80.] Wilhelmine recalled the past seven years of her life, her two children, whom she had borne to the prince, and the joy that filled his heart as he became a father, although his lawful wife had also borne him children.

She looked around her small, quiet dwelling, arranged in a modest manner, not as the favorite of the Prince of Prussia, but as an unpretending citizen's wife; she thought how oft with privations, with want even, she had had to combat; how oft the ornaments which the prince had sent her in the rare days of abundance had been taken to the pawnbrokers to provide the necessary wants of herself and children.

Her eyes flashed with pride and joy at the thought which she dared to breathe to herself, that not for gold or riches, power or position, had she sold her love, her honor, and her good name.
"It was from pure affinity, from gratitude and affection, that I followed the husband of my heart, although he was a prince," she said.
Still the shame of her existence weighed upon her.

The king had commanded her to hide her head so securely that no one might know her shame, or the levity of the prince.
"Go! and let me never see you again!" Did not this mean that the king would remove her so far that there would not be a possible chance to appear again before him?
Was there not hidden in these words a menace, a warning?
Would not the king revenge on her the sad experiences of his youth?
Perhaps he would punish her for what Doris Ritter had suffered! Doris Ritter! She, too, had loved a crown prince--she, too, had dared to raise her eyes to the future King of Prussia, for which she was cruelly punished, though chaste and pure, and hurled down to the abyss of shame for the crime of loving an heir to the throne.

Beaten, insulted, and whipped through the streets, and then sent to the house of correction at Spandau! Oh, poor, unhappy Doris Ritter! Will the king atone to you--will he revenge the friend of his youth on the mistress of his successor?
The old King Frederick, weary of life, thinks differently from the young crown prince.