"Bettina was right," he thought. "Poor little maiden! Old Barbarossa has waked up and his sword is the spirit of the German people."
And when war was over, one day he appeared in Königsberg, a great, handsome soldier.
"Ach Himmel!" said his mother, "but I am glad to see my boy again." But Otto had talk only for the future of Germany.
His father nodded when he declared that good fortune would come again to Prussia. And then he told how, all over Prussia, and in the smaller states, the people were refusing to speak French, wear French clothes, or be anything but good Germans.
"God be praised!" he ended piously.
"Where is Bettina, mother?" asked Otto quite suddenly.
When he heard of the "Luisenstift" his face fell, for he had intended teasing her about Frederick Barbarossa.
"And Hans?"
"Not a word has ever been heard of him," answered his father sadly.
"Shot, perhaps," said Otto. "Poor old man!" and he offered his arm to his mother. Nothing pleased her more than to walk out with her fine soldier boy. She forgot all the trouble he had caused her and remembered only that he had returned a hero.