfully over the great victories of their king--they grieved sincerely
over his defeats; but they could not carry their animosities so far as
to be cold and strange to the captive officers who were compelled by the
chances of war to remain in Berlin.

They had so long striven not to seek to revenge themselves upon these
powerless captives, that they had at last truly forgotten they were
enemies; and these handsome, entertaining, captivating, gallant
gentleme