At the break of day, about four o’clock, the King arrived with the two eldest sons. The sky was overcast. Having been advised of the certainty of her death the King was completely crushed with grief. When her grandmother said that with God nothing is impossible, the bitter words escaped him: “Ah! if she were not mine she would live; but as she is my wife, she is sure to die.”
When he entered her room she said with a feeble voice: “My dear friend, how happy I am to see you!” Though the King made the greatest effort he could not completely control his grief. “Am I then so dangerously ill?” she asked him. After he had somewhat reassured her, she asked again: “Who came with you?”
“Fritz and William,” answered the King.
“Oh, how happy I am!” she said, while her hand trembled in his.
“I will fetch them,” he cried, hardly able to master his feelings. He immediately returned leading both sons to their mother’s bedside.
“Ah, dear Fritz, dear William, are you here?” she said to them. They wept aloud, went out, and returned when the paroxysm of her pain had subsided.
In the meantime it had come to be nearly nine o’clock. A new paroxysm came on. “Air! air!” gasped the Queen. The doctor came in and tried to raise her arms, but she was not able to keep them there, and as they sank she said: “Ah, nothing can help me but death!” The King sat beside her and held her right hand. Her sister, the Princess Solms, kneeling in front of her, had grasped her left hand. Her weary head rested on the bosom of her friend Madame von Berg. At ten minutes before nine, July 19, 1810, came the last seizure of pain. Louise bent her head gently back, closed her eyes, and cried: “Lord Jesus, take me quickly!”
Five minutes later she had breathed her life away in a last deep sigh.
The King had sunk back, but now drew himself quickly together and, amid kisses and tears, closed the eyes of his Louise, “his life’s star, which had guided him so faithfully our life’s dark journey,” as the poet sang. Then he hurried out and brought his two sons, who, weeping bitterly, kissed the hands of their departed mother.
The beautiful features of the Queen were not in the least distorted. Death seemed to glorify her countenance. Her mouth bore an expression of victory and peace. The features of “the most beautiful woman in the King’s lands” have been preserved by Rauch’s master hand in the marble monument which he was later commissioned to chisel for her tomb in Charlottenburg.
On July 20 the King left High-Zieritz with his children, and a week later the Queen’s remains were brought to Berlin. The whole city was in mourning, not a heart remained untouched; tears flowed, and even men wept as the funeral procession passed by. The body lay in state in the castle until the thirtieth. Then the casket was sealed and laid away for a time in the cathedral. On December 23 it was taken to Charlottenburg and placed in the mausoleum which the King had had built after plans by the famous architect Schinkel. Over the vault rises a building in the form of a Greek temple. The roof of the antechamber is supported by four granite columns. The light falls from above through blue glass, which casts a magical light over its interior. On the memorial tablet the King caused the simple words to be engraved: “According to God’s Will.” In the year 1815 the marble figure of the Queen was placed in the mausoleum. The transfigured Queen lies on a couch as though in peaceful slumber. Her head, with its flowing hair crowned with a diadem, is slightly inclined toward the right. The beautiful arms, clad in short sleeves, are lightly crossed below the breast, which the right hand touches expressively. One foot is crossed over the other, and the whole beautiful figure is half revealed by a simple, flowing garment.
Louise was lovely in life and her monument shows her lovely in death. She rests in the chamber, where trials can no longer touch her, until on the day of resurrection her decayed body shall be awakened from the tomb to a more beautiful life. More enduring even than marble is the memory which she has left behind in our hearts. She gave to her people and the whole German fatherland an example of piety, purity, singleness of heart, and true, womanly virtues; a model of humility in fortune, courageous faith in misfortune, of devoted patriotism, of faithfulness in small things as well as in great things. Therefore her influence has been felt, even after the night came, in which no man can work.
The rise of the Prussian people in the great war for liberation from Italian oppression and craftiness, was principally inspired by the memory of the never-to-be-forgotten Queen, “who always carried the banner of hope before us,” as the poet Heinrich von Kleist sung on her last birthday. Her memory and example inspired a great multitude of women and girls to sacrifice their gold rings for iron ones, which bore the inscription: “I gave gold for iron.”
In the year 1813, on the birthday anniversary of the departed, King Frederick William the Third instituted the highest order of the soldiers of liberty, “the Iron Cross.” After the battle of Leipzig (October 18, 1813) he hurried from the battlefield to the thanksgiving service in the Berlin cathedral and then to the mausoleum in Charlottenburg to place a wreath on the casket of the perfect one. He founded the Order of Louise, August 3, 1814, as a decoration for the most zealous among the army nurses. Since 1840 he has rested beside her.
Her oldest son, King Frederick William the Fourth, said, in the year 1848: “The unity of Germany is dear to my heart; this idea is an inheritance from my mother.” But her second son, William, when the nephew of his mother’s old arch-enemy declared war against Germany on the anniversary of Louise’s death, July 19, 1870, knelt at his mother’s coffin in the tomb at Charlottenburg before he went to meet the enemy, and prayed for a blessing from above. It accompanied him through many battles and victories, until he arrived before the palace at Versailles. He returned to Berlin March 17, 1871, as Emperor of the united German fatherland, crowned with laurels, but giving the honor to God alone, and stood once more at his mother’s grave in Charlottenburg. How wonderfully through the grace of God had all her hopes been realized!
The following is a chronological statement of the principal events in Prussian history connected with this volume:
LIFE STORIES FOR YOUNG PEOPLETranslated from the German byGEORGE P. UPTON24 Volumes Now ReadyHistorical and BiographicalBarbarossaWilliam of OrangeMaria TheresaThe Maid of OrleansFrederick the GreatThe Little DauphinHerman and ThusneldaThe Swiss HeroesMarie Antoinette’s YouthThe Duke of BrittanyLouise, Queen of PrussiaThe Youth of the Great ElectorEmperor William FirstElizabeth, Empress of AustriaMusical BiographyBeethovenMozartJohann Sebastian BachJoseph HaydnLegendaryFrithjof SagaGudrunThe NibelungsWilliam TellArnold of WinkelriedUndineIllustrated. Each 60 centsnetA. C. McCLURG & CO.,Chicago
LIFE STORIES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
Translated from the German byGEORGE P. UPTON
24 Volumes Now Ready
Historical and Biographical
Musical Biography
Legendary
Illustrated. Each 60 centsnet
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