The king had granted the Constitution and the "freedom of the press."

Crowds were collected in front of the placards which announced this fact,
but there was no need to force our way through; their contents were read
aloud at every corner and fountain.

One passer-by repeated it to another, and friend shouted to friend across
the street. "Have you heard the news?" was the almost invariable
question when people accosted one another, and at least one "Thank God!"
was contained in every conversation. Two or three older acquaintances
whom we met charged us, in all haste, to tell our mother; but she had
heard it already, and her joy was so great that she forgot to scold us
for staying away so long. Fraulein Lamperi, on the contrary, who dined
with us, wept. She was convinced that the unfortunate king had been
forced into something which would bring ruin both to him and his
subjects. "His poor Majesty!" she sobbed in the midst of our joy.

Our mother loved the king too, but she was a daughter of the free
Netherlands; two of her brothers and sisters lived in England; and the
friends she most valued, whom she knew to be warmly and faithfully
attached to the house of Hohenzollern, thought it high time that the
Prussian people attained the majority to which that day had brought them.
Moreover, her active mind knew no rest till it had won a clear insight
into questions concerning the times and herself. So she had reached the
conviction that no peace between king and people could be expected unless
a constitution was granted. In Parliament she would have sat on the
right, but that her adopted country should have a Parliament filled her
with joyful pride.