That glory has, I say, departed forever. Fate has destroyed in
a day a structure in the erection of which great men had been engaged
for two centuries. There is no longer a Prussian state, a Prussian army,
and Prussian honor! Ah! my sons, you are old enough to comprehend and
appreciate the events now befalling us; at a future time, when your
mother will be no more among the living, remember this unhappy hour.
Shed tears for me, as I do for the ruin of our country! But listen," she
added, and her eyes beamed with enthusiasm, "do not content yourselves
with shedding tears! Act, develop your strength. Prussia's genius,
perhaps, will favor you. Then deliver your nation from the disgrace and
humiliation in which it is at present grovelling! Try to recover the now
eclipsed fame of your ancestors, as your great-grandfather, the great
elector, once avenged, at Fehrbellin, the defeats of his father against
the Swedes. Let not the degeneracy of the age carry you away, my sons;
become men and heroes. Should you lack this ambition, you would be
unworthy of the name of princes and grandsons of Frederick the Great.
But if, in spite of all efforts, you should fail in restoring the former
grandeur of the state, then seek death as Prince Louis Ferdinand sought
it!"
CHAPTER VIII.
NAPOLEON IN POTSDAM.
The unheard-of and never-expected event had taken place; the son of the
Corsican lawyer, the general of the Revolution, had defeated the
Prussian army, compelled the royal family to flee to the eastern
provinces, and now made his triumphal entry into their capital! On the
afternoon of the 24th of October he arrived in Potsdam; the royal palace
had to open its doors to him; the royal servants had to receive him as
reverentially as though he had been their sovereign!
Napoleon was now master of Prussia as well as of all Germany.
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