WILLOW. 273 



and think that a king and queen meditated beneath the 

 old boughs which encircled and concealed them,, and that, 

 while religion was to them the first and purest source of 

 happiness, it became their consolation amid the disasters 

 by which they were overwhelmed. 



Beneath the shade of that old willow the Queen of 

 Prussia had spent many happy hours in the commencement 

 of her married life ; in after years she loved to read there 

 her favourite authors, and to watch the sports of her 

 children ; and on the same spot she spent nearly her last 

 day of happiness, before the bursting of that fearful storm 

 which shook the throne of Prussia to its centre. The 

 queen, as writes her biographer,* did not wish on that day to 

 leave Paretz till the latest moment, and she requested the 

 king to order the carriage round to another entrance, that 

 she might walk through the long avenue of trees; the 

 king readily acceded, and they walked for a long time, arm 

 in arm, in the calm moonlight. 



* Mrs. Charles Richardson. 

 T 



