Letitia Elizabeth Landon

“ Mimi came, and brought with her all the genial feelings of youth—all its warm and kindly current of affection, old remembrances of nature, and its changeful loveliness; she brought the world of the past to the ill-fated prisoner. Think what it is to waste a whole life in captivity—to look on no faces but those of your guards—to be shut out from society—to know that you are forgotten, that the green grass and the crowded streets are alike forbidden things; to know that life goes on with its usual round of hopes, pleasures, and objects, in which you have no part ”

“ Whether in the palace or the cottage, marriage, not to be intolerable must be one of affection, nothing can supply its place; and what can be said in defence of a system which coldly puts attachment aside, and where even mutual liking—love is a holier word—where even liking is a chance.
Sophie was essentially gentle and feminine in her nature, she would have been happy under any circumstances, had she but been beloved. Care she would have soothed, sorrow she could have shared without a murmur, let her but have been loved in return. ”

“ There is that on your brow which mocks at this world’s state; but this is a weary life; cold, hunger, sickness of the body, sickness of the heart, infest it: and the poor is not the only house where affection never comes. I am dying, lady, and around the death-bed is the future. I see no happiness in those deep blue eyes—no rest in the varying colour of that soft cheek. But there is a God in heaven, lady—if there is the trial, there is also the reward—and in that faith I die. Mimi, my beloved, would that I had never spoken harshly to you ”

“ It is one of those mistakes which human pride so often commits when left to its own devices. General good was never yet purchased by individual wrong; and the affection, which is the most exalted and hallowed feeling in our nature, is not to be sacrificed to political exigences with impunity.
Sophie was much altered, and yet lovelier than ever. She was now very pale, a sad soft paleness, fairer than the rose; and her large eyes were like the moonlight, melancholy and full of poetry and thought.
"Leave me, Mimi," said the Electress. ”

“ But the Princess saw there were large tears in the eyes too proud to shed them.
"Shall I leave her with you," said Sophie.
"No;" returned the other, and the child from whose face the light had vanished suddenly almost hid herself in the Princess' robe. "Do you not see that the creature clings to you, a stranger—you, who have youth, beauty, and gold, and the instinct of childhood teaches a selfish adherence to them. Take her with you, she may get sweetmeats and fine clothes; from me she has little more than harsh words and blows." ”

“ This is the lot of a prisoner—this had the Princess of Zell endured for years—and this, too, had Mimi endured for her sake. But the devoted peasant knew not what endurance meant: that is not endurance which is undergone for one we love. Mimi’s whole world was the gloomy chamber of her first, her dearest friend—she desired another only for her sake.
But the prison scene was closing; Sophie lay, supported by cushions, with life fast ebbing away; her hair was still long, but of a darker colour, yet more conspicuous from its being blended with grey. ”

“ Sophie knew nothing of human misery, but the kind heart was warm within her. She took Engelfried’s hand, yet said nothing, for she was new to the task of consolation, but the evident kindness was enough.
"You do not know," said the old woman, mastering her emotion, as only the strong mind does master it, "life’s worst misery, poverty. Life has many others, but none like that. Poverty cost my husband’s life—my daughter’s honour. Poverty has made that fair child a curse—not a blessing. ”

“ The realities of life were there.
"My grandmother is ill in bed," said the child.
"We will go and see her," replied Sophie, who followed her little guide to a scene of whose misery she had no previous idea. There was but one room in the mud hovel, through whose crumbling walls and roof the rains had penetrated, and the sunbeams now entered with a fitful and unnatural light. A small heap of white embers smouldered on the hearth, but a ray of sunshine falling directly on it, had extinguished the fire, which had never been more than a few withered sticks. ”

“ Think, Sophie——ah! let me call you so, before you reject love so devoted—you will never be so adored again," and he pressed the cold wan hand he still held to his heart.
The Electress stood for a few moments the very image of despair; the damps rose upon her forehead, there was not a vestige of colour on lip or cheek, and the face looked yet more pale from the masses of golden hair that hung around it. ”

“ I feel, deeply feel, that there can be no happiness but in affection."
The Electress was right; she was but one of the many victims sacrificed to that gilded misery—a state marriage: a remains of feudal barbarism. The crime and sorrow of such a marriage is even yet imperfectly understood; and yet what is a royal union but an outrage on all natural feeling? Two strangers meet, between whom there can be no sympathy; all the illusions, all the delicacy of sentiment, are put harshly aside; in all probability they do not even please each other externally; they have not a remembrance in common ”

“ It is impossible to say in what a passion, at once the most mastering and the most mysterious of our nature, has its origin. It springs into life on a look and a word. The heart may have remained untouched for years, it may have wondered at the weakness of others, for we cannot sympathise with what we do not comprehend ”

“ Sophie could not satisfy herself with gazing on the bright and noble features of her son. She overwhelmed him with a thousand questions—she was eager to learn all his habits, pursuits, and pleasures, and yet she startled at the least sound she feared that they were about to take him from her.
"You eat no breakfast, mother," exclaimed the Prince, pausing in the midst of the meal to which he was doing the full justice of a youthful appetite.
"Not yet, George," said she, "this is Sunday, and since I have dwelt in this castle I never break my fast till after the service in the chapel." ”

“ Suddenly she was transported into a cold and unkindly atmosphere, where life was a thing of forms and ceremonies, and thoughts and feelings were forbidden words—a royal victim, sacrificed to that state necessity, whose origin is in false pride and false prejudice, her hand was given, but the heart remained behind. Married to a man whom she could not love, she might have honored him ”

“ She might have forgiven his neglect and his inconstancy, for it is strange how much a woman who loves will endure; but then she must love. Now, her husband’s neglect grew out of his utter incapability of appreciating her, and his inconstancy from all that was mean in his nature—he needed low amusement and coarse flattery. ”