The old Countess gave him a cracker.
"Pretty Polly," she said. "But now be quiet."
"Upstart! Villain!" repeated Polly.
Then the Countess complained to Marianne of all the noise of the Royal children and of the conduct of the Maids of Honour.
"One night when our dear Queen was ill the noise was dreadful. It woke her from a doze and I went out to see who was making it. And what did I find?"
The old lady shook with offended dignity.
"Why, the Maids of Honour, my child, flirting and laughing with the generals! I spoke to the King, but, my dear Marianne, what good can it do? Etiquette has gone entirely out of fashion! The Maids of Honour will have their ways, will laugh, talk, and behave in a way most unseemly. But never mind, we shall soon come to Königsberg."
It was deep winter when the royal family arrived. The people of Memel were sad, indeed, to see them depart, and the King wrote them a letter.
"I thank my brave citizens of Memel for their true and steadfast attachment to my person, my wife, and my whole house. Memel is the only town in my dominions which has escaped the worse calamities of the war, but it has proved itself capable of enduring them and ready, if called on, to resist the enemy. I shall never forget that Divine Providence preserved to us an asylum in this town and that its people evinced the warmest and most constant attachment to us."
The people of Königsberg on their part were delighted. Immediately they elected the Crown Prince rector of their famous University.