The Landgravine lamented my hard fate and my unhappy circumstances. I thanked her Serene Highness for the gracious sympathy she felt with me, and said that she might help much in alleviating my fetters, if not in liberating me from them entirely. The Landgravine smiled and said, ‘I see well you take me for another than I am.’ I said, ‘Your Serene Highness’s deportment and appearance will not allow you to conceal your rank, were you even in peasant’s attire.’ This pleased her; she laughed and jested, and said she had not thought of that. The lady in waiting agreed with me, and said that I had spoken very justly in saying that I had recognised her by her royal appearance. Upon this the Landgravine said, ‘You do not know her?’ pointing to the Princess of Curland. She then said who she was, and afterwards who her lady in waiting was, and also the wife of the master of the household, who was as I have before mentioned. She spoke of the pity which this lady felt for me, and added ‘Et moy pas moins.’ I thanked her ‘Altesse très-humblement et la prioit en cette occasion de faire voir sa généreuse conduite.’ Her Serene Highness looked at the prison governor as though she would say that we might speak French too long; she took off her glove and gave me her hand, pressing mine and saying, ‘Croyez-moy, je fairez mon possible.’ I kissed her Serene Highness’s hand, and she then took leave of me with a kiss.
The virtuous Landgravine kept her word, but could effect nothing. When her Majesty the Queen was in the perils of childbirth, she went to the King and obtained from him a solemn promise that if the Queen gave birth to a son I should receive my liberty. On October 11, in the night between one and two o’clock, God delivered her Majesty in safety of our Crown Prince. When all present were duly rejoicing at the Prince’s birth, the Landgravine said, ‘Oh! will not the captive rejoice!’ The Queen Dowager enquired ‘Why?’ The Landgravine related the King’s promise. The Queen Dowager was so angry that she was ill. She loosened her jacket, and said she would return home; that she would not wait till the child was baptised. Her coach appeared in the palace square. The King at length persuaded her to remain till the baptism was over, but he was obliged to promise with an oath that I should not be liberated. This vexed the virtuous Landgravine not a little, that the Queen should have induced her son to break his promise; and she persisted in saying that a king ought to keep his vow. The Queen Dowager answered, ‘My son has before made a vow, and this he has broken by his promise to your Serene Highness.’ The Landgravine said at last: ‘If I cannot bring about the freedom of the prisoner, at least let her, at my request, be removed to a better place, with somewhat more liberty. It is not to the King’s reputation that she is imprisoned there. She is, after all, a king’s daughter, and I know that much injustice is done to her.’ The Queen Dowager was annoyed at these words, and said, ‘Now, she shall not come out; she shall remain where she is!’ The Landgravine answered, ‘If God will, she will assuredly come out, even though your Majesty may will it not;’ so saying, she rose and went out.
On October 18 the lady in waiting, Wallenstein, sent for Peder Jensen Tötzlöff, and delivered to him by command a book entitled, D. Heinrich Müller’s ‘Geistliche Erquickstunden,’[E53] which he gave me with a gracious message from the Landgravine. On the same day I sent her Serene Highness, through Tötzlöff, my dutiful thanks, and Tötzlöff took the book back to the lady in waiting, with the request that she would endeavour to prevail on her Highness to show me the great favour of placing her name and motto in the book, in remembrance of her Highness’s generosity and kindness. I lamented my condition in this also, that from such a place I could not spread abroad her Serene Highness’s praise and estimable benefits, and make the world acquainted with them; but that I would do what I could, and I would include her Serene Highness and all her family in my prayers for their welfare both of soul and body. (This I have done, and will do, so long as God spares my life.)
On October 23 I received the book back through Tötzlöff, and I found within it the following lines, written by the Landgravine’s own hand:
1671.
Ce qui n’est pas en ta puissance
Ne doit point troubler ton repos;
Tu balances mal à propos
Entre la crainte et l’espérance.
Laisse faire ton Dieu et ton roy,
Et suporte avec passience ce qu’il résoud pour toy.
Je prie Dieu de vous faire cette grâce, et que je vous puisse tesmoigner combien je suis,
Madame, vostre très-affectionée à vous servir,
