第18章

THE OATH OF FIDELITY.

Long after nightfall the nurse heard her mistress rapidly pacing her room, and talking aloud to herself. Soon, however, Sleep spread her soothing wings over Louisa, and she heard no more the rapid steps and loud talking of her mistress, nor the rolling of a carriage which stopped before the door, and the quick, vigorous steps of a man mounting the stairs. But Wilhelmine heard them. Breathless she stood, listening to the approaching footsteps, for she felt that they had to decide her future--the weal and woe of her children! Was it he, her beloved, the father of her children? or was it the king's bailiff who had followed her, and came to seize her?

Nearer they came; the bell was hastily, violently rung. Wilhelmine uttered a cry of delight. She recognized the voice, the commanding manner, and rushed through the anteroom to open the door. The prince encircled her in his arms, pressed her to his beating heart, and, lifting her up, bore her into the room.

"Why did you leave Potsdam, Wilhelmine? Tell me quickly, why did you do it?" asked the prince, tenderly kissing her, as he sat her upon the divan at his side. Overcome with her tears, she could not answer. "What mean these tears? Has any one dared to wound your feelings or injure you?""Yes, Frederick, and he who injures me hazards nothing--for it is the king! I met him in the park at Potsdam this morning. He has crushed me with his scorn and anger. He has threatened me with a fearful punishment--no less than the house of correction at Spandau!

He has told me that the spinning-wheel is in readiness for me if Iexcite his further contempt."

A cry of fury escaped the prince. Springing up, he paced the room with rapid strides. Wilhelmine remained upon the divan, but her tears did not prevent her following the prince with a searching glance--to read his face, pale with rage. "I must bear it," he cried, beating his forehead. "I cannot protect those that I love!"A ray of joy lighted up Wilhelmine's face as she listened, but it disappeared with the tears which flowed afresh. "I am a poor, unfortunate child," she sobbed, "whom every one despises, and fears not to injure, who has no one to counsel or protect her, and who is lost if God does not have compassion upon her."The prince rushed to her, seizing both hands. "Wilhelmine, do not drive me mad with sorrow," he cried, trembling with excitement and anger. "Is it my fault that I cannot protect you against him? Have Inot defended you from all the rest of the world? Have I ever allowed any one to treat you with contempt?""I have never given occasion for it, dearest. I have studiously avoided all men, to escape their contempt and scorn. Shame is hard to bear, fearfully hard. I felt it today, as his beautiful eyes flashed upon me with contempt, as his haughty language crushed me to the earth. This is the yoke, Frederick William, that I and my children must bear to our graves!""No, Wilhelmine, not as long as we live--only while he lives! Wait, only wait; let me rise from want and slavery; let the day come which makes me free--which exalts me: my first act will be to lift the yoke from you and our children, and woe to those--a thousand times woe to those who would hold it fast! Only be patient, Wilhelmine, submit, and bear with me the hard and distressing present. Tell me, my child, my loved one, why did you leave Potsdam so suddenly?""I was afraid, Frederick. A kind of madness seized me at the thought of the king's bailiffs carrying me off to Spandau; a nameless anxiety confused my mind, and I only realized that I must escape--that I must conceal myself. I felt in greater security here than at Potsdam for the night.""And you fled without leaving me any sign or message to tell me whither you had gone! Oh, Wilhelmine, what if I had not divined your hiding-place, and had awaited at Potsdam in painful anxiety?""Then I should have fled from here at daybreak, leaving my children, and in some quiet, obscure retreat have concealed myself from every eye--even your own.""Would you have hidden yourself from me?" cried the prince, encircling her in his arms, and pressing her to his heart.

"Yes, Frederick, when your heart did not prompt you where to find me, then it would have been a proof that you were indifferent to me.

When I cannot lean upon your love, then there is no longer any protection or abiding-place for me in the world, and the grave will be my refuge.""But you see my heart revealed you to me, and I am here," said the prince, smiling.

"Yes, Heaven be praised, you have come to me," she cried, exultingly, throwing her arms about his neck, and kissing him passionately. "You are here; I no longer dread the old king's anger, and his fearful words fall as spent arrows at my feet. You are here, king of my heart; now I have only one thing to dread.""What is that, Wilhelmine?"

She bent close to his ear, and whispered: "I fear that you are untrue to me; that there is some ground for truth in those anonymous letters, which declare that you would discard me and my children also, for you love another--not one other, but many.""Jealousy, again jealous!" the prince sighed.