silent and helpless, and thought that she would never walk again in life, that there was for her neither work nor joy, that they would carry her here and there upon her couch until they laid her upon her eternal bed of rest, I asked myself why she had been sent into this world, when she could have rested so gently on the bosom of the angels and they could have borne her through the air on their white wings, as I had seen in some sacred pictures.  Again I felt as if I must take a part of her burden, so that she need not carry it alone, but we with her.  I could not tell her all this for I knew it was not proper.  I had an indefinable feeling.  It was not a desire to embrace her.  No one could have done that, for it would have wronged her.  It seemed to me as if I could pray from the very bottom of my heart that she might be released from her burden.

One warm spring day she was brought into our room.  She looked exceedingly pale; but her eyes were deeper and brighter than ever, and she sat upon her couch and called us to her.  “It is my birth-day,” said she, “and I was confirmed early this morning.  Now, it is possible,” she continued as she looked upon her father with a smile, “that God may soon call me to him, although I would gladly remain with you much longer.  But if I am to leave you, I desire that you should not wholly forget me; and, therefore, I have brought a ring for each of you, which you must now place upon the fore-finger.  As you grow older you can continue to change it until it fits the little finger; but you must wear it for your lifetime.”

With these words she took the five rings she wore upon her fingers, which she drew off, one after the other, with a look so sad and yet so affectionate, that I pressed my eyes closely to keep from weeping.  She gave the first ring to her eldest brother and kissed him, the second and third to the two princesses, and the fourth to the youngest prince, and kissed them all as she gave them the rings.  I stood near by, and, looking fixedly at her white hand, saw that she still had a ring upon her finger; but she leaned back and appeared wearied.  My eyes met hers, and as the eyes of a child speak so loudly, she must have easily known my thoughts, I would rather not have had the last ring, for I felt that I was a stranger; that I did not belong to her, and that she was not as affectionate to me as to her brothers and sisters.  Then came a sharp pain in my breast as if a vein had burst or a nerve had been severed, and I knew not which way to turn to conceal my anguish.

She soon raised herself again, placed her hand upon my forehead and looked down into my heart so deeply that I felt I had not a thought invisible to her.  She slowly drew the last ring from her finger, gave it to me and said; “I intended to have taken this with me, when I went from you, but it is better you should wear it and think of me when I am no longer with you.  Read the words engraved upon the ring:  ’As God wills.’  You have a passionate heart, easily moved.  May life subdue but not harden it.”  Then she kissed me as she had her brothers and gave me the ring.