The young bride, scarcely eighteen, was speechless. She expected “care” and “advice” from her husband, and not from his sister.
Wilhelmina embraced her tenderly.
Frederick waited for an answer to his question. But she stood dumb.
“Plague take the blockhead!” he at last exclaimed, and with this compliment began the long and sorrowful story of her wedded life.
She was a good woman and bore her husband’s neglect with patience. Strangely enough, in his old age Frederick came to love her; for he discovered, after a prejudice of years, that she had a noble soul.
Frederick died in 1786. In his will he made a most liberal allowance for his wife, and bore testimony to her excellent character, saying that she never had caused him the least discontent, and her incorruptible virtue was worthy of love and consideration.
She survived the king eleven years.
Willie Clifton related a true story.
THE UNNERVED HUSSAR.
A man once entered the vaults of a church by night, to rob a corpse of a valuable ring. In replacing the lid he nailed the tail of his coat to the coffin, and when he started up to leave, the coffin clung to him and moved towards him.