"No, no, Frau Nicholls," he said, "I am not a poor King. I am a rich King, blessed with such subjects."
Then he and the Queen sent many messages to the poor Mennonites, and, when the two had gone, promised each other that when good times again would come they would not fail to reward them, and the King did not forget it.
To Memel, too, came Prince William, the King's brother, and his wife the Princess Marianne. They had fled from Dantzic, and their only little daughter, the tiny Princess Amelia, had died of cold on the way.
Sometimes the children of the "Stork's Nest" saw this poor lady walking with the Queen, and they all gazed at her with great interest because her name was the same as Marianne's.
Ludwig Brandt remained, too, in Memel, and was much with the Englishmen and went almost every day to the reception room of the old Countess von Voss, where the talk was the hottest against Napoleon.
"The Prussians," he told the Professor, "may be conquered, but never will they forgive Napoleon's treatment of the Queen. There he went too far."
He further told the Professor, but this was a secret, that the students of Königsberg were forming plans by which they hoped to defeat Napoleon. He was concerned in this affair and hoped to do more that way than by joining the army.
And so the days passed at Memel. Often the children saw the Queen walking, or taking the air in one of the high-runner sleighs. Carl and Otto and the Princes were often together, and Marianne and Pauline assisted with the lint. There was no stiffness as about a court. They all had become friends in the time of trouble.
Then, presently, the Professor went to Königsberg to fulfil his duties as Professor.
"But remain here with Joachim, dear wife," he said. "Who knows that the French will not advance upon Königsberg? You know now that Wolf and Rudolph are safe, so you can rest here and not worry."