"I am sent to your Excellency," said he, "by our most gracious lord, to announce to you that you are free, and that you may live where you please."
Cosel rubbed her forehead.
"I? Free?" said she. "What do I need freedom for now? The people have become strangers to me, and I am a stranger to them. Where can I go? I have nothing; they have robbed me of everything. You want to make me ridiculous; you wish that those who bowed down to me should now point the finger of scorn at me?"
The official was silent.
"No!" she added. "I do not want freedom; leave me here. I am accustomed to these walls, where I have shed all my tears; I could not live in another place."
So they let her stay in Stolpen, where she outlived Augustus III., and the Seven Years' War.
She died in 1765, being eighty-five years of age. To the end of her life she preserved traces of her great beauty, by which she became so famous.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1]: Maurice Saxe, the famous French general.
[Footnote 2]: This was the name familiarly given to the King, and the popular song, "Mein Lieber Augustin," referred to him.