Oh, a real trouble and a real heart-sorrow is this!" "Indeed it is," said Wilhelmine, in her heart, "a real trouble and a real heart-sorrow.

How all these men would present arms, and salute my children, if they had been born to a throne instead of obscurity! How they would bow and bend, if I were called Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt, and the lawful wife of the prince! Did they not also bend and bow before the first wife, Elizabeth von Braunschweig, [Footnote: The first wife of Prince Frederick William of Prussia was the Princess Elizabeth von Braunschweig, the niece of Frederick the Great.

The crown prince was scarcely twenty-one years of age when betrothed to her.

After four years they were separated, on account of the improper conduct of the princess, who was banished to Stettin.

There she lived until her death in 1840, after seventy-one years of imprisonment.