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.