The Emperor was so pleased with her brave answer that his manner changed at once. His tone became respectful and he made her a bow. "Madame," he said, "you are the most sensible woman whom I ever have known. You have saved your husband. I pardon him, but entirely on your account. As for him, he is a good-for-nothing."
Then he talked much more with the Duchess, and at her request ordered all the disorder to be stopped in the town, and everywhere that he went he praised her conduct.
"And we have one comfort," Hans told the soldier. "The Duke, our Duke, Herr Lieutenant, alone remained firm, the Prince of Orange standing with him. They, sir, made an orderly retreat to Erfurt, but," he shrugged his broad shoulders, "their bravery counted as nothing."
Hans was a different man since the death of his daughter. He had but one thought, and that was hatred of the French and of Napoleon. When he walked now, his head hung low. He had no longer cheery words for the people he met with, but a gruff good-day and then no more speaking.
Only to the soldier was he talkative. There was something about the pleasant-faced lieutenant which brought back the old Hans; each day the young fellow grew dearer. Still, even he felt that Hans had his secrets. He came and went in strange ways, and often after nightfall.
One morning, when the frost was white on the grass and the leaves of the low shrubs were touched with silver, the old man started out as usual. There were still French at Jena, though Napoleon with the army had marched away towards Berlin. Bettina was with the soldier, who was up now, and hoped soon to try and join the army.
He and the little girl were great friends. He had told her how that he had three sisters, the oldest, very pretty and named Marianne, and the other two, Ilse and Elsa, were twins, round, jolly and so alike there was no telling them apart unless they spoke, when you knew Ilse because of the shape of one tooth. He had three brothers, Wolfgang, Otto, and little Carl.
"And our home, dear little Bettina, is called the Stork's Nest," he told her, "because my father is Professor von Stork, and the real stork has brought my mother so many babies."
Bettina was delighted at this and asked many questions about Marianne, who was so pretty, and read so many books, and Ilse and Elsa, who were always in mischief, fooling everybody about which was which and trying to do everything that their brothers did.
But the one of this family in whom Bettina took the most interest was little Carl, who had such red cheeks, almost white hair, and blue eyes like saucers.