"I remember your once saying to me: 'There are glances without a background, void of depth or soul'; but the glances of this friend have unfathomed depths.
"The bonds that held me captive shall no longer restrain me! I--I--but no--I cannot write the word.
"Oh, Emma! How I wish I were a peasant on a lonely mountain height. Last night, it seemed to me as if my native mountains were calling out to me, 'Come home'--'Do come'--'It is good to be with us.' Ah, I would like to come, but cannot.
"Walpurga is a great friend to me at present. I become absorbed in her life, so full of true, natural repose. I find it excessively amusing to behold the court as reflected through her eyes. It seems like a very puppet-play, and we, like two merry children at a raree-show.
"We often sing together, and I have learned some lovely songs from her. Oh, how charmingly independent the country people are.
"'On mountain heights there dwells no sin.' The song is ever haunting me.
"The king departs for the baths to-day: my brother is in his suite. The king requested me to write to him, now and then. I shall not do it."
"Two days later,
"The king knows that I cannot live unless there be flowers in my room, and has given orders to have a fresh bouquet placed there every day. This displeases me. A flower that a friend has stooped to pluck for you is worth more than a thousand artistically arranged bouquets.
"The king has also left orders that bouquets shall be sent daily to Baroness N---- and Countess A----. I think this is only to avoid remarks upon the attentions shown me. I am angry at the king. He shall not have a line from me.