Exactly opposite Hohenschwangau stood an enormous pine-tree on a projecting rock; lighted up by the declining sun it reminded the Queen-mother of a Christmas-tree. One winter, when they were both living at their favourite castle, son and mother kept Christmas Eve together. The gifts distributed, Ludwig led his mother to a balcony window. He drew aside the heavy velvet curtains. In the snow-covered landscape without, glittered a magnificent Christmas-tree; it was the spruce fir on the rock, which he had caused to be decorated with lights in order to give her pleasure. Marie of Bavaria loved the country population; she often and willingly entered into personal relations with them. The customs of the peasantry, but above all their deep, childlike sense of religion, exercised an attraction on her pious mind. By birth a Hohenzollern, she had been brought up in the Lutheran teaching; her own mother had been a strict Protestant. As long as Bavaria had been a kingdom its Queen had belonged to this Church, which the Protestant portion of the population regarded as a support and help. Disappointment was great when it was made known that the Queen-mother intended to enter the Roman Catholic Church. Her relatives in Prussia were also painfully surprised; her sister, the Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt, even journeyed to Hohenschwangau at the last minute for the purpose of endeavouring to dissuade her from her resolution. The German Emperor, whose heart she had ever been very near, made representations of a like nature. But life had brought too many trials for her to be led away by the pressure of others from what she felt to be a matter of conscience. Sad, but not bitter, she retired from the world and from her people, whose respect and sympathy followed her in her loneliness. In the little chapel at Wallenhofen, in all quietness, she changed her religion. There is no doubt that many hard struggles had gone before this step. It was thought that King Ludwig did not approve of her action because the Protestants of his country so greatly lamented it. But with his love of free-will, he would not place obstacles in the way of her desire. At a religious festival in Munich, he himself informed the public of his mother's decision. CHAPTER XXIV State and Church--Ignaz von Döllinger--Ludwig's Letters to his old Tutor One Christmas night in the seventies, Ludwig II. was present with the Queen-mother and the royal Princes at the midnight Mass in the court church at Munich. In the midst of the service he laid his prayer-book aside. He threw himself on his knees, hid his face, and sobbed aloud. His mother regarded him anxiously, and called her brother-in-law, Prince Luitpold, who was sitting in the box next to them. The King rose to his feet and hid his head on her breast; and she and his uncle conducted him to his rooms.