After the accession of King William, Lepsius continued to observe the course of politics attentively, and never neglected any of the duties of a citizen. In 1862 he was chosen as an elector of the first electoral class for his district, and by the conservatives, although he in no wise approved of their efforts. His views coincided with those of the party which at that time was called “Old Liberal.” His friend, Meyer von Rinteln, stood well at court, and was full of court anecdotes. He once told how the Elector of Hesse had got in a passion, and hurt himself so seriously by giving his valet a thrashing, that he had been obliged to keep his bed. Thereupon Herman Grimm improvised the following riddle. “Had my whole been truly my second, he certainly would not have been Obliged to seek my first in bed, as we have recently seen.”[100] Queen Augusta, Meyer reported, had correctly guessed “Kurfürst.” Meyer was also a very talented poet, and he once read his tragedy of “German Youth” at Lepsius’ home, in the presence of General v. Willisen, who had had to oversee the Prussian execution at Hesse. The tendency of the play was to show that only under the Prussian imperial rule could Germany obtain tranquility, peace and new power. Frau Lepsius had long before confided the same thought to her diary, and Willisen agreed with it warmly. The wife was as fond of traveling as the husband, but during the first half of the summer he was kept at home by his duties as professor, and she by her interest in their own beautiful garden, and in the education of the children. By midsummer Berlin became unendurable to them both, and they were accustomed to leave home usually in July with the children, who then had their holidays. In the autumn of 1863 they took a longer journey, to Cologne and the Swiss Rhine, with their elder daughter Anna and Uncle Abeken. Shortly before the master of the house commenced his lectures they returned to Berlin, where their delightful social life began anew. Frau Elizabeth suffered from many physical ailments, especially “_tic douloureux_,” and had also assumed an almost oppressive number of domestic, pedagogic, social and benevolent duties. When she felt greatly in need of refreshment she retreated for a few days to Sacrow, a pretty and charmingly situated little village on the Havel near Potsdam, and on returning home she would resume with renewed strength the labors which awaited her. After the death of Jonas, the family pastor was first Snethlage, who was then growing old, and afterwards the vigorous and manly Court Chaplain Kögel. In spite of his tendency to greater strictness, this latter entirely filled the place to Frau Lepsius of the deceased friend whom she so deeply lamented. After one of his sermons (1865) she wrote in the diary: “To be able to preach like Kögel! I should think that the highest earthly happiness. What a blessing for us!”