"'It is not stated, your Majesty.'
"The King seized a glass of water and drank it standing.
"'Now sit,' cried he in relief, as if he thought it all foolishness.
"Soon after the Crown Princess became Queen she went with her husband on a journey through his realm. It was the first time that a King of Prussia had taken his Queen with him so far from Berlin, and Ludwig says the people were delighted.
"Baron von Sternberg comes in now and then to see mother, and he is always full of court gossip. At Stargard, in Pomerania, he says, the King reviewed the troops and then the Queen started towards Custrin. At one of the villages the people surrounded the royal carriage and begged our Queen to alight and have some refreshment they had prepared.
"At once she left the carriage and went right into their houses, seeing their children and talking with the villagers.
"They were delighted, the Baron said.
"At Dantzic there were great ceremonies, and the amber workers gave the Queen a most lovely necklace. We hear that she wore it all the time she was in that city. As the Queen loves the country, she made many excursions. One was to Karlsberg, and now they will always call the spot where she stood 'Louisa's Grove.'
"It would take too long to tell everything, how the Queen stayed a week in the old palace at Königsberg, and the people, to please her Majesty, who always loves to do good, gave a great dinner to the poor, and everywhere she stepped flowers were strewn before her. So in love with our Queen were the people of Königsberg, that a large body of citizens insisted on going with her to Warsaw. As they were going down a steep hill, because of the carelessness of the coachman, our Queen's carriage was overturned. The Countess von Voss, declaring him to be drunk, reproved him very sharply. But our Queen can never stand seeing people unhappy. She touched the Countess on the arm. 'Thank God, we are not hurt,' she said, 'let it pass over quietly, for the accident has frightened our people much more than it has us; let us not add to their troubles.'
"But how delighted Berlin is over the Queen's reception in Warsaw I cannot write. Ludwig has explained to me that the Poles do not love Prussia, who has conquered them, but they forgot all their hatred and received our King and Queen with cheers, flags, and much waving of handkerchiefs. And fifty Polish girls in white, with wreaths on their heads and baskets in their hands, walked before their Majesties, strewing flowers. And at a village sixteen Polish girls greeted her with a song. Everywhere there were processions. For myself, I should tire of so many, but the Baron says that our dear Queen loves gaiety and she loves her people and smiles are always on her face and kind greetings on her lips.