The Ball Room Contained A Statue Of Victory, By Ranch, A
Beautiful Female Figure, The Model Of Which, We Were Told, Is His Own
Daughter.
He had the grace to allow her some clothing, which was
fatherly, for an artist.
The palace rooms were very magnificent. The
walls were covered with a damask of silk and gold, into which was
inwrought the Prussian eagle. In the crowning room was an immense
quantity of plate, in solid gold and silver. The guide seemed not a
little proud of _our_ king, princes, and palace. Men will attach
themselves to power and splendor as naturally as moss will grow on a
rock. There is, perhaps, a foundation for this in human nature -
witness the Israelites of old, who could not rest till they obtained a
king. The Guide told us there were nine hundred rooms in the palace,
but that he should only take us through the best. We were duly
sensible of the mercy.
Then we drove to Charlottenburg to see the Mausoleum. I know not when
I have been more deeply affected than there; and yet, not so much by
the sweet, lifelike statue of the queen as by that of the king, her
husband, executed by the same hand. Such an expression of long-desired
rest, after suffering and toil, is shed over the face! - so sweet, so
heavenly! There, where he has prayed year after year, - hoping,
yearning, longing, - there, at last, he rests, life's long anguish
over! My heart melted as I looked at these two, so long divided, - he
so long a mourner, she so long mourned, - now calmly resting side by
side in a sleep so tranquil.
We went through the palace. We saw the present king's writing desk and
table in his study, just as he left them. His writing establishment is
about as plain as yours. Men who really mean to do any thing do not
use fancy tools. His bed room, also, is in a style of severe
simplicity. There were several engravings fastened against the wall;
and in the anteroom a bust and medallion of the Empress Eugenie - a
thing which I should not exactly have expected in a born king's
palace; but beauty is sacred, and kings cannot call it _parvenu_.
Then we went into the queen's bed room, finished in green, and then
through the rooms of Queen Louisa. Those marks of her presence, which
you saw during the old king's lifetime, are now removed: we saw no
traces of her dresses, gloves, or books. In one room, draped in white
muslin over pink, we were informed the Empress of Russia was born.
In going out to Charlottenburg, we rode through the Thiergarten, the
Tuileries of Berlin. In one of the most quiet and sequestered spots is
the monument erected by the people of Berlin to their old king. The
pedestal is Carrara marble, sculptured with beautiful scenes called
garden pleasures - children in all manner of out-door sports, and
parents fondly looking on.
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