"I!" cried she, with mocking laughter, "and you will make that of me!
You, Baron Pollnitz, you, who were partly the cause of my misery, and
who looked smilingly upon my shame! What, then, what have I done to
deserve so much shame and sorrow? My God!" cried she, in heartrending
tones, "my heart was pure and innocent; I dared raise my head without
fear, and look God and my parents in the face; even before HIM, my
prince, I needed not to cast down MY eyes; I was innocent, and he loved
me because he could also respect me. Alas! it was so silent, so
resigned a love; it asked for nothing, it had no speech. Was it our
fault that others saw and pointed out this love without words, and
which eyes of innocence only expressed? We stood far removed from each
other, and a gulf lay between us, but heavenly music formed a golden
starry bridge over this abyss, and the holy and melodious tones
whispered to our young hearts, the complaints and longings of a
speechless, self-renouncing love. Only thus, only thus, a sweet dream,
and nothing more! Then you came to awaken us, to accuse the prince of
high treason, to make of me a miserable prostitute. You cast my love,
which I had only confessed to my Father in heaven, like a dirty libel
and foul fruit in my face; you wished to spot and stain my whole being,
and you succeeded; you crushed my existence under your feet, and left
me not one blossom of hope! Oh, I will never forget how you tore me
from the arms of my poor father! how you cast me into prison and
chained my hands, because in the anguish of my shame and my despair I
tried to take that life which you had dishonored! They came at last,
and dragged me before the king. Two men were with him, one with a
common red and swollen visage, with thick, lascivious lips, with red
and watery eyes--that was Grumbkow; the other, with the fine friendly
face, with the everlasting deceitful smile, the cold, contemptuous,
heartless glance, that was you, Baron Pollnitz. Ah, with what horrible
glances did these three men look upon me! what mockery and contempt did
their cruel voices express! I threw myself at the feet of the king; I
prayed to him for mercy and grace; he kicked me from him, and shamed me
with words and accusations which made my soul blush. I swore that I was
innocent; that no sin lay upon me; that I had never been the beloved of
the prince; that I had never spoken to him but in the presence of my
father. Then laughed they, and mocked me, and loudest of all laughed
Baron Pollnitz, and his words of scoffing and insult pierced my heart
like a poisoned arrow, and checked my flowing tears."