With a countenance irradiated by energy, pride, and love he held out his hand to her, and smilingly she laid her own small hand in his.  “Yes,” she said, “I will be your wife.  With pride and joy I accept your beloved hand, and swear that I love you, and will honor and obey you as my lord and my beloved!”

He sank upon his knees before her, and kissed the hand which rested in his own.  “Ludovicka Hollandine, Princess of the Palatinate,” he said, with distinct and solemn voice, “I, Frederick William, Electoral Prince of Brandenburg, vow and swear hereby to love and be faithful to you ever as your wedded husband.”

“I accept your oath, and return it!” she cried joyfully.  “I, too, swear to love and be ever true to you, and to take you for my husband.  And here you have my betrothal kiss, and here you have your destined bride.  Take her, and love her a little, for she loves you very much, and she will die of chagrin if you forget her!”

“I shall never forget you, Ludovicka!” cried he, tenderly embracing her.  “Storms indeed will come, violent tempests will rage about us, but I rejoice in them.  For strength is tried by storms, and when it thunders and lightens I can then prove to you that my arm is strong enough to protect you, and that you are safe from all danger upon my heart.”

“O Frederick! and still, still would they separate us.  My mother just said to me yesterday, ’Take care not to love the Electoral Prince seriously, for he can never be your husband.’  And when, trembling and weeping, I asked the reason, she at last replied, ’Because you are a poor Princess, and because the misfortunes of your house overshadow you likewise.’  The Elector and his minister will never give their consent to such a union, and the Electoral Prince will never have the spirit to be disobedient to his father and to marry in opposition to his wishes.”

She darted a quick, searching glance at his face, and saw how he reddened with indignation.  “I shall prove to your mother that she is mistaken in me,” he said vehemently.  “I am indeed yet young in years, but I feel myself in heart a man who bows to no strange will, and is only obedient to the law of his conscience and his own judgment.  I love you, Ludovicka, and I will marry you!”

“If they give us time, Frederick,” sighed Ludovicka.  “If they do not force me first to wed some other man.”

“What do you say?” cried the Electoral Prince, growing pale, as he clasped his beloved yet closer to his side.  “Could it be possible that—­”

“That they sell and barter me away, just as they do other princesses?  Yes, alas! it is possible.  Ay, Frederick, more than possible—­it is certain that they have such views.  Wherefore think you, then, that the Electoral Prince of Hesse is here—­that he came yesterday with my uncle, the Stadtholder, to visit my mother, and that he was even presented to me in my own apartment?  O Frederick! my mother has told me it is a settled thing—­that