And the queen, leaning forward with smiling countenance, said: "I greet thee, my Mecklenburg, with thy waving wheat-fields and fragrant meadows, thy transparent lakes and forest oaks, and, above all, thy ruddy sons and daughters! Look, Caroline, what sunny waves are passing over those ripening fields, bringing to the farmer the fruits of his labor. Look at that pretty scene yonder! At the door of the lonely cottage, in the middle of the rye-field, sits a peasant's wife; her babe is resting on her breast, and three flaxen-haired children are playing at her feet. She does not see us; she sees nothing but her children, and sings to them. Stop, that I may hear the song of the good young mother!" The carriage halted. The wind swept across the plain, and played with the white veil of the queen, who listened with bated breath to the lullaby of the peasant's wife:
"Oh, schlop, mihn lewes, lüttes Kind,
Oh, schlop un dröhm recht schön!
Denn alle Engel bi di sünd
Un Gott, de het di sehn.
Leev Gott het alle Minschen gihrn,
De Kinner doch am leevsten,
Drüm wenn wi man wi Kinner wirn,
Denn har uns Gott am leevsten!
Oh, schlop, mihn lewes, lüttes Kind,
Oh, schlop, und dröhm recht schön!"[55]
The queen laughed with delight. "That is a Mecklenburg patois song," she exclaimed, "and yet how sweetly it sounds; how gentle and winning, as though it were the language of the heart! My native country has greeted me now with its most tender notes, with the song that the mother sings to her children! Forward! I am also a child of Mecklenburg, and long for my father's kiss and the embrace of my dear old grandmother!"
"There are the spires of a town in Mecklenburg! the spires of Fürstenberg!"
The carriage rolled through the gloomy old gate, and halted in front of the palace.
"My father! My beloved father!"
"My daughter! My beloved Louisa! Welcome!—a thousand times welcome!" They embraced each other and wept with joy. He is no duke, she is no queen; he is a father, and she is his child!
From the arms of her father she sank into those of her brother—her darling George. "Oh, thanks, dear father and brother, thanks for this surprise! Now I shall have two hours of happiness more than I hoped for, for I thought I would meet you only at Neustrelitz."
"Come now, my daughter, come; the horses are ready, and your old grandmother is longing for you."
"Grandmamma, I am coming!" exclaimed the queen, and entered the carriage as merrily as a light-hearted child. Her father and brother were at her side, and the ladies of the queen took seats in the duke's coach.