highness said that the Princess Hollandine was not ill inclined to become your daughter-in-law.  On that point I can give you no information, for I perceived nothing of this inclination; but this I can and must confess, that I experienced the most glowing desire to make the Princess your daughter-in-law; this I must confess, that I have loved the beautiful, witty, and charming Princess Hollandine with my whole soul and from the very depths of my heart.  But never would I have ventured to make the noble Princess my wife in opposition to your will, father; and since I must admit that a union with her is not in accordance with your wishes, and that it is opposed by policy and state reasons, I have obediently submitted to your orders, and brought to you and my country the 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 whose foot he had smashed, and filled it to the brim with wine.

“Most gracious mother!” he cried, “look here! the base of this goblet is broken off, and an apt symbol it is of my love.  With the last wine which this glass will ever hold let me drink a last farewell to my love, and do you pledge her with me:  To the health of the Princess Ludovicka Hollandine of the Palatinate!”