The Washington herald., 1914-06-14
The Legend of the Rose.


The royal household returned to the
castle at Konigsberg in the winter but
in the spring the Queen and King and
their children went to live in a modest
little country house, which remains an
object OF interest in the suburb of
Hufen- There the children could play in
the open, fiowery fields, and there a leg
end is told.
THE Kaiser Napoleon" so runs the
simple tale, gave a rose to Queen Louise
at Tilsb. and as she took it she said:
accept 1t with Magdeburg' But the
Kaiser Napoleon replied: Madam. you
forget that 1t Is l who give roses and
you who receive them The Queen then
II. Her little son. William, seeing his
mother In tears. and thinking that she
was weeping because she had let the
rose fall, ran out into the field to pick
some cornf1owers for her. As he fetched
the blossoms to the Queen. William said:
Don't cry for the rose, Mamma; I have
brought you these flowers And the peo-
pie OF Germany have loved the simple
tiful Queen wore IL rather than the rose
Of the Kaiser Napoleon"
While waiting at Konigsberg, Louise
saw Napoleon overthrowing the thrones
of Portugal and Spain, and once more
entering Vienna in triumph. and she de-
SPARED of ever seeing her throne again.
Naturally her longing for home grew
more poignant as the time approached
for the birth of her ninth child. Napo-
leon, however. said that she could bs
comfortable at Konigsberg, and that he
must hold Berlin until the ransom was
paid.
Louise In Her Grave.
1t was not until Christmas week of 1908
that Louise, after an absence OF moro
than three years, returned to her capital
But. as her pastor tells us. the sparkle
in her eyes did not come back with her
and on her cheek there were now white
roses instead of red. While Prussia was
yet sunk in the depths, the Queen found
! release from her too heavy sorrows in
the summer of 1910. and in the thirty
fifth year of her life. and the King closed
the eyes which had so faithfully lighted
up his dark path" Seven OF the nine
children she had borne in sixteen years
of wifehood survived her. the eldest to
reign as King Frederick William ", and
on his death to be succeeded by the sec
ond son. William I. while daughter. a.
the wife of Nicholas /, was to become
the Czarina of Russia.
The wasted body was laid to rest
among the pines in the park OF the pal.
ace of Charlottenburg, that now popu.
lous suburb of Berlin. Her efigy. carved
by, the celebrated sculptor Rauch out Of
Carrara marble as white and pure as her
woman's soul, reclines upon her sarcoph.
agus. after having been. like herself, Q
prey to war. For while it was on its
voyage from Italy aboard a British
merchantmen the statue was seized by
an American privateer in the War Of 1s12,
but only to be recaptured by a British
frigate which carried 1t in safety to its
destination.
Though the mortal Queen slept In her
grave her dauntless spirit went marching
on. lamp unto the feet Of her people.
When threescore years had passed an old
man came to kneel In prayer by her
tomb. 1t was on that day. July 1s. 1870,
the sixtieth anniversary Of her death,
that the Franco-Prussian war began. Q
conflict which history was to charge to
a Bonaparte empress as It had charged
an earlier conflict to q Hohenzollern
Queen.
The aged man in the mausoleum at
Charlottenburg was William I King Of
Prussia, and he had come on q filial pill
grimage to invoke the inspiration Of his
mothers memory as he was setting out
upon his avensing march to Paris and to
the realization of Louise's vision, q union
of the Germanic nations in a German en-,
pire.
Copyright, lsl,li. by James Morgan) ,