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MARIA FELICIA

Sadly she turned away from him, and looked once more toward her native country.

“How many, oh! how many times, Almighty God,” she exclaimed, “have Thy children had to move out of Bohemia because they loved Thy truth too ardently? Oh, allow us not, even now, to carry away its last germ. May its sacred seed remain concealed here in its birthplace, where so many times it has been trampled down and yet has sprouted and grown again. Oh, it will bloom here once more, and that in a short time; this hope strengthens us now, and will help us to endure life in the cold, strange land to which we are banished.

“Your punishment, O King, shall be that against your own will you shall arouse the Bohemian nation to new life. By your injustice you will awaken within the Bohemians their slumbering love for their country; with your dislike for their language you will arouse their old love for it. Being forced to give it up, they will love it the more. But, above all, know that the time is coming with urgent