greatest and holiest of sacrifices that a man can offer: I have sacrificed
my love to you, father! It has indeed been a bitter struggle with me, and
I do not deny that I yet suffer, but I shall conquer my pain; yet that I
can ever forget the Princess Ludovicka Hollandine, I can not promise, for
he who has truly loved never forgets. You have desired me to acquaint you
with the truth, father, now you know it. Let it now he blazoned forth
through all Berlin, through the whole country, even as far as the imperial
court of Vienna, and through the whole world. The Princess Ludovicka also
will then hear of it, and the report of this confession of my love will
reach her. But let rumor announce this one thing more to the Emperor, to
our country, and to her: that, while the Electoral Prince Frederick
William of Brandenburg could, indeed, give up a marriage with a Princess
whom he loved, out of respect and obedience to his father, he never will
take as his wife a princess whom he does not love, out of obedience and
respect; that the Electoral Prince thinks himself much too young and
inexperienced to marry, and that he most humbly implores his father to
spare him the consideration of all matrimonial projects for long years to
come, since he is firmly determined not to marry yet, and this, indeed,
not out of any refractoriness toward his father, nor out of any want of
veneration for the princesses who might be proposed to him, but merely
because his heart has received a sore wound, and because this must first
heal. But I do not reproach the Princess Ludovicka Hollandine with having
inflicted this wound. On the contrary, I speak it aloud, and may my speech
penetrate to her ears as a parting salutation: Blessed be the Princess
Ludovicka Hollandine of the Palatinate, and may God send her the happiness
she deserves so richly by her beauty, intellect, and goodness of heart!"

And, carried away by his own warmth and enthusiasm, forgetting all sense
of restraint in this moment of highest excitement, Frederick William
jumped up from his seat, took up in his hand the unbroken cup of the glass