'i,t

iti*],

THE LOVE OF AN UNCROWNED QUEEN
VOL, I

iP.^.:.u...^&.. ilj^'.'

Sophie Dorothea.

THE LOVE OF AN
UNCROWNED QUEEN
SOPHIE DOROTHEA, CONSORT
OF GEORGE I., and her Correspondence
with Philip Christopher Count Konigs
marck (iVow first published from the originals)

W, H, WILKINS
M.A. Clare College, Cambridge,
Fellow of the Royal Historical Society,
Author of " The Romance of Isabel Lady Burton"

WITH 42 PORTRAITS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

SECOND EDITION

VOL. I

London : HUTCHINSON tf CO
Paternoster Row JT sr^ 1900

PRINTED BY
HAZELL, WATSON, AND VINEY, LD.
LONDON AND AYLESBURY.

PREFACE

IT has been too generally assumed that the romance
of the English Crown passed away with the
Stuarts. Writers of fact and fiction — historians,
novelists, poets, and playwrights — have concentrated
their energies on the period of English history covered
by the Stuart dynasty, and the Georgian era has been
comparatively neglected. The reason is not far to seek.
Our Hanoverian kings had none of the picturesque
ness of their unfortunate predecessors ; they lacked
alike their splendid failings and their redeeming
graces ; and until the accession of George III. they
were wholly foreign to the people of England.
Despite this, the kings and queens of the House of
Hanover have an interest that is all their own.
Especially is this true of Sophie Dorothea, the ill-
fated consort of George I, The story of her
romantic life has been shrouded in mystery, and she
has been even more misrepresented than the " Queen
of Tears," Mary Stuart. Her imprisonment in the
lonely castle of Ahlden was longer and more rigorous
than Mary's captivity in England, and the assassina
tion of Konigsmarck was as dramatic as the murder
of Rizzio,

vi preface
It is strange that so little should be known of
the consort of the first of our Hanoverian kings.
It is not the fault of the book-makers, who for
nearly two centuries have been continually compiling
pamphlets and so-called memoirs, some in English,
but more in German, Only two are worthy of
mention, the Octavia and Die Herzogin von Ahlden}
The Octavia was written during Sophie Dorothea's
lifetime by her champion and cousin, Duke Antony
Ulrich of Wolfenbiittel, It was a fairly true version
of the Princess's story ; but the bias of the
writer and the form of the work, which partook of
the nature of a roman a clef presented in dramatic
dialogues, told against accuracy. Many of the later
works have been merely echoes of the Octavia. T>ie
Herzogin von Ahlden was written more than a hundred
years later by Count Schulenburg-Klosterrode, and
published anonymously in Leipsig in 1852. This
little book, the fruit of much labour and research,
was compiled from all the documents and authorities
then available. It gathered together a mass of
evidence and summed up all there was to be said.
Yet " lives " of the Princess continued to appear
from time to time, none containing any new facts,
and most of them merely a rechauffage of previous
fables, ' Both were in German, and are now out of print. I have given a
list of some others in the Appendix.

preface vii
Without fresh facts or documents there would
be no excuse for entering upon a ground already
much covered. But since the publication of Die
Herzogih von Ahlden many interesting papers have
come to light. When Prussia annexed the Kingdom
of Hanover after the Revolution of 1866, and expelled
the reigning dynasty, a great many State and domestic
papers hitherto carefully locked up in the Guelph
family archives were thrown open. In Germany
historians have not been slow to avail themselves of
the facilities thus afforded, as the labours of Dr. Adolf
Kocher, A, F. H. Schaumann, and others, abundantly
testify. But in England, notwithstanding that Hanover
is the cradle of our kings, and these unpublished docu
ments have direct and personal bearing on the history
of our Royal House, nothing, or practically nothing, has
been done to turn them to account. They have been
available for the last thirty years, yet so far no one
has written an English monograph of that remarkable
woman, the Electress Sophia — at least, not one
worthy of the name.
In addition, therefore, to the interest of the subject,
the fact that these Hanoverian papers are practically
unknown to the English public forms a sufficient
reason for writing this book. But apart from the
papers in the Hanoverian Archives, I claim to have
found other important documents which shed a new
light on the mystery of Sophie Dorothea's life. The

viii preface
despatches of Sir William Dutton Colt, of Cresset,
Poley, and many of those of Stepney, freely quoted
in this book, are now published for the first time.
But more important still, and transcending all in
interest, is the correspondence of Sophie Dorothea and
Konigsmarck. This correspondence is herein trans
lated from the French of the original documents in
the possession of the University of Lund in Sweden,
and I have further edited and arranged it. It has
not before been published in English, and (except
for a few unimportant extracts in a Swedish book,
long since out of print) has never been published
in any language. My discovery of these letters
three years ago suggested the idea of writing this
book. To follow up the clue has involved consider
able research, not only at the State Paper Office in
London, but at Hanover, Brunswick, Dresden, and
Lund, With a view to doing the work thoroughly,
I have followed as closely as possible the footsteps
of the Princess during her life. I have visited Celle,
where she was born ; Hanover, where she lived
during her unhappy married life ; and Ahlden, where,
for more than thirty years, she was consigned to a
living tomb, I also went to Lund in Sweden, where
the letters are preserved in the library of the Uni
versity, and, with the kind permission and assistance
of the University authorities, carefully examined the
manuscripts. Every effort has been made to render

preface ix
this biography as complete as possible : it must ever
remain incomplete, alas ! for some of the most valu
able papers were destroyed by George I,, George II,,
and their descendants, and the mystery around Sophie
Dorothea can never be quite cleared away.
The late Miss Agnes Strickland, it is well known,
brought her Lives of the Queens of England to an
end with Queen Anne. In her preface to the final
volume, written in 1848, she advances two reasons
for not continuing them further. First, the lack of
authentic documents and letters ; and secondly, because
" personages so near our own times are not proper
subjects for historical investigation," The first ob
jection has since been obviated by the opening of
the Hanoverian Archives and the discovery of other
documents ; to the second it may be urged that as
Miss Strickland wrote fifty years ago, her objection
has lost force by the lapse of time, A princess who
died nearly two centuries ago can hardly be described
as " near our own times." For the rest, as the wife
of one of our kings Sophie Dorothea belongs to
history. There is no more impropriety in writing
her life than in writing one of, say, Anne Boleyn, who
also was a queen consort accused of offences which
could never be proved against her, and who suffered
out of all proportion to her errors. Indeed, there
is even less ; for posterity has learned all it is ever
likely to know about Anne Boleyn, but the secrecy

X preface
and misrepresentation with which Sophie Dorothea's
memory is surrounded needs the light of impartial
historical investigation. In the biographies of the
unfortunate Princess hitherto given to the world, she
appears either as an injured saint or a most incorrigible
sinner. In point of fact she was neither, but merely a
loving woman, very human, and therefore not free from
faults, but far more sinned against than sinning,
A word in conclusion as to the title of this book.
In writing Sophie Dorothea's life one must write of her
love, since without her love her life was nothing. Of
course, in the strictly legal sense, though consort of
George L, she was never Queen of England any
more than she was Electress of Hanover, though de
jure she was both. But to quote Doran, Sophie
Dorothea, " from the time her husband ascended
the throne, was in some sort of loving sorrow called
by the few left to love her, the Queen," A queen
though never acknowledged, a queen though always
a prisoner, a queen though never crowned — truly a
queen of tears.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I PAGE
THE ROMANCE OF THE PRINCESS'S PARENTAGE . I

CHAPTER II
THE PROGRESS OF ELfiONORE  1 8
CHAPTER III
THE WISDOM OF SERPENTS  34
CHAPTER IV
PRINCE GEORGE GOES A-WOOING . . -52
CHAPTER V
THE SACRIFICE  6/
CHAPTER VI
THE COURT OF HANOVER  8$

xii Contents
CHAPTER VII PAGE
THE POWER OF COUNTESS PLATEN , , . .101
CHAPTER VIII
ENTER KONIGSMARCK  Il8
CHAPTER IX
PLAYING WITH FIRE  1 36
CHAPTER X
THE EMBROIDERED GLOVE  1 56
CHAPTER XI
HISTORY AND AUTHENTICITY OF THE LETTERS . . \^2
CHAPTER XII
THE DAWN OF PASSION  202
CHAPTER XIII
CROSSING THE RUBICON  226
CHAPTER XIV
THE PRINCESS'S LETTERS  249

Contents
CHAPTER XV

PAGE

DOUBTS AND FEARS  274
CHAPTER XVI
THE BATTLE OF STEINKIRK  298
CHAPTER XVII
THE VISIT TO WIESBADEN . . -318

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

SOPHIE DOROTHEA (coNSORT OF GEORGE I.) . . . . Frontispiece
THE ELECTRESS SOPHIA (aT THE TIME OF HER MARRIAGE) . Facing p. 8
THE CASTLE OF CELLE . . . . . . „ 20
EL)!0N0RE D'OLBREUSE, DUCHESS OF CELLE . . . „ 36
LOUIS XIV. .  . ,,42
PRINCE GEORGE LOUIS OF HANOVER  „ 54
A VIEW OF THE ALLER, CELLE . . . . . . „ 68
ELIZABETH CHARLOTTE, DUCHESS d'oRLEANS .... „ 82
THE LEINE SCHLOSS, HANOVER  ,, 88
THE ALTE PALAIS, HANOVER . . . . . „ I08
PHILIP CHRISTOPHER COUNT KONIGSMARCK (aT THE TIME OF
HIS VISIT TO ENGLAND)  „ 126
IN THE GARDENS, HERRENHAUSEN  „ I40
PHILIP CHRISTOPHER COUNT KONIGSMARCK ... . „ 160
THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY, LUND, SWEDEN . . . . „ 1 78
THE COUNTESS AURORA KONIGSMARCK ..... ,, Ig4
FACSIMILE OF ONE OF k5NIGSMARCk'S LETTERS TO THE PRINCESS „ 210
A STREET IN HANOVER  i> 232
FACSIMILE OF ONE OF THE PRINCESs's LETTERS TO KONIGSMARCK „ 252
THE PRINCESS SOPHIE DOROTHEA ... „ 276
A STREET IN CELLE .... . • • ,. 3°2
WILLIAM OF ORANGE  .r 3^6

THE LOVE

AN UNCROWNED QUEEN

CHAPTER I
THE ROMANCE OF THE PRINCESS'S PARENTAGE
Life, like a dome of many coloured glass.
Stains the white radiance of Eternity. Shelley.
SOPHIE DOROTHEA of Celle, the uncrowned
Queen of the first of our Hanoverian kings
came of the ancient and illustrious family of Brunswick,
which was descended from Henry the Lion, Duke
of Bavaria and Saxony, who, it is interesting to note,
married Matilda, eldest daughter of King Henry II.
of England. It is not necessary to dwell upon the
glories of the House of Brunswick, but the immediate
ancestry of Sophie Dorothea may be of interest.
After the Treaty of Westphalia, which was some
what disastrous to the Brunswick princes taking part
in the Thirty Years War, this family was divided into
VOL. 1, I

2 ZDc Xove of an XHncrownea Glueen
two branches, Augustus Duke of Brunswick represent
ing one, and Frederick Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg
representing the other.
On the death of Augustus, his territories were
divided amongst his three sons, with only one of
whom we are concerned, Duke Antony Ulrich of
Wolfenbiittel. It is necessary to mention him, as he
played a not unimportant part in the life of his
cousin, Sophie Dorothea of Celle. From this branch
of the family the Dukes of Brunswick are descended,
and it gave another uncrowned queen to England
in the person of the unfortunate Caroline, consort
of George IV.
Frederick Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg died in
1649, leaving the four sons of his brother, Duke
George, his heirs. Of these, the eldest son. Christian
Louis, was given the Sovereign Principality of Celle,
then the most important ; the second son, George
William, subsequently the father of Sophie Dorothea,
was given the Sovereign Principality of Hanover.
The two younger sons, John Frederick and Ernest
Augustus, had no territory at first.
When the four ducal brothers, all young men,
entered upon their inheritance, changes took place in
the sedate and simple Courts of Hanover and Celle.
Hitherto they had been typical of the petty German
Courts in the Middle Ages, untouched as yet bv
foreign influences. According to Vehse, at the Schloss
of Celle meals were served daily in the great hall,
at nine in the morning and at four in the after
noon. The retainers were summoned to meals by

Ube IRomance of tbe princess's parentage 3
a trumpeter on the tower, and if they did not appear
punctually they had to go without. As they ate,
a page went round " bidding every one be quiet and
orderly, forbidding all swearing, and rudeness, or
throwing about of bread, bones,- or roast, or pocketing
of the same." The butler was warned not to permit
noble or simple to enter the cellar ; the squires were
allowed beer and " sleep-drinks," but wine was only
served at the Prince's high table. All accounts were
carefully kept, and bills paid weekly. The Court
was one big family, and the Prince was the father
of his people. But this well-ordered household was
in the days of the old Duke Christian, a predecessor
of the four roystering blades who now divided the
possessions of Brunswick-Luneburg.
The eldest, the young Duke Christian, settled down
to a fairly quiet life at Celle; "his only fault," we
hear, " was drinking," a very venal offence in those
days. But the second brother, Duke George William,
found life at Hanover unbearably tedious. He had
little liking for the stiff and monotonous routine of
his German Court ; the simple lives of his subjects
bored him, and their rude manners and coarse habit
of living disgusted him. Though all his life strongly
anti-French in his politics, he belonged to the new
school of German princes and affected the society
and fashions of the French, so much so that on one
occasion a French envoy said to him at his own table :
" But, Monseigneur, this is charming ; there is no
foreigner here but you." Though a young man,
George William had already travelled in Italy, and

4 Zbc Xove of an xancrowne5 diueen
acquired a certain polish of manners and superficial
refinement not usually to be found among German
princes of his time. The first use he made of his
freedom was to escape from the tedium of his un
interesting little Principality, and, in company with
his youngest brother, Ernest Augustus, who was then
his boon companion, and largely dependent upon his
bounty, he made another tour in Italy, visiting Milan
and Venice, At Venice, then at its zenith, the ducal
brothers plunged into the delights and dissipations
which the gay city offered. George William formed
an intimacy with a Venetian lady, one Signora Buccolini,
by whom he had a son. For many years he was
devoted to her, and maintained her in considerable
affluence ; for, with all his faults, he was of a generous
disposition. But the lady was of so passionate,
jealous, and exacting a temperament that at last she
tired the patience of her protector. After many
quarrels he made an arrangement by which he settled
a sum of money upon the mother, and took the
charge of the boy's education upon himself. This
was the final separation. He took back the young
Lucas Buccolini with him to Hanover, clipped his
Italian name into Bucco, or Buccow, and found him
a place in his household.-'^
George William's subjects did not appreciate these
frequent absences of their liege lord, nor did they
' On attaining to man's estate, this youth filled the office of Master
of the Horse at the Court of Celle ; later he became a colonel of the
dragoons. He seems to have been of a jealous disposition, and was
always grumbling because his putative father did not enough for him.

trbe IRomance of tbe princess's parentage 5
approve of the Italian singers and dancers and the
Venetian son whom he brought back with him to
his prim little Court. They became exceedingly
restive, and pointed out that there was need of a
duchess and an heir. Duke Christian of Celle was
unwed, and Duke George William of Hanover, who
was next in succession, was a bachelor too. Their
subjects, both of Celle and Hanover, considered this
a neglect of duty on the part of their princes, and,
remonstrances having no avail, at last the members
of the State in Hanover threatened to cut short
George William's allowance if he did not marry
forthwith. Moreover, knowing his predilections, they
intimated plainly that they wished no foreign bride,
and suggested that the Princess Sophia, the orphan
daughter of the luckless Frederick Prince Palatine,
ex-King of Bohemia (by the beautiful Elizabeth,
daughter of James I. of England), would' be a suitable
duchess. The Princess Sophia was well past her first youth,
and was understood to be anxious to settle herself in
life. She was then living with her brother, the Elector
Palatine of the Rhenish provinces, at Heidelberg, as
State governess to his children. The household was not
a happy one, for the Elector and his wife were leading
a cat-and-dog life, and Sophia's lot, as a poor relation,
was hardly enviable. She was a healthy little body,
decidedly good-looking, though she had not inherited
the beauty of her mother " The Queen of Hearts,"
" My hair," she writes, " was light brown and in
natural curls ; my general appearance gay and lightsome ;

6 Zbc Xove of an ^ancrowne^ diueen
my figure good, but not very tall ; my deportment
that of a princess. I take no pleasure in remembering
all the rest, of which my mirror shows me nothing
left." She had sharp wits and a sharp tongue, and
the life she had led, knocking about Europe in the
poverty-stricken Court of the Queen of Bohemia, had
developed both to an unusual degree. Yet notwith
standing the financial troubles of her youth, " my
spirits," she continues, "were so high in those days
that everything amused me ; the misfortunes of my
house were unable to depress them, although at times
we had to make repasts richer than Cleopatra's, and
nothing was eaten at Court but pearls and diamonds."
This is one of Sophia's figures of speech, for it is to
be feared that the pearls and diamonds had long since
gone to the Jews, Despite her poverty, or perhaps in
consequence of it, Sophia was inordinately proud of
her birth, especially her English ancestry, on which
she was never tired of expatiating. At one time she
had been put forward as a suitable wife for her first
cousin, the Prince of Wales, afterwards Charles II.
of England, and with that view had been carefully
trained in the English language and English ways.
The match fell through, and so, in the after years,
did many others, some good, some indifferent, which
had been projected for her by her relations. As
Sophia was very ambitious, the failure of her matri
monial chances was a great disappointment to her.
She was now twenty-nine, and her good looks were
somewhat impaired by an attack of small-pox ; she
was therefore quite ready to meet the husband

trbe IRomance of tbe princess's parentage 7
whom the Hanoverians had proposed for her, half
way. George William, seeing that his subjects' minds
were made up, shrugged his shoulders and submitted
to the inevitable. If it had to be, Sophia would
do as well as any other. He therefore started
for Heidelberg, on the way to his beloved Venice,
accompanied again by his brother, Ernest Augustus.
Without ado he proposed for Sophia's hand, and she
" did not at all hesitate to say Tw," as she admits
in her autobiography. He made no pretence to any
affection, and she required none. A marriage contract
was drawn up and duly signed, with the single proviso
that the betrothal should not be made public for a
little time.
The business having been settled, George William
hurried on to Venice, and revelled in his brief spell
of freedom. But his approaching marriage hung over
him like a pall ; he thought over the matter, and one
morning he came to the conclusion that after all he
could not take upon himself the restraints of matri
mony with a woman for whom he had not a particle of
affection. The situation was difiicult, for if he did
not wed her his subjects were determined to reduce
his income, and to the pleasure-loving Duke this was
an equally unpleasant alternative. In this dilemma he
bethought himself of Ernest Augustus, his youngest
brother, and suggested to him that he should act as
his substitute. All that his subjects wanted was an
heir, and with this Ernest Augustus would be able
to furnish them, through Sophia, as well as he.

8 trbe Xove of an "GlncrowneO diueen
Ernest Augustus was nothing loth to take his brother's
place — for a consideration. He was favourably dis
posed towards the Princess, with whom he had flirted
in his youth ; they had met at the Hague and had
played the guitar together, but as he was a younger
son, Sophia had nipped the flirtation in the bud. A
deed was drawn up between the two brothers, in which
George William undertook to surrender certain of his
revenues, and bound himself not to marry, so as to
leave his inheritance and all his rights to the brother
who would act as substitute for him in the matter of
his intended bride and ducal obligations. Just as the
contract was signed the other impecunious brother,
John Frederick, came into the room, and, on learning
its contents, fell into a rage because the chance had
not been offered to him first ; he tried to tear
away the document from Ernest Augustus, George
William looking on with amusement. This happy-go-
lucky way of choosing a bride was quite in keeping
with the traditions of the House of Brunswick ; an
ancestor of these princes cast dice with his seven
brothers for a wife on somewhat similar conditions, and
won the prize — a princess of Hesse-Darmstadt.
The next thing was to acquaint the Princess Sophia
with the arrangement ; that lady, having satisfied
herself that the terms of the agreement were equally
advantageous to her and her heirs, raised no objection
to being handed over like a bale of goods, and though
her pride was hurt she skilfully concealed her resent
ment. Her brother, the Elector Palatine, glad to get
rid of her and her sharp tongue, told her that he thought

^n ¦

THE ELECTRESS SOPHIA.
(At the time of her marriage.)

[To face p. 8.

Ube IRomance of tbe princess's parentage 9
she was better for the change of brothers, a remark
with which she agreed, adding that, "A good
establishment is aU / care for, and if this is secured
to the younger brother, the change is a matter of
indifference." These negotiations from first to last took two years ;
in September, 1658, the marriage was celebrated
with some pomp at Heidelberg, and in November the
Duchess Sophia took up her abode at Hanover, where
she was the first lady in the land, and treated with
every honour. She was always a great stickler for
etiquette, and insisted on every tittle of the respect
due to her rank and illustrious ancestry. Curiously
enough, if we may believe her memoirs, no sooner
was she married to Ernest Augustus than George
William became attracted to her, thereby arousing the
jealousy of her husband, until she begged the elder
brother " for the love of God," to leave her in peace.
In 1660 her eldest son, George Louis (afterwards
George I, of England), was born at Osnabriick, and
the arrival of the much-wished-for heir increased her
importance. The following year Ernest Augustus
succeeded to the bishopric of Osnabriick,^ and Sophia's
prospects were the more improved.
' Osnabriick was a see founded by Charlemagne, Luther had
many followers among the citizens, and at the Treaty of Westphalia,
1648, which was concluded at Osnabriick, it was arranged that the
Prince Bishop should be alternately a Lutheran and a Roman Catholic,
the selection of the bishop being left with the chapter, restricted,
however, to the family of Brunswick-Luneburg. This arrangement
resulted in some very odd bishops. The last member of the English
Royal Family to hold the title was the Duke of York, son of George III.,
the Queen's uncle.

lo Ube Xove of an mncrowneb diueen
Meantime George William had overcome his belated .
penchant for Sophia, if indeed it ever existed save in
her imagination, and was gratifying his pleasure-loving
soul by making a tour of many cities. Among others,
he went to Breda, at the end of the seventeenth century
an exceedingly gay place, albeit money was somewhat
lacking there. It was the chosen home of political
refugees, exiled princes, and deposed monarchs, who
kept up their spirits despite their fallen fortunes, and
maintained phantom Courts on nothing a year. Here
Charles II, dwelt for some time in his exile with many
celebrated cavaliers ; here, too, his aunt, the Queen of
Bohemia, had held her shadowy Court ; here, too, was
concluded the peace between England and Holland.
All these things contributed to the importance and
the gaiety of Breda ; there were feasts, masquerades,
and revelries, and plays with after-suppers and dances.
Among the gayest of the gay was the Princess
de Tarente, an aunt of the Duchess Sophia, a German
princess who had married a French prince. One of
her most cherished protegees was Eleonore d'Olbreuse,
only child of the Marquis d'Olbreuse, a nobleman of
ancient family, of Poitou. He was one of the many
French Huguenots who, after the Revocation of the
Edict of Nantes, were persecuted by the Government
of Louis XIV. As he would not recant, his estates
were confiscated, he was sent into exile, and found
an asylum in Holland.
Before the persecution of the Huguenot nobles
Eleonore d'Olbreuse had figured at the briUiant Court
of Louis XIV., where she was greatly admired for her

XCbe IRomance of tbe princess's parentage n
wit and beauty. She was endowed with an exquisite
figure, dark brown hair, regular features, and a brilliant
complexion. At this time she was in the first bloom
of youth, and her loveliness was only equaUed by her
sprlghtliness and charm of manner.-' George WiUiam
met her at a ball at the Princess de Tarente's, and
being of an amorous, though not of a marrying
disposition, he fell in love at first sight. He became
a constant visitor at the Princess de Tarente's, and
a closer acquaintance with the accomplishments and
graces of the bewitching Eleonore only served to rivet
his chains. He affected a great zeal to perfect his
French, and the fair Eleonore willingly consented to
give the good-looking Duke lessons, thereby offering
fine opportunities for flirtation. What progress George
William made with the French language is not recorded,
but in the art of love there is no doubt he made rapid
advances, for after a few lessons in the conjugation
of the verb aimer, he avowed his passion in most
extravagant terms, and swore that he could not live
without her. He found that the citadel did not yield
to the first attack. Eleonore d'Olbreuse was of a very
diflferent calibre to Signora Buccolini ; she had only
two available assets, her beauty and her virtue, and
she was well aware of the value of both. She was
not versed in the menue galanterie of the Court of the
Grand Monarque for nothing. George WiUiam was
fervent in his protestations, prodigal in his promises
' There is a portrait of her, dressed in a blue robe, in the Guelph
Museum at Hanover, as she was in middle life— a beautiful woman,
with masses of dark brown hair and a superb figure.

12 zbc Xove of an Tancrowne& diueen
of devotion, and what was more to the purpose,
most liberal in his proposals as to settlements ; but
Eleonore held firm. Her birth was noble, though
not royal, and, despite her poverty, she held that a
French marquis of ancient descent was not so very
inferior to a petty German prince, George William
could not be expected to take this view, for, though
indifferent to the trappings of rank, he, like all German
princes, was inclined to over-estimate his own im
portance. But he could not give her up ; he who
had been accustomed to command in love was now
its humblest supplicant ; he who was indolent, easy
going in temperament, now developed an ardour and
determination altogether foreign to him ; he who was
slow of speech now became most eloquent in the
language of love. Eleonore had worked a transfor
mation. So infatuated was he that he would willingly
have married her then and there but for the document
he had signed when the marriage was arranged between
Ernest Augustus and Sophia. Eleonore knew nothing
of this arrangement, but she positively refused to
entertain any proposals short of marriage.
In this dilemma George WiUiam thought of a
morganatic marriage,^ and offered handsome settle
ments. The Princess de Tarente advised her friend
to yield. The Marquis d'Olbreuse put no pressure on
his daughter ; but she was well aware of the straits to
' A marriage ad morganaticum, sanctioned by the Church, but
so far disallowed by law that the children of such wedlock were
infantes nullius, and could succeed to no inheritance. This sorry
expedient had been frequently resorted to by George William's
ancestors, and afterwards by his descendants — princes of the House

Ube IRomance of tbe princess's parentage 13
which poverty had reduced him, and could see that in
his heart he favoured the Duke's suit. If she con
sented she would secure for her father a comfortable
provision for his declining years. Eleonore, too, was
really in love with George William; but still she
held back.
To bring matters to a climax, the Princess de Tarente
gave a briUiant entertainment in honour of the birth
day of her friend and protegee, when she presented
her with a jewelled medaUion of her lover. The
result seemed inevitable, for she who hesitates is lost ;
when suddenly couriers came hot-foot from Celle
with the news that George William's elder brother.
Christian, was dead, and his younger brother, John
Frederick, who owed him a grudge for having been
cheated out of Sophia, had seized on the Castle of
Celle and established himself in the Duchy. George
William had to post in haste to CeUe to uphold his
rights and turn out the usurper, but before leaving
Breda he placed a paper in the hands of his beloved
Eleonore, in which she found that he had settled on
her, in the event of his death, the whole of his private
fortune with the exception of a few legacies.
It took some time for George WiUiam to arrange
things satisfactorily at Celle ; but at last he persuaded
John Frederick to reUnquish the Duchy, and gave him
compensation, for his frequent absences had weakened
of Hanover, One of the last of these marriages was that of the
Duke of Sussex with Lady Augusta Murray, It seems absurd that
this should have been morganatic, considering that Lady Augusta was
descended from our oldest and proudest nobiHty and had Stuart blood
in her veins.

14 Ube Xove of an ^Ilncrowne^ diueen
his rights. George William then became Duke of
Celle, and John Frederick succeeded to Hanover,
Ernest Augustus remaining Bishop of Osnabriick.
When affairs of State were settled satisfactorUy
George William's thoughts once more turned to love.
But there were many difficulties. He could not leave
his dominions so soon, he could not return to Breda
to see the object of his affections ; while she, on
her part, refused all entreaties to come to him. In
this dilemma he confided in his sister-in-law, the
Duchess Sophia, of whose judgment he had great
admiration. Sophia sympathised, softened, doubtless,
by one of those little presents whereby George
WiUiam was in the habit of buying the complaisance
of the Court at Osnabriick, and promised to see the
affair through, provided that nothing were done to
impair her rights. It could hardly have been a con
genial task to Sophia, and her jealousy showed itself
early by her scoffing at Eleonore's airs of virtue,
which she declared were only assumed to increase
her value. But she was not one to allow sentiment
to stand in the way of substantial benefit. Sophia's
prospects had again distinctly improved by the death
of Duke Christian. John Frederick was stiU unwed,
and likely to remain so ^ ; and if she could tie George
William down to an amour without legitimate heirs,
in the fulness of time she or her children might
reign not only at Osnabriick, but also at Hanover
and Celle, So the illustrious Duchess Sophia, the
descendant of kings, the great lady of Osnabriick,
' He married later, i66S, but his wife brought him no children.

Ube IRomance of tbe princess's parentage is
wrote a dissembling letter to poor exiled Eleonore,
asking her to come, assuring her of respect, and
offering her as a pretext the post of lady-in-waiting
at her Court. Eleonore still hesitated. She was very
proud and very poor ; but she was very much in
love, and wearied with importunities. The Duchess
wrote again, even more urgently. These attentions
from one who was known everywhere as a great
Princess flattered Eleonore's pride, and the prospect
of joining her lover gratified her love. She consented
and came,
Eleonore was received with every mark of respect.
Sophia, accompanied by George WiUiam, met her at
the foot of the grand staircase of the castle. She
was led up to the Duchess's own chamber, where
coffee and salt biscuits, an unusual honour, were
offered to her, and she was then conducted to her
apartments. No one could be more affable than the
Duchess ; everything seemed straightforward, and it
is no wonder that Eleonore, a stranger in a strange
land, was outwitted. She soon found that she could
not draw back without compromising her reputation,
so she yielded to advice, not altogether reluctantly,
and accepted at last the left-handed marriage offered
her. A contract was drawn up, worded almost as if
it were a regular marriage ; but carefully guarding the
rights of Sophia, her husband, and her children ; and
the signatures of Ernest Augustus and Sophia were
written under those of George WiUiam of CeUe and
Eleonore d'Olbreuse. After the ceremony, which took
place in September, 1665, Eleonore was granted the

i6 Ube Xove of an XHncrowneO diueen
title of Madame von Harburg, so called from an
estate of the Duke's, and her nominal place of lady-
in-waiting was filled by her sister Angelica, whom
she later married to the Comte de Reuss.
In her memoirs Sophia declares that at first she was
agreeably surprised to find Eleonore a very amiable
person, of modest and even retiring manners, and she
no doubt thought she would be easily kept in her place
— not a high one. She soon found herself mistaken.
For some months after the morganatic marriage
Eleonore continued to live in the household of the
Duchess Sophia, and was not treated with any great
honour, and certainly not admitted to an equality
of rank. For instance, at meal-times she did not
take her place at the ducal table, and had to sit on
a low chair, without anything to eat, at a respectful
distance from the Duchess Sophia and Dukes George
William and Ernest Augustus, who ate their food
while Madame von Harburg looked on. But she
was allowed to remain seated when any princes were
present, and this was considered a great concession.
Her pride was much hurt at this etiquette, nor did the
heavy living and coarse manners of the German Court
appeal to her finer tastes. In her interesting letters
to her uncle she complains that " her heart was
sadly turned " by the enormous dishes brought before
the princely eaters, their menu consisting chiefly of
greasy sausages thrown in lumps on red cabbage,
and a farinaceous mass of ginger and onions. This
was washed down by cloudy, heavy ale, of which they
drank freely. "Now," the Duchess Sophia would

Ube IRomance of tbe princess's parentage 17
exclaim after she had eaten her fiU, mopping her
face with a napkin, " you may go, my dear, and
help your ' angeUc ' sister with her saucepans." This
was a jeer at the habit of Eleonore and AngeUca
preparing for themselves a little meal after the French
cuisine in their dressing-rooms,
Madame von Harburg was not stinted in her
establishment ; she was allowed a chariot drawn by
six horses, but she was never seen abroad with the
Duchess Sophia or the Bishop of Osnabriick, She
was not, however, a lady content with the second
place, and as her influence with her husband was
great, and grew greater as his love increased, she
had little difficulty in persuading him to take her
away with him to the Schloss at Celle, where she
was safe from the patronage of the Duchess Sophia
and could develop on her own lines, George WiUiam
was glad to take up his abode at the capital of his
Duchy, and, thanks to his morganatic wife, he abandoned
his roving habits and settled down as a model duke,
making plans for the improvement of his castle and
the better government of his people.
After they had been a few months at CeUe, Eleonore
set the seal on her influence with her husband by
presenting him with a daughter — Sophie Dorothea.

VOL. I.

CHAPTER II
THE PROGRESS OF ELEONORE
(1666— 1676)
Oh, were I seated high as my ambition,
I'd place this naked foot on hecks of monarchs !
Walpole,
SOPHIE DOROTHEA was born in the Castle
of Celle on September 15, 1666. On the
anniversary of her birth two hundred and thirty-two
years later it chanced that the writer visited CeUe,
It must have been on just such a September morning
that Sophie Dorothea was born, with the sun blazing
down on the yellow-washed walls and shining into
the chamber where the birth-bed was, with the limes
and silver beeches in the garden flecked with the
gold of autumn, and the blue-green reeds waving on
the edge of the sluggish moat. The fine old Schloss
had changed little with the flight of centuries. The
drawbridge and portcuUis had gone ; but the moat,
filled with water from the AUer, still flowed duUy
about the walls, separated from them only by a strip
of garden. The great courtyard, with its high yellow
walls, timeworn sundial, and pyramid of cannon-baUs
in one corner (doubtless the spoil of one of George
18

Ube progress of Eleonore 19
William's many campaigns), even the flock of white
and purple pigeons fluttering down on the rough
stones, all seemed to breathe the spirit of the
seventeenth century. And looking up at the north
wing, where Sophie Dorothea was born, it required
little effort of the imagination to people again the
deserted courtyard with lackeys and squires, to conjure
up the clatter of hoofs and the clank of spurs, the
bustle of congratulation, the arrival and departure of
messengers and doctors, all of which signified to the
little town of Celle that a daughter was born to the
head of the great house of Brunswick-Liineburg, and,
though they knew it not, an ancestress to two of
the mightiest monarchs of the modern world — the
Queen of England and the German Emperor.^
The little town of CeUe, at least that part of it
which clusters around the base of the castle's mighty
walls, has also changed little since the days of Sophie
Dorothea. The old brick church where the babe
of that bright morning now sleeps with her fathers
' Short genealogical table showing descent of Queen Victoria and
the Emperor William II. from SOPHIE DOROTHEA of Celle.
Sophie Dorothea
Married her first cousin, George Louis (afterwards George I.) ; they had two
children — viz.

George II. The Queen of Prussia.
I I  '  1
Frederick Prince of Wales. Frederick Prince William Augustus.
I the Great. I
George III. Frederick William I.
The Duke of Kent. Frederick William III.

Queen Victoria, Emperor Wilham I.
Emperor Frederick.

¦Will¦ Fre(
Emperor William II.

20 Ube Xove of an 'Clncrowne& diueen
remains the same. The triangular market-place and
the quaint little streets which branch off from it,
many of them narrow and irregular, bear the marks
of the flight of centuries. The old part of the
town still stands with houses dated 1609 to 1700,
having outer beams carved with curious and uncouth
mottoes. Celle, though a fairly prosperous town, has
not shot ahead like Hanover. But in those days
CeUe, with its magnificent Schloss, the seat of the
elder brother's Duchy, was a place of considerable
importance. It was a veritable Naboth's vineyard
to Ernest Augustus and Sophia, his spouse, who,
from their little Court at Osnabriick, looked towards
it with longing eyes.
The news of the birth of a daughter was not
welcome to them, but they consoled themselves with
the thought that the child was the fruit of a
morganatic union, and, after they had cracked a few
coarse jokes, dismissed the subject from their minds.
But they were soon reminded rather rudely. The
infant was given the names of Sophie Dorothea, and
the christening was celebrated with much ceremony
and many festivities and rejoicings, Ernest Augustus
angrily remarked that if the infant had been a
princess instead of only the daughter of his brother's
madame, they could not have made more fuss about
it ; and that was true, for, from the first moment
Sophie Dorothea drew breath, though in strict law she
was a person of no importance, expressly excluded from
holding any rank at Celle, the same honours were paid
to her as if she had been the heiress to the Duchy.

Ube progress of Eleonore 21
From this time onward the rift between the
Duchess Sophia and Eleonore gradually widened into
an open feud. As long as she had to think only
of herself Eleonore had borne patiently Sophia's
insults and humiliations ; but now that a child
was born, she determined to spare no effort to raise
herself and her daughter to a recognised position.
She played her part with consummate skill. She had
to fight against not merely the uncompromising hostility
of Ernest Augustus and the jealous hatred of his
Duchess, but the forces of custom and precedence
which bind the petty German Courts with an iron
band. She had to beat down the jealousy and
prejudice against herself as an alien and a stranger,
and win the support and recognition not only of
her husband's subjects, but of the neighbouring princes,
and even of the Emperor himself. When we consider
the forces against her, we are lost in admiration of
the courage, patience, and sagacity of this woman,
who year after year never swerved from the end she
had in view, and at last found her efforts crowned
with success.
Success did not come in a night. It took Eleonore
ten years before she obtained the object of her desire —
ten years of constant effort ; for her arch-enemy and
rival, the Duchess Sophia, was ever on the alert to
check her moves and foil her plans. One great
advantage Eleonore had at this time, she was sure of
her husband's love ; and as George William was as
easy-going at his wife was energetic, and as contented
as she was ambitious, she soon managed to gain a

22 Ube Xove of an 1Ilncrowne^ diueen
mastery over him — the mastery of a strong mind over
a weak one. Her next duty was to cultivate the
arts of popularity and win the good will of her
husband's subjects, no easy matter, for the prejudice
against " the Frenchwoman " and morganatic wife
was strong in the little German Principality. But her
tact and affability soon won her golden opinions in
Celle. From the first she seemed to take the towns
folk into her confidence ; she drove about the town
with her infant daughter, radiant with bows and
smiles, and soon the inhabitants began to regard the
little one as their own child, and to be as jealous of
her rights as they were of their own. This devotion
of the honest townsfolk of Celle to Sophie Dorothea
never wavered, but lasted all through her Ufe,
Not content with sowing the seeds of her child's
popularity in her infancy, Eleonore used other means
to endear herself to her husband's subjects. At her
instigation Duke George William proceeded to restore
the old Schloss on a scale of considerable magnificence,
taking care always to employ local workmen. The
little theatre ^ in the castle, so long unused, was opened
1 The theatre is in the old part of the Palace at Celle, approached
by vaulted, stone corridors, with walls five feet thick, and has a large
stage and a number of little boxes, the Royal box of course occupying
a position of prominence. The decorations are simple ; most of the
theatre is whitewashed. Like the rest of the Castle of Celle, it has
changed little, though the castle has witnessed many changes. On
the death of George William, the castle passed into the posses
sion of George I., and through him to successive kings of England.
On the accession of Queen Victoria, the Schloss became the property
of the King of Hanover, Ernest Augustus (Duke of Cumberland),
who altered it somewhat inside, not for the better, and it remained

XTbe progress of Eleonore 23
again for plays and musical performances, and to these
entertainments gentle and simple were bidden, and seated
according to their rank. Thus, after many years, a
lady was once more chatelaine at the Schloss of CeUe,
and again there might be said to be a Court there.
George William warmly seconded all these efforts
of his wife, and so great was his love for her and
the little child that his one idea seemed to be how
best to advance their interests. The rival Court
of Osnabriick, queened over by the descendant of
kings, regarded all these innovations and the " mock
Court " at CeUe with open ridicule yet concealed
uneasiness, Sophia was presenting her husband with
a numerous family, and she was anxious that nothing
should be done to prejudice the rights of her offspring.^
Ernest Augustus held the security of his brother's
in the possession of the Royal Family of Hanover until the Revolu
tion of 1866, when it was seized, together with other Hanoverian
possessions, by Prussia, and merged into the Province of Brunswick,
For some time it was used as one of the summer palaces of the present
Prince Regent of Brunswick ; but he never goes there now, and the
Schloss is almost dismantled of furniture, but well kept and in perfect
order, ' Table showing descent of Sophia from James I. of England, and
her children : James I.
Queen of Bohemia.
Sophia m. Ernest Augustus (afterward
I Elector of Hanover).
I i i \ i i i
George Louis, Frederick Maximilian Sophia Charles Christian, Ernest
b. 1660, d. 1727 Augustus, William, Charlotte Philip, b. 1671, Augustus,
(afterward b. 1661, b. 1666, (Electress of b. 1671, d. 1703. b. 1674,
George I. of d. 1691, d. 1726. Brandenburg d. 1703. d. 1728.
England), m. and Queen oi
iSophie Prussia),
Dorothea ot b. 1668, d. 1705.
Celle,

24 Ube Xove of an xilncrowne5 diueen
promise not to enter, into a legal marriage, and believed
in it implicitly ; but he naturally asked himself to
what end Eleonore was working .'' He heard much
of George WUliam's boundless generosity to his
morganatic wife, and he liked not the diversion of
his private property from what he thought its proper
direction, to wit, himself.
Within the next few years Eleonore bore her
husband three more daughters, but they aU died in
infancy, and Sophie Dorothea remained the spoiled
darling of her father's affections. So devoted was he
to the child that the mother's influence grew day by
day; and when the little girl was five years old, George
William, knowing that by his thoughtless contract
with Ernest Augustus he had shut out his wife and
daughter from all succession to his dominions, began
to purchase land to bequeath as he pleased. To this
end he bought five domains, and settled them upon
Eleonore and Sophie Dorothea, so as to make pro
vision for them in case of his death. But even this
reasonable arrangement was not carried through
without a bribe to satisfy Ernest Augustus, who would
only tolerate his brother's liberality to his wife and
daughter on the understanding that he received a
handsome commission for himself. This was the
first marked step in the progress of Eleonore, and
a little later she sounded the Emperor about the
possibility of legitimising Sophie Dorothea. The
Emperor returned a favourable, if somewhat guarded,
reply ; it was evident she could obtain her heart's
desire if she could manage to pay the price. We find

Ube progress of Eleonore 25
her, therefore, instigating George William to send
troops to help the Emperor in sundry campaigns.
This was done, and George WiUiam so distinguished
himself that the Emperor received him in private
audience, and most graciously inquired after his
" Duchess," pretending not to know the true state
of affairs.
The Emperor's condescension reached the ears of
the Duchess Sophia, and the embers of her jealousy
burst into a blaze. Eleonore's conduct was a model
of wifely devotion ; so, as the Duchess Sophia could not
bring any charge against her after her marriage, she
raked up some old slander, and accused her publiclv
of having simultaneously carried on two intrigues
when she was at the Court of Louis XIV. She
represented her as a designing adventuress, who,
while doing her best to marry Colin, a page-in-waiting
of Elizabeth Charlotte Duchess d'Orleans, tried to
catch George William as the bigger match of the two.
These charges were not very damaging or convincing,
but malice went further. We find the Duchess Sophia
writing to her niece, the Duchess d'Orleans : " Never
would any respectable girl have entered the house of
the Princess de Tarente, for, though she is my aunt —
to my intense disgust — she is not a person with
whom any one can live and remain clean. However,"
she added, " d'Olbreuse being a nobody, it does not
matter much." George WiUiam treated the tale
about the intrigue with the contempt it deserved, but
the statement that his wife was " a nobody " seems
to have rankled ; so he and his lady thought of a very

26 Ube Xove of an XttncrowneS diueen
poor means of defence. They paid two thousand
thalers to a French genealogist to make out an
elaborate family tree, to prove that Eleonore d'Olbreuse
was descended in an almost direct line from the kings
of France. The Duchess Sophia received the pedigree
with scorn and derision, and transmitted it to the
Duchess d'Orleans, who, being somewhat of a wit,
made out a caricature, in which she clearly showed that
her head cook was a descendant of PhUip the Bold,
Naturally these tactics did not tend to smooth matters
between Sophia and Eleonore, who were now not on
speaking terms, nor were they successful in winning
George William from the object of his aflPections,
ManUke, the more his wife was attacked the more he
defended her; and Eleonore, who had her share of
vanity, was so upset and wounded by being thus flouted
that she became quite ill, and had to take a cure
at Pyrmont, then a fashionable watering-place, to
restore her health. George William was worried,
too, and by way of a consolation he purchased for
Eleonore another and yet more valuable estate, in
cluding the fertile island of Wllhelmsburg, in the
Elbe, near Hamburg. This he settled upon her
for life, and made arrangements for it to become,
after her death, the inheritance of Sophie Dorothea.
Again Ernest Augustus protested, and again he was
bought off, this time with a bribe of eighteen thousand
thalers. But all the same, the victory remained
with Eleonore. If she could not get the genealogy,
at least she had substantial consolation. The pos
session of a property like the island of Wllhelmsburg

Ube progress of Eleonore 27
naturally aroused comment, not only at Osnabriick,
but the neighbouring Courts. It was regarded as open
evidence of Eleonore's influence ; she became a
person of consequence outside the little circle of CeUe,
and all the German princes began to wonder what
would happen next.
They were not left long in doubt. A few months
later the mighty Emperor sent to the Court of Celle
the letters patent which granted the legitimising of
Sophie Dorothea, and gave the title of Countess of
Wllhelmsburg to Eleonore. If the memoirs of the
time are to be believed, this Imperial message came as a
surprise even to George William, who, though evidently
pleased, looked askance at his Eleonore and grunted,
" Hum, hifm ! " as though he fathomed the source
whence the Imperial condescension sprang. He was
right, for the support which Eleonore had given to
the Emperor in influencing her husband to send troops
to the campaign, and a charming letter she had written
to him, had won the Emperor over to her side, and
he had graciously acceded to her desire.
The next few years went by uneventfully. It seemed
to the outside world that Eleonore was resting on her
laurels, but in reality she was working for more.
Meanwhile Sophie Dorothea was growing up a lovely
child, petted and spoiled by her parents and the Court
of Celle. There is a picture of her, painted about this
time, in the Cumberland Gallery at Herrenhausen, the
portrait of a beautiful child crowned with flowers and
holding a great bundle of blossoms in her arms — a
happy, winsome, radiant face ; and, making allowance

28 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneS diueen
for the flattery of Court painters, it is certain that she
must have been exceptionally lovely. The knowledge
that the little girl was to inherit a large fortune
made rumour already begin to find her a husband
among the scions of the nobility. Among Sophie
Dorothea's playmates in the gardens of Celle was a
handsome youth of some sixteen years. Count Philip
Christopher von Konigsmarck, son of a wealthy
Swedish noble. The youthful Konigsmarck was re
ceiving his military training at Celle, and was staying
there for a few years. It was not unusual at that
time for a soldier to be trained in different Courts and
serve in various campaigns, and so acquire a thorough
knowledge of warfare. Count Philip came of a family
with a brilliant military record. His father had held
the office of Minister-General of Artillery in the
service of the King of Sweden ; his uncle, Count Otho
WiUiam, was a marshal in the service of Louis XIV.,
and at the Court of the Grand Monarque became
acquainted with Eleonore d'Olbreuse. He was a
Huguenot like herself. This acquaintance probably
formed the link which brought his nephew to CeUe,
Eleonore, though popular among her husband's
subjects, was devoted to the land of her birth ; she
was always " the Frenchwoman," and was fond of
appointing her compatriots to little places in her
husband's Court, thereby causing some smaU jealousies.
There is no doubt that the boy and girl were thrown
together, and a friendship sprang up between them ;
but at Sophie Dorothea's age we can hardly suppose
that there was any deeper affection, though K5nigs-

Ube progress of Eleonore 29
marck, for his part (and he was older), afterwards
avowed that he had loved her from childhood. At
the most they could only have been boy and girl
playing at lovers. Count PhiUp, as we have seen,
came of a distinguished family, even in his boyhood
he was endowed with great personal beauty, and
he was known to be heir to considerable wealth.
Sophie Dorothea was an heiress, too, and she was
then far removed from the rank of a princess.
The possibility of a match between the two was not
so remote as might have been imagined — at any rate
their names were linked together even at that early
period in the little Court of CeUe.
It is scarcely likely that Eleonore, Countess of
Wllhelmsburg, shared these views for her daughter —
in fact, we know that she looked higher. Among the
neighbouring German princes who had watched with
benevolent interest the progress of Eleonore was Duke
Antony Ulrich of Wolfenbiittel,^ a cousin of George
WiUiam, who later became co-regent with his brother,
Rudolph Augustus, ot the Duchy of Brunswick-
Wolfenbiittel. He was a prince of considerable talents
and artistic and literary gifts, a restless spirit always
intriguing. He was a plain man, so plain that the
Duchess d'Orleans called him " an ugly baboon."
He early noted the great influence Eleonore had
obtained over her slow, easy-going husband. He
' Wolfenbiittel is an old town on the Oker, not far from Brunswick,
The famous library contains Luther's Bible, and the ducal Schloss
and mortuary chapel are the only other buildings worth mentioning.
The seat of the Duchy was, however, at Brunswick.

30 Ube Xove of an T[lncrowne& diueen
disliked the Bishop of Osnabriick and he knew of the
Duchess Sophia's hatred of Eleonore. He was aware
of the arrangement that had been made between
the two brothers as to the succession to the Duchy,
but nevertheless he thought it would be a good thing
if he could manage to divert some of the wealth of
the fat little Principality of CeUe into his somewhat
empty coffers. With this end in view he paid a visit
to the Court of Celle, and treated Eleonore with every
possible respect ; in fact, he seems to have been
genuinely impressed with her virtue and talents, and
this homage, coming from a neighbouring prince, was
grateful to Eleonore's self-esteem, for she was sensitive
about her somewhat equivocal position. She recog
nised in him an ally, and laid the foundations of a
friendship which lasted through life.
After an interval, Duke Antony Ulrich came again
to Celle, this time accompanied by his eldest son,
Augustus Frederick. He communicated to Eleonore
his wishes that his son should be betrothed to
Sophie Dorothea, and she was nothing loth. But
he pointed out that there was a difficulty, in that
Sophie Dorothea was not a princess, and so could not
make a regular marriage with his son. The way to
overcome this obstacle was for George WiUiam to
legally marry Eleonore, and raise her to the rank of
duchess, and by this means Sophie Dorothea would
become a princess, and equal in rank with Augustus
Frederick. This reasoning was very grateful to
Eleonore, for it showed the way to the goal of her
ambition. She willingly agreed to work with Antony

Zbc progress of Eleonore 31
Ulrich for this object, and they took into their con
fidence a councillor named Schiitz. Thus a distinct
party was formed at CeUe opposed to the interests of
the Bishop of Osnabriick and in favour of those of
Wolfenbiittel. For this the Duchess Sophia was
largely to blame ; she had so insulted and humiUated
Eleonore that she had thrown herself into the rival
camp. George WiUiam was so much under his wife's
influence that he readily agreed to support her desire
to become his Duchess, especially when his cousin and
neighbour, Duke Antony Ulrich, told him she was
in every way worthy of the position, and it was a
reproach to him that he had not espoused her as
his legal wife long before. He also viewed with
favour the betrothal of Sophie Dorothea to Augustus
Frederick, to which this was an indispensable pre
liminary. Everything was quickly arranged, and it
was resolved to petition the Emperor. He was
already friendly to Eleonore, and when her prayers
were backed up by the powerful support of the
Dukes of Brunswick-Wolfenbiittel and her husband,
they were sure to be granted.
The news of this double event soon reached
Osnabriick and struck consternation into the hearts of
Ernest Augustus and his wife. The Duchess Sophia
was beside herself with rage, and wrote to teU the
news to her niece, Elizabeth Charlotte d'Orleans,
" We shall soon have to say ' Madame la Duchesse,' "
she exclaimed, " to this Uttle clot of dirt, for is there
another name for that mean intrigante who comes from
nowhere ? " To which Elizabeth Charlotte replied :

32 Ube Xove of an XflncrowneO diueen
" Nowhere ? My dear aunt, you are mistaken, if you
will aUow me to say so ; she comes from a French
family, and therefore from a fraud." But these
feminine amenities, like the Bishop's protests, were
unavailing ; and soon Ernest Augustus and Sophia
arrived at the conclusion that, as it was too late to
prevent the mischief, the only thing remaining was
to safeguard their interests as closely as possible. A
fresh agreement was drawn up, lawyers and parch
ments were brought forth, and the contract between
the two brothers was debated and fought out, clause
by clause, like a Bill in Committee. The heckling
took many months and bore fruit in many docu
ments. The result of the controversy was at last
summarised in a document duly signed by Duke
George William, the Bishop of Osnabriick, and Duke
Antony Ulrich of Wolfenbiittel. The agreement was
signed at Celle in May, 1676, and its main clauses
may be summarised as follows :
Duke George William was allowed to " enter into
Christian matrimony with the high-born lady Eleonore
von Harburg, Countess of Wllhelmsburg " ; and his
daughter Sophie Dorothea, " promised to wife to His
Serene Highness Augustus Frederick Duke of
Brunswick-Wolfenbiittel," was to bear the title and
arms of a princess by birth of Brunswick-Liineburg.
But a clause was added : " Any other children who
may be hereafter born in this wedlock must content
themselves with the titles of Counts and Countesses
of Wllhelmsburg, and they can make no pretences to
the succession to the Duchy, which is bestowed on

ITbe progress of Eleonore 33
Ernest Augustus Bishop of Osnabriick and his heirs
male." The unfairness of this clause is patent ; but it was
somewhat modified by the fact that it was extremely
unlikely Eleonore would bear her husband any more
children. The Emperor's assent was proclaimed
with some ceremony ; a convocation of the deputies
of the Principality was then assembled, and their
agreement with the treaty duly notified. When all
the legal preliminaries were over, George William
led his morganatic wife of eleven years to the altar,
and espoused her with much pomp and solemnity
before all his Court, his cousin Antony Ulrich, and the
little Sophie Dorothea, who must have wondered what
it was all about. Ernest Augustus and Sophia were
not present at these festivities, and they dissembled
their ire as best they could. " Ah ! " exclaimed
the Bishop to his Court at Osnabriick on the night of
the marriage, " my brother's French madame is not a
jot the more his wife for being his Duchess ; but she
hath a dignity the more, and therewith may madame
rest content." The jibe was duly reported to the
Court of CeUe ; but Eleonore did not feel its sting.
She had reached the summit of her ambition ; she was
the acknowledged consort of the sovereign of Celle ;
her child was ranked as princess and betrothed to a
prince of equal rank. As Ernest Augustus had said,
she could now afibrd to rest content.

VOL. r.

CHAPTER III
THE WISDOM OF SERPENTS
(1676— 168 1)
Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall. Shakspeare.
THE sun of Eleonore's triumph had no sooner
reached its meridian than its radiance began to
be overcast. The first cloud was the deadi of the
young Prince Augustus Frederick of Wolfenbiittel,
who was killed by a cannon-ball at the siege of PhiUips-
burg a few months after his betrothal to Sophie
Dorothea. His death, though it seemed comparatively
unimportant, was destined to exercise an evil influence
over the fortunes of the House of Celle, and it snapped
the strongest band of union between the Celle-Wolfen
biittel party. The child Princess was happily uncon
scious of her loss. The betrothal was merely a matter
of policy, to take effect later ; the courtship was yet
to come ; and when the tidings came to CeUe of the
death of her betrothed she was too young to mourn
him. At first the Prince's death affected but little the
entente between the Courts of Celle and Wolfenbiittel.
Duke Antony Ulrich continued the close friend of
Eleonore ; he had another son, more nearly the age of
34

Ube Mts&om of Serpents 35
Sophie Dorothea, and he held him in reserve ; for the
hour of a fresh arrangement was not yet, and other
plans were in the air.
Meanwhile the little Princess blossomed into lovely
girlhood, the spoiled darling of her father's Court.
She was trained in all the accomplishments suitable to
her rank, but the more soUd part of her education
seems to have been neglected, and with the promise
of great beauty she early developed a passion for
admiration which lasted all her Ufe. Now that she
was a princess her mother was careful to keep her
away from all suitors not of equal rank. The early
intimacy between the handsome young KOnigsmarck
and Sophie Dorothea was broken off, and KOnigsmarck
was given a hint to leave CeUe. He repaired to
England to finish his education, and he and the Princess
did not meet again for many years, and by that time
she was a wife and the mother of two children.
Eleonore was justified of her wisdom, for when Sophie
Dorothea was scarcely more than twelve years old her
aunt, the Countess de Reuss, found in a drawer of
the Uttle Princess's bonheur du jour a love-letter from
a Court page. The boy was banished for his audacity
into lifelong exile, and the governess, whose con
nivance was responsible, was first imprisoned and then
sent away in disgrace. The news of this affair, which
was but a childish foUy after all, got bruited abroad,
and reached the ears of the alert Duchess Sophia. That
lady was never tired of tirading against her sister-in-law,
the " Uttle clot of dirt " as she invariably caUs her in
her letters to her niece, and she seized on this incident

36 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneO diueen
to point her moral. "Is it not a pity," she wrote
to the Duchess of Orleans, " that Ernest Augustus and
myself should have made such a blunder and caUed to
our Court that 'Uttle clot of dirt,'. the more so that
we had at hand the Biegle, whom William liked weU
enough, though she was not so fascinating as his French
vixen, who reaUy is a splendid Stiickfleisch. She would
have done very well, and at least have remained in her
proper place. Never mind, Sophie Dorothea wUl
avenge us all ; she is a little canaille, and we shaU see,"
This, to put it mildly, shows a loose moral view on
the part of the Duchess Sophia, to say nothing of the
coarseness of expression. Her prophecy about the little
Princess did not seem very likely of fulfilment then.
The death of Augustus Frederick of Wolfenbiittel left
the field open, and an alliance with the great House
of Liineburg-Celle was eagerly courted. The beauty
and wealth of Sophie Dorothea, though she was only
just in her teens, made her a desirable bride, and
it was no longer the sons of the nobility who sought
her hand, but princes of the reigning Houses of
Europe. The Duke of CeUe had almost arranged a
match for his daughter with a younger son of the King
of Denmark, when the Queen of Denmark actively
interposed, and, with much violence and many exple
tives, broke off the match. This lady had once received
Eleonore at dinner, but had refused her the kiss of
honour. In revenge, Eleonore had commented on the
badness of the Queen's cuisine ; so they were far from
friends. Probably the Duchess Sophia, who was very
friendly with the Queen of Denmark, had a hand

ELEONORE d'oLBREUSE, DUCHESS OF CELLE. \To face p. 36.

Ube Mis&om of Serpents 37
in bringing about the failure of these negotiations,
for we find her writing : " Well done ! Fancy a
king's son for that bit of a bastard ! Upon my word,
one has to come from Poitou to be so impudent 1 "
The gibe was of course aimed at Eleonore,
who found herself on this occasion outwitted by her
sister-in-law. Up to this time Eleonore's influence
with her husband was not sensibly impaired. His
thoughts were still engrossed with her advancement,
and he first made a new treaty, by which his wife
was allowed the title of Duchess of Liineburg-Celle ;
and, secondly, drew up an agreement to further safe
guard her rights and those of her daughter to the
rich estates of Wllhelmsburg. Both these documents
were countersigned by the wily Ernest Augustus,
whose consent was necessary, but who was only
induced to yield by a high price being paid for his
complaisance. The Duke of Celle thought his wife worthy of
any pecuniary sacrifice at this time. Her conduct was
so irreproachable as a wife and a mother that she
won the esteem even of those who were prejudiced
against her. Grave, dignified, and beautiful, she held
her husband's truant affections much longer than
any one would have supposed, and was careful by her
conduct to make good the position to which she had
been raised. Her bitterest enemies were unable to
tarnish her fair name, and this is no mean tribute
to her virtue and prudence when we remember the
age in which she lived and the circumstances sur
rounding her. Under Eleonore's rule the Court of

38 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
CeUe became a model of decorum. The jovial Duke,
though wealthy and hospitable, hated display and
ostentation, and loved nothing so much as a quiet
life. His tastes were those of an English country
squire. He was a fine judge of wine, and had
many rare vintages in his ceUar ; he had three
hundred and seventy horses in his stables, mostly
English or bred in England ; his kennels, too, were
largely filled with dogs of English breed. He was
a mighty Nimrod, devoted to out-door sports. A
little business with his Ministers and a good deal
of hunting — that was his programme for the day,
and in the evening he loved nothing better than to
share the joys of the domestic hearth with his wife
and chUd. Eleonore, unlike most ladies who have
risen in the world, seemed equally averse to display
for its own sake, and shunned rather than courted
the trappings of State. So the Court of Celle was
peaceful and virtuous, perhaps a little dull.
It was far different at the Court of Hanover.
The death of Duke John Frederick without issue
in 1679 had now brought Ernest Augustus and Sophia
to reign over Hanover as well as Osnabriick. Duke
John Frederick was not greatly mourned, and his reign,
though merry, had been brief. Like his brothers, he
was fond of Italy, and acquired there a love of foreign
ways and a liking for the Roman Catholic religion,
to which he became a convert. , Louis XIV., who
was by way of being a defender of the faith, gave
this ducal convert a handsome pension, and treated
him with marked favour. John Frederick's eyes were

TTbe Misbont of Serpents 39
dazzled by the glory of the Grand Monarque, whose
splendour was the wonder of Europe, and he tried
to turn Hanover into an imitation VersaiUes :
pseudo-classical statues were erected in the gardens ;
fountains were dotted about the terraces ; there were
fireworks, masquerades, and pastoral plays, Italian
singers and French dancers ; many foreign monsignori
flitted about the Court, and mass was again sung
in the churches. The honest Hanoverians rubbed
their eyes and knew not what to make of it aU.
But aUen though their Duke was in some things,
he had one taste in common with his long-suffering
subjects — he loved his beer, and, after a prolonged
course of hard drinking, he died from an overspell
of it. As the Duchess Sophia wrote, " He died as a
true German should, glass in hand."
This " true German " being gathered to his fathers,
Duke Ernest Augustus and Duchess Sophia made haste
to reign in his stead. Sophia thanked Heaven for
having thus placed her husband out of the reach of
his enemies, " as which the whole Court of Celle had
now to be regarded." It was indeed a notable accession
of dignity and wealth. Both were ambitious and loved
money and ostentation ; they now had a chance of
gratifying their tastes. In a smaller way Ernest
Augustus had also imitated Louis XIV.'s Court at
Osnabriick, and it seemed to that " most Christian "
monarch that the new Duke of Hanover would
foUow his brother in matters of religion. He there
fore dispatched a plenipotentiary, Gourville, to sound
him on the subject and to offer the same bait in

4° Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
the way of pension as he had dangled before the
eyes of John Frederick. But Ernest Augustus was
now not so needy, and he had other objects in view,
so he replied oracularly that though no doubt a
change of religion would be advantageous to his
House he himself was too old to change. AU
religions were much the same to Sophia ; but she
disliked being meddled with in spiritual matters,
and had her own interests, too — her English interests,
then remote — which would certainly be imperiUed by
a change of faith. So the worthy pair, after taking
counsel together, hit on a compromise by not educat
ing their daughter Sophia Charlotte in any faith,
so that she might marry the most promising prince
who offered himself, whether he were Catholic or
Protestant, When sounded later on the subject of
her daughter's faith, the Duchess answered, "She
is of no religion as yet." It was lucky that Sophia
turned a deaf ear to the blandishments of the French
King and the Pope, or the House of Hanover and
the Protestant succession would never have ruled in
England. Though under the new regime the Court of
Hanover differed in religious ceremonial from that
of Versailles, in other respects it was a bad imitation,
and the grafting of spurious French architecture on
the little mediasval German town produced many
incongruous effects, as incongruous as the aping of
French manners and French morals. For the Court
of Hanover imitated not only the pleasures of
Versailles, but also its vices. Unlike his brother

Ube Timisbom of Serpents 41
George WiUiam, matrimony had effected no change
in the laxities of Ernest Augustus, and the explana
tion is probably to be found in the fact that his
was a marriage of policy, whUe the other's was
a marriage of love. Ernest Augustus was a man
of six times the ability of George WiUiam. He
was selfish and scheming, but there was a certain
splendid good nature about him, and though his
Court was dissolute, it was always brUliant. The
money for his pleasures, for he was as great a spend
thrift as his brother was the reverse of one, he raised
either by squeezing George WiUiam or by equipping
regiments of his subjects and seUing them to foreign
service, as, for instance, to fight the Emperor's enemies
on the Danube, This was in the approved style of
the Grand Monarque, who always had a war on
hand by way of a kingly pastime, Louis XIV., like
Solomon of old, had also his beautiful favourites in
great array, who reaped rich rewards of wealth and
influence. This period of European history may be
said to mark the apotheosis of military and political
adventurers and Royal mistresses. There was no
Court without its adventurers, and a king was hardly
a king without a bevy of mistresses. Many of them
were women of noble birth, who embarked on the
career with the encouragement of their parents and
guardians, and even of their husbands. Louise de
Querouallle, afterwards Duchess of Portsmouth, went
over from France to England to win the favour of
Charles II. In the same way Clara Elizabeth and
Catherine Marie von Meissenburg journeyed to

42 Zbc Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
Osnabriick in the hope of capturing the good wiU of
Ernest Augustus and his son.
Clara Elizabeth and Catherine Marie were of noble
birth. Their father. Count Carl Philip von Meissen
burg, was a needy military adventurer, and their faces
were their only fortune. Their good looks, combined
with much impudence, a lively wit, and an utter
absence of principle, sufficed to form a very attractive
pair in those days. When they were only in their
teens Count von Meissenburg took his daughters to
Paris with the hope of seeing them shine at the Court
of Louis XIV., a sort of Mecca to which aU these
worldly pilgrims were then bound. But the estabUshed
Royal favourites there did not view the fair intruders
with favour, and gave them a hint that it would be
better to decamp, or Paris would soon be too hot
to hold them. The Meissenburgs, who were poor
and therefore powerless, needed no second warning.
Fear lent them wings ; they packed up with aU
despatch, and, looking about for a likely spot to push
their fortunes, they hit upon the little Court of Ernest
Augustus, and set out thither with all speed.
The Court was then at Osnabriick, and it so chanced
that the demoiselles Meissenburg arrived just when the
two eldest sons of Ernest Augustus, George Louis and
Frederick Augustus, had returned from their travels,
accompanied by their governors Platen and Busche.
The needy Count lost no time in presenting his
daughters at Court, and evidently they created a
favourable impression, for we find them helping at
a fete in honour of the young Princes' return. The

LOUIS XIV. {To face p. ^-2

Tlbe TKHisbom of Serpents 43
demoiselles Meissenburg, who were fresh from all
the graces and amusements of Versailles, composed
a little pastoral play in French, which they craved per
mission to perform before the Duke and Duchess, and
the performance was the most successful feature of the
festival. It was given at night in the gardens, which
were illuminated for the occasion. The young ladies
appeared, as befitted their pastoral simplicity, in the
guise of shepherdesses, and recited their Unes so
prettily, and danced and sang in so charming a way
that they delighted their audience and especially won
the hearts of the governors Platen and Busche,
Having made so favourable an impression, the sisters
remained at Osnabriick to follow up their advantage.
It suited them weU. It was a cheap town to live in ;
they had the entree of the Court, and the free-and-
easy air of the place gave them room to develop
their schemes. At that time the young adventuresses
had to moderate their ambitions. Ernest Augustus
was far above them, and Prince George Louis was
only a boy, and was sent away directly on military
service. But meantime the Meissenburgs made the
best of their opportunities. Platen and Busche were
both rising men, and enjoyed the confidence of the
Court. Failing higher game, the sisters resolved on
making a conquest of them, and they unmasked their
batteries with such success that before long they were
comfortably settled in life, Clara EUzabeth as the
wife of Platen, and Catherine Marie as the wife
of Busche.
Attached now for good or evil to the House of

44 TTbe Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
Brunswick-Liineburg, the sisters shared in its improved
fortunes, and when the Court of Ernest Augustus
migrated to Hanover they went there too.
Of the two sisters, Clara Elizabeth, now Madame
Platen, was immeasurably the superior, if not in youth
and beauty, in cleverness and audacity. This woman
is one of the worst instances in history of the evil
infiuence of the Court mistress. She had no redeeming
qualities ; she was unscrupulous, ambitious, and shame
lessly corrupt. She was possessed of the immense
power of one who has a fixed purpose in life, and who
will stick at nothing to obtain it. Having obtained
the first object of her ambition, a safe and respectable
position, she was wise enough to recognise an identity
of interest with her husband, and to see that as he
advanced she would advance with him. To this end
she sought to obtain influence over Ernest Augustus.
Platen, after his marriage, was promoted to a con
fidential position, and when the Court went to Hanover
he was raised to the responsible post of Minister,
His wife thus found herself within the charmed circle
and within touch of what she most desired — power.
A masterful disposition gave her complete sway over her
husband ; she dictated to Platen, who, in turn, advised
Ernest Augustus. But this was too round about a
method for Madame Platen, who wished to be next
the Duke himself. Before long a post was found
for her in the service of the Duchess Sophia, and
thus she came frequently before the notice of Ernest
Augustus. She played her cards very discreetly,
and, with the connivance of her husband, brought aU

Ube Timisbom of Serpents 45
her arts, flatteries, and fascinations to bear upon the
Duke ; so that Ernest Augustus was first astonished
at her cleverness, next flattered by her pretended
admiration for himself, and then fascinated by her
good looks. In a short time her influence over him
was supreme. Not content with having won the
Duke, Madame Platen determined also to bring the
son under her influence. When Prince George Louis
returned from his military service she threw her
sister, Madame Busche, in his way. Her sister was
younger and prettier than Madame Platen, but much
less clever and wholly under the influence of this
imperious woman. The precocious young Prince fell
captive to the charms of Madame Busche, who also
had a complaisant husband. Thus Madame Platen
became all powerful at the Court of Hanover. It
is an ugly chapter in the history of the Hanoverian
House, yet one that cannot be ignored.
Some Court mistresses have been real politicians,
and their influence on public affairs — Madame de
Malntenon's, for instance — was for good and not evil.
But Madame Platen was hardly a political woman of
the first rank ; she was incapable of taking a wide view
of affairs, and her eflfbrts were directed towards the
immediate aggrandisement of the little Principality of
Hanover, without a thought of the larger interests out
side. Into the family feud between Celle and Hanover
she entered with zest, and made common cause with
Ernest Augustus and Sophia against Eleonore and the
Celle-Wolfenbiittel party. She noted the growing
intimacy between George William and Antony Ulrich,

46 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
which she shrewdly suspected boded no good to
the fortunes of the Court of Hanover. Her methods
were essentially those of the backstairs, and she
persuaded Ernest Augustus to employ spies at CeUe
to report all that went on there. In this way
she acquired a knowledge of the disposition of the
Ministers who held office at Celle. The most powerful
of them all was Bernstorff, the Duke's Prime Minister.
Bernstorff was an ambitious and avaricious man with
little principle, who had already shown jealousy of the
influence which Eleonore exercised over her husband
and resented her interference in affairs of State.
Madame Platen saw in him an instrument for her
designs ; she approached him with many promises,
and some more substantial pledges from Ernest
Augustus — item, a gold snuff-box set with diamonds,
and similar tokens of good will. Bernstorff was
quite willing to listen to these overtures ; he was
anxious to become a great landed proprietor, and
Ernest Augustus promised to advance his wishes in
this and other respects if he would carry out his
plans. He was opposed to the Celle-Wolfenbiittel
party headed by the Duchess Eleonore, he desired
nothing better than her downfaU ; so he took the bribe,
and confidential communications were opened up with
Hanover. In particular he warned Ernest Augustus
of the schemes of Duke Antony Ulrich, who was now
urging the betrothal of his second son to the little
Sophie Dorothea. These communications were not
nominally carried on between responsible Ministers,
but between a spy at Celle and Madame Platen at

Ube TKflfsbom of Serpents 47
Hanover, so that if anything transpired they could
both be disowned by the responsible Governments ;
but in reality Madame Platen was dictating the policy
of Hanover,
A pretty picture of moral and political corruption, it
must be confessed. One wonders what the haughty
Duchess Sophia thought of it aU, and by what inexplic
able means this inscrutable woman was brought to
become a passive witness of the double capture by
audacious adventuresses of her husband and her son.
Her policy was to consistently ignore anything she
could not help ; and in this case she seems to have
oflfered no protest. The key to this riddle is
probably to be found in her character. The moral
objection would not appeal to her, for though
the Duchess Sophia in her own personal conduct
was absolutely above reproach, and there is abun
dant evidence to prove she held that the virtue of
princesses should be above suspicion, yet she had
been trained in a school and an age which did not
demand an equal standard of morality from men as
from women, least of aU from princes. In her day
women of the Platen type were as much a part of
the entourage of a Court as the lacqueys in the kitchen
or the grooms in the stables, and since this was so,
why not Madame Platen as well as another ? Sophia
had done her duty to Ernest Augustus in every sense
of the word. She had been a good and faithful wife ;
she had upheld the dignity of the Courts of Osnabriick
and Hanover ; she had borne her husband six children,
five sons and a daughter ; and though they had never

48 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
any love in the highest sense for one another, yet in
time affection seems to have sprung up between this
curious couple, and they got on very well together,
mainly on the principle of leaving each other alone.
According to his lights, and possibly her lights also,
Ernest Augustus was a good husband ; he always
treated his consort with profound respect, and out
wardly he fulfilled the letter of his contract with her,
it was only in the spirit he failed, but Sophia probably
did not care about that. She was his Duchess, the
mother of his sons, the great lady of the House of
Brunswick-Liineburg, and that sufficed her. She was
fond of her children, too, especially of the younger
boys and her daughter, but for George Louis, her
eldest son, she had very little love. She therefore
probably regarded his affair with Madame Busche
with indifference. Nor did religious scruples enter
to any extent. She was a free-thinking woman, who,
from a philosophic eminence, looked down upon all
dogma with contempt. " The Princess Sophia," says
Dean Lockier, "was a woman of good sense and
excellent conversation. I was very well acquainted with
her. She sat very loose in her religious principles,
and used to take a particular pleasure in setting a
heretic (infidel), whenever she could meet such, and
one of her chaplains disputing together." This is a
quaint characteristic ; and we may picture Sophia's face
as she baited her chaplain with some truculent infidel,
and chuckled while they fought together, finally dis
missing them with, " A plague on both your houses." ^
' A similar pastime was frequently indulged in by her grand-daughter-

Ube TKHisbom of Serpents 49
Hitherto we have viewed this Princess in a some
what unamiable light — the side she showed to Eleonore ;
it is only fair to turn the other side of the shield.
Her failings were the failings of her times, her virtues
were all her own. Reared in a dissolute Court, married
into a vicious one, no word of scandal was ever
breathed against her moral character. She remained
beyond and apart, a serene and haughty figure, head
and shoulders above the mean, coarse, voluptuous,
lying crowd with which she was surrounded. What
ever was pure and of good repute, whatever made for
the higher and intellectual life, turned to Sophia at
the Court of Hanover. She was a woman of great
parts, speaking five languages — Low Dutch, German,
French, Italian, and English — fluently, and was learned
in the literature of them all. She attracted to Hanover
some of the choicest intellectual spirits of the age,
and among them was the great and learned Leibnitz,
whose friend and patron she was. In turn he warmly
respected and admired her : she was the " Serena "
of his letters, and together they discussed those subtle
philosophies beside which such things as Court intrigues
and Court courtesans were as nothing worth.
It was doubtless her communing in these serene alti
tudes, together with the considerations before mentioned,
which enabled the Duchess Sophia to ignore Madame
Platen and lesser annoyances. Outwardly she received
from the Court mistress every mark of respect and
in-law. Queen Caroline, wife of George II., who was also most tolerant
of her husband's mistresses. No doubt she learned both these
peculiarities from Sophia,
VOL. I. 4

so Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
homage. However impudent, brazen, and intriguing
Madame Platen might be, she was always submissive
and decorous before the Duchess Sophia, always her
very humble lady-in-waiting. The Duchess was not
of a jealous temperament, and in matters where her
rank and her rights were not imperilled her heart did
not enter. Madame Platen would always be Madame
Platen ; she could never rise, for instance, to the
heights of the upstart d'Olbreuse, and arrogate to her
self the position of an equal of the daughter of kings;
and so long as she kept her place, what matter?
Besides, according to her lights, the woman was
working for the greater glory of the House of
Brunswick-Liineburg and against the hated Eleonore.
These seem the ostensible grounds on which it can
be explained why the Duchess Sophia allowed, without
protest, such a power near her throne. But there was
perhaps another reason, too, which overshadowed all
the rest.
The great and splendid inheritance of the Throne
of England already began to be dangled before Sophia's
eyes like a beacon light. English events absorbed her
to the exclusion of others, and the affairs of the Court
of Hanover were mere village politics beside them.
Sophia had one virtue for which every Englishman
will love her. She loved " her country," as she called
England, with aU her heart and soul and strength ;
" her country," which she had never seen, which she
was destined never to see ; " her country," over which
her grandfather had reigned a wellnigh absolute
monarch ; " her country," to which her mother had

Ube TKttisbom of Serpents 51
gone back, as to home, to end her days ; " her country,"
for which her brother, the dashing Prince Rupert, had
fought on the King's side throughout the Great
RebelUon ; " her country," over which her son was
to reign and her chUdren's children from generation
to generation. The reproach of being German and
alien in sympathy, later, often urged against the
House of Hanover, could never have been brought
against Sophia, for her heart was as " entirely English "
as Queen Anne's. She early imbibed her love for
England and things English, She spoke the language
fluently, far better than many a Stuart, She was
learned in England's history, its customs, and its laws.
She had an English maid always with her. In her
youth she had been within measurable distance of
becoming Queen Consort of England ; in her old age
she was within an ace of being Queen Regnant,^ It
is a pity she was never Queen of England, She
would have been another and a wiser Elizabeth,
whom in many ways she strongly resembled — in
her love of statecraft, her broad and liberal view of
things, her contempt for jarring creeds, her wisdom
and resource. Yes, it is a thousand pities she
was never Queen of England ; she would have made
a wiser ruler than any of her Stuart cousins, and
a far better than any of her descendants, save one
only — the present illustrious and revered occupant of
the Throne, whose long and beneficent reign has won
for her the first place among England's monarchs of
any dynasty. ' She died less than three months before Queen Anne.

CHAPTER IV
PRINCE GEORGE GOES A-WOOING
(1681— 1682)
He that travels in a country before he has some entrance into the language,
goeth to school and not to travel. — Bacon.
FROM her watch-tower at Hanover the Duchess
Sophia followed with keen interest the course
of events in England, an interest which increased
every day of her life until at last it became an
absorbing passion. She spared no pains to keep up
a good understanding between herself and her English
relatives. When Charles II. was restored to the throne
of his ancestors, she sent him a warm letter of con
gratulation, written in the oddest French, which is still
preserved among the Lambeth manuscripts. Through
out her cousin's reign Sophia continued to watch affairs
in England. She noted Charles's childless marriage
to Catherine of Braganza.^ She noted the dislike and
jealousy of the people of England to Popery, and the
conversion of the heir to the throne, the Duke of
' " She [Sophia] told me,'' writes Lord Dartmouth many years later,
" that she was once like to have been married to King Charles II.,
which would not have been worse for the nation, considering how
many children she had brought, to which I most sincerely agreed."
S2

prince (Beorge Goes H*TKIlootng 53
York, to the Roman Catholic religion, and his con
sequent unpopularity. She noted the marriage of
his eldest daughter. Princess Mary of York, to
WiUiam of Orange, and the childless condition of the
Dutchman and his spouse. Last of all, she noted
that the Princess Anne of York, on whom it seemed
likely the Crown of England would devolve in the
course of nature, had reached a marriageable age, and
she saw in her son, George Louis, the husband for
her, and prepared to act,
George Louis had now attained his majority. He
was not an ideal lover, by no means a Prince Charming,
though so far as looks were concerned he might have
passed muster. He was about the middle height,
dark, with strongly marked features, but he carried
himself badly, and was awkward of figure, still more
awkward in manner. He favoured neither of his
parents. Ernest Augustus gilded his faults by a
certain generosity and refinement, which earned for
him the title of " the gentleman of Germany."
George Louis was niggardly, he had no charm of
manner, he was vindictive, suUen, slow of speech,
and altogether unprepossessing. His mother, as we
have seen, was a woman of high culture and education
and a ready wit, which caused her to be known
as " the merry, debonnaire princess of Germany,"
George Louis's education had been neglected, he
had no love of learning, and an intense dislike of
hterature, nor had he any accomplishments save the
love of music characteristic of his race. But, on
the other hand, he was a good soldier, a man of

54 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
the camp rather than of the Court. His tutors threw
up their hands in despair when they endeavoured
to teach him anything from books, but he took to
military service as a duck takes to water. He served
under his father, when only fifteen, .In the campaign
in 1675, and fought bravely at Consarbriick, at the
siege of Treves, and in the campaign on the Rhine ;
he was at the sieges of Maestricht and Charleroy,
and again at the battle near St, Denis, and on every
occasion he distinguished himself. He had his own
rough code of honour. He never told a lie. He
possessed in a marked degree that courage which even
their bitterest detractors cannot withhold from the
princes of the House of Hanover. Yet with aU his
military instinct he loved not bloodshed for its own
sake ; he was a man of peace. He had humanity for
the wounded on the field of battle, and could respect
a fallen foe. His methods were brutal, but straight
forward ; he was no intriguer, and, though profligate,
he was honest.
Ernest Augustus was in despair at the rude
manners of his boorish son, and thought that travel
would improve him. As he was not over welcome
at home, he sent him to the Court of France, to
pick up a little polish for one thing, and, for another,
to try to improve matters between Louis XIV. and
himself. But the young Prince returned much the
same. He was not a diplomat, and his efforts in that
direction were not a success.
It was then that the Duchess Sophia broached her
plan of sending him to England as a suitor of the

PRINCE r.EOUGE LOUIS OF HANOVER.
(Afterwards George I. of England.)

[To face p. 54-

prince George Goes H-TKHooing ss
Princess Anne of York. It was emphatically her plan.
Madame Platen had nothing to do with it, was not
even consulted ; in fact, Sophia never recognised in any
way this woman's influence. The moment could not
have been more propitious. The anti-Popery feeling
was running high in England, and already overtures
had been made by the Protestant party to the House
of Hanover. Duke Ernest Augustus did not think
much of these overtures ; the prospect was too vague.
England was to him little more than a geographical
expression, and the violent events of recent years filled
him with distrust. He had witnessed in England the
Great Rebellion, the downfall of the Monarchy, the
execution of the King, the setting up of the Common
wealth, the downfall of the Commonwealth, the
restoration of the Monarchy, and now, lo and behold !
the Puritan party seemed to be rising again. He did
not trust a nation which indulged in such extremes, and
he regarded England much as the average Englishman
to-day regards France, But he was not averse from
the idea of marrying his eldest son to a Princess of
the Royal House of England ; in any case she would
have a goodly dower, and so, to please his wife and
his own inclinations, he consented to find the money
to dispatch George Louis to England in a manner
befitting his rank and errand.
The Duchess Sophia was delighted with her husband's
wiUingness to fall in with her plan (she little knew
that all the while behind her back he was intriguing
for another match for Prince George, should this faU
through), and she took the keenest interest in her

56 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
son's visit. Another also took an Interest, that born
Intriguer, William of Orange, the husband of the
Princess Mary of York, who was jealously watching
events in England. When he heard of George
Louis's intended visit he scented mischief ahead, and
sent a flattering invitation to Hanover asking the
young Prince to spend a month with him at the Hague
on his way to England. Sophia was glad that her son
should visit his Stuart cousins In Holland, and the
invitation was accepted. It was a fatal error of policy,
for William soon learnt from the young Prince the
object of his mission, and immediately set to work to
render it null and void. He, too, was half a Stuart,
a grandson of Charles L, and the prospect of the
Crown of England had its charms for him also ; he
coveted It not merely for his wife. If George Louis
married the Princess Anne, and the Princess of Orange
died before her (as In fact she did, though not
till she had been Queen), WiUiam, her consort, would
probably have to give way to their prior claims ; for
George Louis was a Protestant, and only one step
further removed from the blood royal of England
than himself; therefore It behoved him to move
heaven and earth to prevent this match.
He had spies in England, at Hanover, and at
Celle, and he set them all at work. His agent in
Hanover was probably Madame Platen, and at Celle
Bernstorff, both of whom were open to bribes.
Their work was simple : they were to represent
to their respective princes how much more suitable
and advantageous it would be if George Louis married

prince George Goes H^Timoolng 57
Sophie Dorothea. Of course, they could do nothing
more than prepare the ground, and drop a hint
now and then ; but even that would bear fruit. In
England William had emissaries everywhere, at Court,
and even in the household of Princess Anne.
Meanwhile the unsuspecting George Louis parted
from his cousins, WUliam and Mary, with many
expressions of good will, and set sail for England. He
anchored off Greenwich early in December, 1680 (New
Style), His arrival was well timed, from the popularity
point of view. Public feeling was excited over the
so-called Popish plots, and the unpopularity of the
Duke of York was at its height. The Bill which
excluded him from the succession to the throne because
he was a Papist was before Parliament, and in the
event of its passing into law George Louis's prospects
as a Protestant descendant of the Stuarts would be
Improved, The Bill did pass with acclamation, but the
King dissolved Parliament immediately.
George Louis's arrival, though his errand was well
known, does not seem to have been equally popular
with the Court ; his barque lay in the mud off
Greenwich, but no one was sent to look out for him
or to bid him welcome. When he landed In England
again it was as King ; but that is another story. At
this time George Louis did not expect great things ; he
sent to his uncle Rupert, and presumably explained
matters to him. Henceforward things went smoothly.
What happened is best told in a letter which he wrote
to his mother, the Duchess Sophia. This letter, which
is written with much sprightUness in the original

5 8 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
French, does not bear out the assertion that George
Louis was very Illiterate.
" London, December 30 (Old Style),
^'January 10 (New Style), 1680 — 1681.
" After wishing Your Serene Highness a very happy
New Year, I will not delay letting you know that
I arrived here on December 6, having remained one
day at anchor at Grunnevltsch [Greenwich] till M. Beck
went on shore to take a house for me. He did not
fail to find out Uncle Robert [Prince Rupert] and
let him know of my arrival at Grunnevltsch, who did
not delay teUing King Charles. His Majesty immedi
ately appointed me apartments at Welthal [WhitehaU],
M. Beck requested Uncle Robert to excuse me ; but
King Charles, when he spoke thus, insisted that it
should absolutely be so, for he would treat me en
cousin, and after that no more could be said. There
fore M, Cotterel came on the morrow to find me
out with a barque of the King, and brought me
therein to Welthal. I had not been there more than
two hours when Milord Hamilton came to take me
to the King, who received me most obligingly. Uncle
Robert had preceded me, and was at Court when
I saluted King Charles. In making my obeisance
to the King, I did not omit to give him the letter
of Your Serene Highness, after which he spoke of
Your Highness, and said ' that he remembered you
very well.' When he had talked with me some time
he went to the Queen [Catherine of Braganza], and
as soon as I arrived he made me kiss the hem of

prince George Goes H-TlBloolng 59
Her Majesty's petticoat {qui I'on fit baiser la jupe a
la reine).
" The next day I saw the Princess of York [the
Princess Anne], and I saluted her by kissing her, with
the consent of the King. The day after, I went to
visit Uncle Robert, who received me in bed, for
he has a malady In his leg which makes him very
often keep his bed. It appears that it is so without
any pretext, and that he has to take care of himself.
He had not faUed of coming to see me one day.
" All the milords came to see me sans pretendre
la main chez moi. Milord Greue [Grey] came to me
very often indeed.
" They cut off the head of Lord Stafford yesterday,
and made no more ado about it than if they had
chopped off the head of a pullet,
" I have no more to tell Your Serene Highness,
wherefore I conclude, and remain your very humble
son and servant, "George Louis,"
Prince George Louis's wooing did not prosper
as might have been expected from so promising a
beginning. The Princess Anne at that time was
seventeen years old, In the full bloom of youth, and
had a considerable share of good looks of a somewhat
florid description. Accustomed as she was to all the
grace and splendour of the English Court, Princess
Anne looked with little favour on the awkward
advances of her German cousin, who could not speak
a word of the English language, and whose person
was not pleasing nor his manner courtly. Naturally

6o Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
reserved, he was very shy when he was first presented
to her, and awkward in saluting her, and William
of Orange caused it to be whispered to Anne that
the Prince's backwardness was owing to an Irrepressible
disgust which he felt for her at first sight, and that
he had spoken slightingly of her charms. This was
enough for Anne, whose vanity was easily wounded ;
she would have nothing more to say to her loutish
lover, and cherished a lifelong resentment at the
imaginary affront.
Neither the King nor the Duke of York favoured
the suit of the Hanoverian Prince, because he was
unjustly supposed to be in league with the Prince of
Orange. But still George Louis lingered in England,
and paid a visit to Cambridge, where he was received
with every mark of honour and given the degree
of Doctor of Laws, Cambridge was thus early in
the field to demonstrate her loyalty to the House
of Hanover. When it is remembered that the Prince
was a stranger to England, and could not speak a
word of the language, it Is evident there must have
been some political motive on the part of the Uni
versity. It was to be found In party feeUng, which
then ran high. Parliament met at Oxford, and was
StUl clamouring for the Exclusion BIU, but the King
put his foot down, absolutely refused to alter the
succession, and again dissolved Parliament, This was
a severe blow to the Protestant party and incidentally
to the Protestant princes.
Soon after, George Louis was summoned home
abruptly, and he returned to Hanover in the spring.

prince George Goes H*Tiaiooing 6i
Ernest Augustus, seeing there was no hope of his son
marrying the Princess Anne, became Impatient about
the EngUsh succession, for which he did not care
a fig ; besides, there was a tendency In England to
draw the young Prince Into Intrigues, and both
Sophia and himself always opposed anything which
might tend to embarrass the reigning House of
England. In this respect the conduct of the House
of Hanover forms an honourable contrast to that
of William of Orange. Her son's return empty-
handed was a bitter disappointment to Sophia, who
saw her English hopes shattered. She withdrew once
more to the consolations of philosophy, conscious that
the failure of her plan had brought with it a waning
of her influence with her husband. George Louis
had been sent on a wild-goose chase, and Ernest
Augustus had to pay the bill, which he did with
very ill grace ; for, though he was lavish with money
where his own pleasures were concerned, he had the
German thriftlness about spending it on others.
Madame Platen's star now came into the ascendant,
and she urged with added force and plausibility the
scheme of a marriage between George Louis and his
cousin, Sophie Dorothea. Of course, all had to be
done behind the back of the Duchess Sophia, who
regarded the Court of Celle with unconcealed aversion.
Ernest Augustus had not the same feeling of personal
bitterness against Eleonore as his wife, and he was
quite willing to make terms with George WUliam, or,
for a matter of that, with her, if he could thereby
add to his fortunes, and he therefore gave ready ear

62 Ube Xove of an Tttncrowneb diueen
to the idea. The advantages of the union were
many and obvious ; the young lady was rich, her
dower would be large, the marriage would unite the
severed principalities of Celle and Hanover, and so
add enormously to the power of the House of
Brunswick-Liineburg ; It would end an unpleasant
family feud, fraught with weakness and danger to
both parties, and would set up again an Identity of
interest between the brothers. All this would happen
If Sophie Dorothea married George Louis ; but if she
married a rival prince, under the present strained
relations, dangers would arise which it would be
Impossible to foresee. The breach would widen, and
the Principality of Hanover would be threatened
with a foe at its very doors. From a poUtical
point of view nothing could be better than this
marriage — for Hanover, At Celle the ground was
not unprepared ; Platen had communicated with
Bernstorff, and that pliant tool had also sounded
George William, As the continual dropping of
water wears away a stone, so Bernstorff, by hint
and innuendo, was slowly undermining the influ
ence of the Duchess of CeUe. He traded on
the fact that she was " the Frenchwoman," he
exaggerated the jealousy which arose from so many
French officers holding commissions in the ducal
army, he hinted discreetly to the Duke that the
neighbouring princes and even the Emperor were
laughing at him because he allowed himself to be
ruled by his wife, and he particularly opposed the
growing power of the Celle-Wolfenbiittel party.

prince George Goes H=»TKIloolng 63
Duke Antony Ulrich had by this time brought
forward his eldest surviving son, a handsome prince,
as a suitor for the hand of Sophie Dorothea. The
young couple were of a suitable age, and Eleonore
warmly encouraged the match. If the matter had
rested with her, the betrothal would long since have
taken place. Her first check had come when she
proposed It to George William, To her astonish
ment he held back. He was superstitious, and
thought the untoward ending of the first match
between his daughter and a Prince of the House of
Wolfenbiittel was an iU-omen. He did not approve
of her marriage with the younger brother when she
had been betrothed to the elder, for In Germany at
that time betrothal was almost as solemn a compact
as marriage itself. These were the reasons he put
forward for opposing the betrothal ; but Eleonore
talked him over, and at last he was induced to un
willingly give what was practically a consent, on the
condition that the betrothal should be postponed
until Sophie Dorothea was sixteen, and meantime the
arrangement should be kept strictly secret. With
this Eleonore and Antony Ulrich had to be con
tent. There is little doubt that it was Bernstorff
who prompted the delay, just as he now used the
time gained to further oppose the match and to urge
the Hanoverian claims.
So matters went on until September, 1682, when
Sophie Dorothea was to attain her sixteenth birthday.
In some way the half promise which the Duke of
Celle had given leaked out, and also the news that

64 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
Duke Antony Ulrich and his son were coming to
Celle for the celebration of the Princess's birthday
on September 15. Bernstorff immediately communi
cated this to the Court of Hanover. The news
filled Ernest Augustus and his advisers, the Platens,
with dismay ; they had been Intriguing for months,
and now, through a sudden move on the part of the
Duchess of Celle, their schemes were on the edge of
failure. If Bernstorff had not discovered the plot
they would certainly have been lost. In any case
the time for talking was past, the time for action
had come ; Antony Ulrich and the young Prince
were actually on their way to Celle, and Eleonore
was arranging a great festival, when no doubt the
betrothal would be publicly announced. Then it
would be too late. Owing to the badness of the roads,
the news only arrived at Hanover on the morning of
the day before. What was to be done .'' If Ernest
Augustus were to go to Celle, Eleonore would guess
the reason of his sudden appearance and outwit him.
To send George Louis would be to court failure (they
had had two experiences of his diplomacy) ; to send a
Minister would be useless ; to send Madame Platen
an insult. There was only one person who could hope
to carry the difficult business through and that was
the Duchess Sophia. She had influence with the Duke
of Celle. Her quarrel had been with his wife and not
with him. He had always treated her with honour
and even affection ; probably he felt some twinge of
shame for the shabby way he had behaved to her
years before. Her descent from a long line of kings,

prince George Goes asMoolng 65
her high position, learning, and virtues, her wit and
resource, all made her the ideal ambassadress for such
a mission. George William would be flattered by her
condescension in coming to Celle ; he was already
favourably disposed to the match, and he could not
refuse her. But would she go ?
It was not without misgiving that Ernest Augustus
repaired to his Duchess, laid bare his plan, and
Implored her aid. It came to her as a revelation,
and at first the haughty Sophia would have none of
it. She hated the d'Olbreuse, and despised Sophie
Dorothea because she was her daughter ; she had never
recognised them, never visited them, and always treated
them as dirt beneath her feet. The last thing she
contemplated or wished was to be brought into closer
alliance with them. But the arguments and entreaties
of Ernest Augustus had weight with her ; he reminded
her that her English plan had failed, and urged that
she should make some compensation for the expense
and disappointment which she had brought upon him.
She recognised the force of this reasoning ; she was
just now suffering all the humiliations of defeat, and
if she could carry this difficult thing through It would
restore her lost prestige. She knew well enough — it
did not need to be explained to her — the substantial
advantages that would accrue from the union of the
duchies and the bringing of a large dowry into the
coffers of Hanover, She saw, too, how disastrous it
would be for the Celle-Wolfenbiittel party to triumph
and Eleonore to be victorious. The last thought was
perhaps the most powerful of all ; by consenting to
VOL, I, 5

66 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
go to Celle she would outwit her rival, wound her to
the heart, frustrate her most cherished plan, and ruin
her influence for ever. So Sophia consented to under
take the mission, and, with characteristic energy,
prepared to start at once. The state chariot and
Mecklenburg horses were ordered out, and with
postillions and outriders the haughty Duchess set
forth. There was no time to be lost ; she must
reach Celle before to-morrow morning or the
Wolfenbiittels would be there before her.
It was a dull evening in mid-September when Sophia
rumbled in her heavy coach out of Hanover and over
the rough road towards Celle. Celle is distant from
Hanover about twenty miles as the crow flies ; but
because of heavy rains many of the roads were
Impassable, and the coach had to travel by a
circuitous route. It took the Duchess all night to
reach her journey's end.

CHAPTER V
THE SACRIFICE
(1682) After this alliance
Let tigers match with Wnds, and wolves with sheep.
And every creature couple with its foe. Dryden.
THE mists of a raw September morning hung
about Celle as the Duchess Sophia drove in from
the Hanover road, stiff and cold from her long journey.
One wonders what thoughts crowded into her brain as
the coach rattled through the quaint streets of the little
town. She had not been here for seventeen years,
never since Eleonore had queened it at the Castle, and
she had come to-day to disqueen her, by destroying
her Influence and bringing to naught her most cherished
scheme. Yet she would have to make peace with her,
turn to her a smiling face, and enter into close and
Intimate relations with the woman she hated. Insulted,
and despised. It must have been with mingled feelings
that Sophia saw the towers of the mighty Schloss rise
before her.
The sleepy sentinel, recognising the unaccustomed
liveries of Hanover, hurried to let down the draw-
67

68 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
bridge, raise the portcullis, and salute the great
Duchess. The moment the coach entered the court
yard Sophia alighted. A glance sufficed to show her
she was not too late, the Wolfenbiittel equipage was
not yet there. Brushing aside ceremony, she, who
was so great a stickler for etiquette, demanded to see
the Duke of Celle at once. The few half-awakened
servants who happened to be up as she entered the
Castle, astonished at the unexpected apparition, ex
plained to her that His Highness had not yet risen,
he was even now dressing, but would soon be able to
descend and receive her in a fitting manner. But
Sophia was In no humour to tarry ; ascending the
great staircase, she haughtily demanded to be shown
at once to the Duke's chamber, in bed or out of bed,
dressed or undressed, her business was one which
would admit of no delay. The flurried page conducted
her to the door of the ducal apartment, and here she
ordered him to leave, and announced herself by
promptly opening the door and walking In upon the
astonished Duke, who was then at his dressing-table.
Of all people In the world, his sister-in-law was
the one George William least expected to see ; but
Sophia cut short his exclamations and apologies by
announcing that she had travelled all night to present
in person her congratulations to himself and his Duchess
on the occasion of the sixteenth birthday of their
daughter, and wound up by asking curtly, " Where is
your wife ? " The Duke pointed to the half-open
door of the bedchamber adjoining, where Eleonore
was still In bed — a capacious bed in a comparatively

Ube Sacrifice 69
small room with the ceiling decorated with a realistic
fresco of the legend of Leda and the Swan.^
Eleonore, hearing voices, called out to her husband
to ask who came thus early to disturb their rest. The
Duchess Sophia, through the half-open door, repeated
in a loud voice what she had already said to the Duke,
thus breaking the ice of the awkward first greeting
with her enemy, and, without waiting to hear what the
perturbed Eleonore had to say In reply, she turned
to the Duke, and, addressing him in Low Dutch, a
language she knew his wife did not understand, she
intimated that she had something important to say
to him alone, George William glanced meaningly at
the half-open door, behind which was the flurried
Eleonore, and suggested they should wait a little while
and discuss the matter elsewhere. But Sophia cut
short his excuses and proposals by answering that what
she had to say must be said there and then. She
could not be so rude as to shut the door in Eleonore's
face, so she drew up a chair by the Duke's dressing-
table, and, continuing to speak In Low Dutch, pro
ceeded to unfold her scheme — first exacting from him a
promise that, if he did not accede to her wishes, he was
never to divulge a syllable of what she had come to say.
In a few vigorous sentences she skilfully explained
the real object of her visit. She began by de
ploring the family feud which had too long existed
between the Courts of Hanover and Celle, and
expatiated upon the desirability of reconciliation and
the advantages which would Inevitably follow a closer
' The room remains the same to this day.

70 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
union, George WiUiam, who by this time had made
a shrewd guess at what she was driving, followed her
with many encouraging nods and ejaculations, and
when the uneasy Eleonore from the next room called
out that she would like to know the subject of the
conversation, he bade her roughly to be quiet, and
invited Sophia to proceed. That lady then touched
upon the services which had been rendered to the
Emperor by the troops of Hanover and CeUe, and
hinted at the probable raising of the Duchy to an
Electorate ; she did not say which duchy, but George
William thought It was the Duchy of Celle, whereas
she had in her mind (and her surmise eventually
proved correct) the accession of the Duchy of
Hanover to this coveted dignity. She went on to
say that sooner or later there would be an addition
of territory in the shape of the Duchies of Bremen
and Verden,^ declared It would be a pity if a fine
domain like Wllhelmsburg, Sophie Dorothea's inherit
ance, should be alienated from Brunswick-Liineburg
territory, and then by a natural sequence proceeded
to show that all evUs could be averted and all good
things brought about by the marriage of her son
George Louis with George William's daughter, Sophie
Dorothea, George Louis she described in glowing
terms ; she alluded to his high favour with William
of Orange, and his connexion, through her, with the
Royal House of England, which assured him the
good will of that great Power,
George William was completely carried away by the
' This did not actually take place until the reign of George II,

Ube Sacrifice 71
eloquence and arguments of his Illustrious sister-in-law.
No one, he told her, could regret more than he
the breach between the two Houses, it was not his
doing, and he was glad of an opportunity of recon
ciliation. He saw clearly the advantages that would
follow upon the marriage proposed, and he promised
his consent. It is probable that he did not need
much persuasion, he only wanted the excuse of
meeting the proposal half way which her visit gave
him, for William of Orange's hints and Bernstorff's
pleadings had already prepared the ground. With
the warmest assurances of friendship he kissed Sophia's
hand, and then escorted her to a suite of apartments
to rest after her journey.
The anxious Eleonore, who by this time was up
and dressed, was waiting for her husband on his
return, and asked for an explanation of this unexpected
visit. He gave it promptly, and added the unwelcome
intelligence that he had consented to an alliance
between George Louis and Sophie Dorothea. Eleonore
was at first stunned by this blow to her hopes on the
very morning of expected victory. The alliance she had
laboured for years to bring about with the House
of Brunswick-Wolfenbiittel was shattered to the dust,
and the woman who had slighted and scorned her
had only to propose an opposition scheme for it to
be accepted. In vain she urged upon the Duke the
insult such a volte-face would be to Duke Antony
Ulrich and his son. George WiUiam answered testily
that he had given nothing but a conditional promise.
In vain she pointed out the hostiUty and self-seeking

72 TCbe Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
policy of the House of Hanover. George William
said he was tired of family quarrels, and hailed this
as a means of putting an end to them. He then
proceeded to dilate upon the advantages of the
union, and the advisability of Eleonore reconciling
herself to the new state of affairs and burying the
hatchet. But Eleonore, to her honour be it said, was
unlike her husband In this — she was deaf to the
voice of ambition where her heart was concerned.
The failure of her cherished plans was bad enough,
but it was as nothing compared with the wreck of
her daughter's happiness. She threw herself on her
knees before her husband, and implored him, with
tears, not to sacrifice their only child, the one pledge
of their love, to the promptings of policy and
ambition, and doom her to the misery of a loveless
marriage ; she reminded him of the tales that had
reached Celle of George Louis's sullen and profligate
character, and of the hatred with which the House of
Hanover had ever viewed her daughter and herself.
It was like throwing their lamb to the wolves. But
George William was obdurate ; he pooh-poohed all
these things as idle fancies, and again told his wife
to reconcile herself with the altered state of affairs,
and, deaf to her entreaties, he bade her go and
acquaint Sophie Dorothea with the plans he had made
for her future. With a heavy heart the mother went
to break the news to her daughter, a sad greeting for
a birthday morning.
The young Princess had not been trained to control
her emotions nor to having her will thwarted. The

Ube Sacrifice 73
spoiled darling of her father's affections, she had
hitherto only to wish for a thing and it was hers, and
her wishes had been law at Celle, When, therefore,
she was told it was proposed to hand her over to a
man she had scarcely seen, and whom she had been
taught to despise, without consulting her wishes in any
way, she flew Into a violent passion, and vowed she
would have to be dragged to the altar before she
consented. Her heart was free, for, though she was
well disposed towards the young Prince of Wolfen
biittel, she had not yet learned to love him, and, though
romance has it otherwise, there Is no proof that the
boy and girl love between herself and Konigsmarck
had made much impression upon her. But she was by
no means favourably disposed towards George Louis,
She had heard of his loutish manners and his loose
morals. Her mother had taught her from her youth
up to regard the Duchess Sophia and her son as her
greatest enemies. She knew how they had insulted
her mother and what degrading epithets they had
appUed to herself, and the news that she was about
to be handed over to their tender mercies filled her
with consternation and grief. After the first outburst
her emotion found relief in tears, and she clung to
her mother, and besought her to save her from such
a fate. Poor Eleonore, who was powerless, could only
mingle her tears with her daughter's.
While this scene was being enacted in one wing of
the Castle, in another the Duchess Sophia and George
WiUiam sat down and despatched a hearty breakfast.
Sophia, delighted with the success of her mission, spared

74 TCbe Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
no pains to make herself agreeable and to flatter George
William to the top of his bent ; she was also pleased
to be gracious to Bernstorff, who had heard of the
morning's work, and who, on his part, did everything
he could to bolster up the Duke in his determination.
A mounted messenger had already been despatched to
carry the good news to Hanover, and to bid Duke
Ernest Augustus and Prince George Louis come to
CeUe with all speed.
The breakfast was hardly over, the day had scarcely
warmed, when the trumpeter on the tower announced
the arrival of Duke Antony Ulrich and his son. They
came with a numerous suite, ostensibly to offer their
congratulations on the anniversary of the birthday of
Sophie Dorothea, In reality to claim the fulfilment
of her father's promise. The sight of the Duchess
Sophia's coach In the courtyard and the Hanoverian
liveries filled Antony Ulrich with suspicions which were
only too speedily confirmed. The young Princess,
he found, was too much perturbed to receive their
congratulations In person, her mother was shut up
with her ; but the Duke of Celle, accompanied by
the Duchess Sophia, received the Wolfenbiittel princes
with much ceremony, and without ado proceeded to
Inform them of the news of the betrothal of Sophie
Dorothea to George Louis, and by way of adding
Insult to injury invited them to remain to the birthday
feast, when the betrothal would be announced. Duke
Antony Ulrich, mastering his indignation with an
effort, was so much insulted at this shameless rightr
about-face that, ignoring the invitation, he at once

Ube Sacrifice 75
returned to his coach, accompanied by his son, and
shook the dust of CeUe off his feet. It Is difficult to
call such a retreat dignified, yet he seems to have
made it so, though he left the Duchess Sophia in
possession of the field.
George William, having got rid of his unwelcome
guests, proceeded to the apartments of Sophie Dorothea
on the troublesome errand of persuading his refractory,
daughter to put In an appearance and pay her respects
to her aunt. He took with him a birthday present
and a message of congratulation from the Duchess
Sophia. The apartments of Sophie Dorothea consisted
of three rooms leading from one another ; the work
room or school-room, with two large windows over
looking the lime trees on to the moat, the parlour,
somewhat elaborately decorated, and the sleeping-room,
with the bed in an alcove, and a superb carved
rnantelpiece, supported by four cupids. These rooms
Sophie Dorothea had occupied from her Infancy, and
her work and all her little treasures were scattered
about. The Duke's resolution did not waver, though
he found his daughter lying on the bed in a passion
of grief, her mother by her side entreating her to
be calm. Apparently her persuasions had not, so far,
had much effect, for the temper with which Sophie
Dorothea received her father may be gathered from
the fact that when he gave her the Duchess Sophia's
present, a miniature of George Louis set In diamonds,
she threw it from her with such violence that it
was shattered against the wall, and the precious stones
fell all about the room.

76 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
Her father began to threaten and storm and
reproach her mother for encouraging their daughter
in this Insubordination. Parental authority had its
weight with even the most self-willed young Princess
in those days, and the result of the combination of
her father's threats and her mother's entreaties was
that Sophie Dorothea gradually became calmer, and
was coaxed or forced into getting up and dressing
herself, and consenting to be presented to her aunt
Sophia in a proper manner. She had also to go
through the ordeal of receiving the birthday con
gratulations of the Court and of appearing at the
banquet, when her betrothal was announced ; but her
tear-stained eyes and downcast looks, no less than
her mother's pallor and dejection, made it evident
that she was acting under compulsion, and evoked
the pity rather than the congratulations of the Court
of Celle. Perhaps the Duchess Sophia found in the
grief and tears of Eleonore and her daughter some
consolation for the humiliation she underwent in thus
recognising and meeting them for the first time as
equals. The next day Ernest Augustus and George Louis
arrived from Hanover, Ernest Augustus was radiant,
but George Louis was even more sullen than his
wont. The beginning of the wooing was not pro
mising. The young Princess fainted in her mother's
arms when she was presented to her future husband.
Her dislike was quite reciprocated by George Louis, ^
who, though willing to go through the affair for the
sake of the money, had been trained to have nothing

Ube Sacrifice 77
but contempt for "Madame" of Celle and her
daughter. His manners at the best were not pre
possessing, and in this case he does not seem to
have taken the trouble to make himself agreeable to
his future bride. The elders did all the smiles and
congratulations ; the principals in the contract rendered
nothing but an outward acquiescence, sulky on his
side, and rebellious on hers.
Yet, looking at it from quite the outside point of
view, if George Louis had sought all over Europe he
would hardly have found a more suitable match than
this, and he certainly could not have found a more
charming bride than his princess cousin, Sophie
Dorothea had grown to great beauty. She was a
brunette, with dark brown, almost black, hair, large
velvety eyes, regular features, brilliant complexion,
and the veriest little red rosebud of a mouth. Her
figure was perfectly proportioned : she had an exquisite
neck and bust, and slender little hands and - feet. She
had nothing in common with the large-waisted, flat-
footed German princesses of the period ; she favoured
her mother, and, like her, was essentially " the
Frenchwoman," not only In appearance, but in
manners, dress, and conversation. She had the French
woman's instinctive dislike to anything coarse or
unrefined, and she excelled in all the accomplishments
of the time ; her dancing was perfect, she was a skiUed
musician, she was clever with her needle, and could
express herself gracefully in writing. Her conversa
tion was sprightly, she was full of wit and repartee,
and her ready tongue, it may be feared, often led her

78 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
into trouble. She had the Frenchwoman's emotional
temperament, she was easily depressed and easily elated,
and was capable of strong and unreasoning passion.
But her Instincts were always generous, and she
was absolutely free from meanness In thought, word,
or deed.
Such a disposition united to a good and wise
husband' might have been trained into a fine and noble
nature. As it was, no man could have been found
more unsuitable to her than George Louis ; their
temperaments were totally dissimilar, it was like the
union of cold and heat, of Ice and fire. George Louis
had his good qualities, too, though somewhat latent, and
a tactful and sympathetic wife might have developed
them. Poor Sophie Dorothea never even found them,
much less developed them. How could she ? She
and George Louis were utterly unsympathetic, and
when two antagonistic chemicals are mixed there is
sure to be an explosion sooner or later. But the
hearts and Inclinations of the young couple were the
last things the parents, except Eleonore, thought of in
connexion with them.
George William was delighted to play the host
again to his favourite brother and his respected
sister-in-law. The betrothal was announced with much
pomp. There were great feasts at Celle, and every
one came to congratulate. All the neighbouring
princes, with the exception of Brunswick-Wolfenbiittel,
and all the great officers of both duchies, were delighted
at the betrothal. Indeed, the advantages seemed many
and obvious, and Eleonore, seeing how strongly the

Ube Sacrifice 79
tide of popular feeling was against her, to say nothing
of George William's obstinacy, had perforce to give
way, hide her mortification as best she could, and
counsel her daughter to submission to the will of her
father. It was not an easy task, for Sophie Dorothea
had a will and temper of her own, but she was
brought to some show of outward complaisance,
and Induced to passively receive the congratulations
of the Court and the unwilling wooing of her
betrothed, George William, Ernest Augustus, and Sophia
agreed that, as there was no reason for delay, the
marriage should be celebrated as soon as the necessary
formalities and settlements were completed. Platen
and Bernstorff were called In to help and advise,
and lengthy deeds were drawn up. Eleonore seems
to have been too heartsick to interfere, or perhaps
she was powerless, for in the marriage settlement
Ernest Augustus and Sophia had everything their
own way, and Sophie Dorothea's Interests, apart from
her husband and prospective children, were scarcely
studied. George William was In so complaisant a
mood that the Duke and Duchess of Hanover could
ask almost what they liked. He settled to give his
daughter one hundred thousand thalers a year, which
meant that he handed it all over to the exchequer
of Hanover. The estates he had settled on her
were also made over, except in the case of certain
unlikely contingencies, such as the death of George
Louis before his wife. If the Princess were left a
widow, she was to be entitled to a dower of twelve

8o Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
thousand thalers a year. But the whole gist of the
settlement was that the Princess, apart from her
husband and her children, had no money of her own
and no settlement in the modern sense of the term.
Of course, she would be given enough to maintain
herself in proper state as Princess of Hanover ;
but her money depended entirely on the good will
of her husband and what her parents chose to
give her from time to time ; she had literally not
a penny which she could call her own. Her position
was much that of a married woman in England before
the passing of the Married Woman's Property Act.
The point is important in view of future contingencies.
One stipulation the Duchess Eleonore was able to
enforce before the marriage contract was signed :
George Louis's intrigue with Madame Busche was a
matter of common notoriety, and she Insisted that it
should be broken off and the mistress sent away from
Hanover, This very reasonable request was supposed
to be very unreasonable, but Eleonore was firm.
Sophie Dorothea had not yet notified her consent in
writing, and people were beginning to comment on
her downcast looks. The Duke of Celle did not
wish it to appear that she was forced into an un
wUling marriage, and to humour her and her mother
it was promised that Madame Busche should be sent
away. The Duchess Sophia, went back to Hanover
to see the business carried through. In return for
this concession Sophie Dorothea was induced to write
the following letter to her aunt ; it was merely a
formal letter, probably dictated in substance and simply

Ube Sacrifice si
copied by her. Reading between the lines, we can
see the mute protest that runs through It.
" Madame, " I have so much respect for my lord the Duke
your husband, and for my lord my own father, that
in whatever manner they may act on my behalf I
shall always be very content. Your Highness will
do me, I know, the justice to believe that no one
can be more sensible than I am of the many marks
of your goodness. I will carefully endeavour all
my life long to deserve the same, and to make It
evident to Your Highness by my respect and very
humble service that you could not choose as a
daughter one who knows better than myself how to
pay to you what Is due. In which duty I shall feel
very great pleasure, and also in showing you by my
submission that I am, " Madame,
" Your Highness's very humble
" And very obedient servant,
"Sophie Dorothea.
"At Celle, October 21, 1682,"
The Duchess Sophia probably found in this letter
and in the tears and anguish of Eleonore and her
daughter some compensation for the effort it cost her
to have made the visit to Celle, Of her part in the
betrothal she was probably ashamed, for we find her
making no mention in her letters to the Duchess
d'Orleans of her journey to Celle, but concerning the
marriage she wrote as follows :
VOL. I. 6

82 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
" Ernest Augustus always had a queer head, and
how such an idea could have entered it passes all
my understanding. However, one hundred thousand
thalers a year is a goodly sum to pocket, without
speaking of a pretty wife, who will find a match in
my son George Louis, the most pigheaded, stubborn
boy who ever lived, and who has round his brains
such a thick crust that I defy any man or woman
ever to discover what is in them. He does not care
much for the match itself, but one hundred thousand
thalers a year have tempted him as they would have
tempted anybody else."
The marriage contract was signed at Celle by
Ernest Augustus and George Louis on the one part
and George William and Sophie Dorothea on the
other ; thus the Princess was induced to sign away
not only her liberty, but her fortune, and she be
came soul and body the property of George Louis.
The Duchess Sophia came back from Hanover to be
present at the wedding, which was hurried forward
with all speed. Great preparations were made for
it, and costly presents and congratulations poured In
from all sides.
The wedding was celebrated in the private chapel of
the Castle of Celle, according to the Lutheran rites, on
November 21, 1682, with every circumstance of pomp
and . ceremony. The town was gaily decorated, the
Castle was thronged with distinguished guests ; there
had never been such a wedding at Celle before. The
beautiful little chapel, brilliantly illuminated and be
decked with flowers, presented a scene of unusual

ELIZABETH CHARLOTTE, DUCHESS d'oRLEANS. [To face p. iz.

Ube Sacrifice 83
splendour. There were the bride's procession and the
bridegroom's procession, and the procession of the
parents, and the Court chroniclers exhausted them
selves in describing the beauty of the bride, the Ust
of her jewels, the richness of her attire. The bride
groom was scarcely less bravely arrayed. Outwardly
all was fair ; but within, beneath this brave show,
what horror, what anguish, what base and ignoble
passions ! There were the Duchess Sophia, exulting
over the downfall of her enemies, yet with a spice of
bitterness in her cup ; her husband, the wily and covetous
Ernest Augustus ; the weak-minded George William ;
the sad and anxious mother, who could scarcely
restrain her tears ; the bridegroom muttering the
unwiUing words, while all the time his heart was
with his banished mistress ; the child bride, she was
little more than a child, pale and unresponsive,
sacrificed like another Iphigenia, The omens were
unpropltious : there was no sunshine for the bride ;
the morning dawned dark and gloomy, and during
the ceremony a furious storm broke over Celle,
and the wind shrieked and raged, shaking the Castle
walls. But dark and gloomy though the day was,
it was not so dark and gloomy as the bride's heart ;
and fierce though the tempest, it was not half so
fierce as the passions which raged In the breasts of
the little group around the altar. There were priests
and prayers and benedictions, all the pomp of
heraldry and the pageantry of Courts ; yet when all
was stripped away this marriage was nothing but a
shameless bargain, and a young girl's life was sold

84 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
to a man steeped in selfishness and profligacy and
who did npt even make a pretext of loving her.
When we are tempted to pass judgment on all that
happened after, we must remember that the bride's
vows were made half in Ignorance, wholly under
protest. The outward form was there, the words
were spoken; but Love, who haUows the sacrament,
was far away, and shuddering hid his holy face.

CHAPTER VI
THE COURT OF HANOVER
(1682— 1684)
The Court's a golden but a fatal circle,
Upon whose magic skirts a thousand devils
In crystal forms sit tempting innocence.
And beckon early virtue from its centre, Lee.
THERE were great rejoicings at Hanover In
honour of the home-coming of the youthful
pair. The marriage was exceedingly popular among
all classes, and the people vied with the Court and
nobility in celebrating an event which was to contribute
so materially to the prosperity of the Duchy, George
Louis and Sophie Dorothea entered Hanover in a State
coach drawn by six cream-coloured horses and preceded
by a military escort, and passed in procession through
the decorated streets and shouting multitudes to the
Alte Palais (the old palace), where they were to take
up their abode, Sophie Dorothea's parting from the
home of her childhood had been sad, but her welcome
to Hanover was a warm one, and she forgot her
sadness in the general rejoicing. Yet a shadow fell
across the bride's path on the very threshold of her
8s

86 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
new home, Madame Busche, though under orders to
quit, had not yet left Hanover, but had the audacity
to appear with her sister, Madame Platen, at an
upper window of the palace. Tradition says that as
George Louis was helping his young wife to alight,
she looked up by chance, and saw this Jezebel at the
window with her face convulsed with hate. Sophie
Dorothea started and turned pale, she guessed in
stinctively who it was. The Duchess Sophia noticed
her too, and was so angry her orders had been
disregarded that she sent an imperative message to
Madame Busche to leave Hanover that very night.
Her mandate was obeyed ; but the mischief had
been done, and the contretemps was an IU-omen for the
success o{ the marriage.
There were loyal addresses and Court festivities,
baUs, plays, and feastlngs for a week on end in Hanover,
and the bride won golden opinions by her beauty and
grace. The events of the last few weeks had tamed
her spirit, and she wore an air of timid dignity which,
joined to her extreme youth, touched all hearts and
even softened at first some of the dislike of her mother-
in-law and some of the roughness of her husband.
Ernest Augustus was much pleased with Sophie
Dorothea, and stood between her and her enemies.
Unlike his wife, he had no prejudice against his niece,
and he never could resist a pretty face. Now that she
had come to him as his daughter-in-law, filling his
coffers with her dowry, and adding to the brightness of
his Court with her beauty, he was exceedingly weU
disposed towards her. With all his faults, Ernest

Ube Court of Ibanover " 87
Augustus was no tyrant, but on the whole a kind-
hearted man, and throughout Sophie Dorothea's married
life at Hanover he was perhaps her best friend, over-
indulgent in some things, culpably lax In others, but
without the malevolence of his wife or the cold
brutaUty of his son.
To the girl bride, who had been reared under her
parents' wing in quiet little CeUe, and sheltered from
the knowledge of evil, the Court of Hanover, with
its meretricious gaiety and brilliance, its laxity of
morals and profligacy of manners, must have seemed
like another world, and not a better one. The
Hanover ^ to which Sophie Dorothea came could not
boast of a magnificent Schloss like Celle, but it had
three palaces instead of one. There was the Alte
Palais, where the young Princess lived at first, an
unpretending building In the centre of the town ;
across the street was the LeIne Schloss, where also
were apartments for the Royal Family, a larger and
more imposing building, used for State functions
and entertainments ; and half-an-hour's drive outside
Hanover lay the country residence of Herrenhausen, a
' Hanover is still in some respects the same as it was in the
tirae of Ernest Augustus and Sophia. Until the beginning of Queen
Victoria's reign, it must have been almost exactly the same ; but the
divorce from the English crown which then ensued made a difference,
and the expulsion of the King of Hanover, in 1866, brought the town
under Prussian rule, and resulted in the abolition of many landmarks.
Under the iron heel of Prussia Hanover is losing many of its dis
tinctive features. It has become rauch like any other modern Prussian
city, with wide streets, huge barracks, and enormous and hideous
buildings, vast manufactories and breweries. The town has advanced
in prosperity, but has lost in picturesqueness.

88 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
favourite retreat of the Duchess Sophia, then a modest
place, but which she later rebuilt, beautified, and
enlarged. To this day Herrenhausen retains its charm.
Its quaint, formal gardens with interminable hedges of
clipped hornbeam, its colossal fountains and monstrous
stucco cupids. Its orangery, terraces, and ornamental
water, make it unlike anything else in Europe. No
wonder the Georges were so fond of It, no wonder
they were eager to run away from gloomy London
to the delights of this homely little Schloss, nestling
in the midst of a great park and approached from
the outer world by a long avenue of limes. When
we have seen Herrenhausen we can understand the
home-sickness of the earlier Georges, and their regret
at leaving the cosy delights of their snug little
Principality to take up the burden of the uneasy
crown of England.
At the Court of Celle there was a comparatively
modest retinue, few festivities, and little pomp of
State, Hanover, modelled on Versailles, maintained a
Court out of all proportion to the importance of the
Duchy, The Duchess Sophia, who was a strict up
holder of dignity, established in It rigid rules of
place and precedence and no herald's table was ever
classed more strictly than the different orders of
the Court of Hanover. First and foremost, there
was the Ducal family — the sacred clan, above, apart,
and beyond all meaner mortals. In the second class
came the Field-Marshal of the Army, all alone, a
sort of buffer between their Serene Highnesses and
their subjects. Then followed In the third class, in

(2

Ube Court of "toanover 89
order meet, the civil and military authorities, the
privy councillors and ministers, and generals of the
army. The fourth class was made up of the High
Chamberlain and the marshals of the Court, and so
down to the pages, all of whom were noble. After
this class there was a great gulf — the gulf between
noble and simple ; and then came in array a number
of lesser Court officials, gentlemen ushers, physicians,
musicians, every one in nicely graduated order, even
down to the cooks and footmen, coachmen and grooms.
The stables at Hanover were always a feature ; they
are so to-day, and must have been well worth seeing
In Sophie Dorothea's time. They contained some six
hundred horses and any number of splendid equipages.
Sophie Dorothea held a high place in all this state,
and as Princess of Hanover (as she was formally
styled) she was given a separate household. Her
apartments were in a wing of the old palace ; but she
had her own establishment, her chamberlain, her
ladies-in-waiting, and her pages. She seldom drove
out except in an enormous gilt coach, with postillions
and running footmen. We may picture her rumbling
through the narrow streets of old Hanover of an
afternoon, her pretty, childish, wistful face looking out
of the window of the great coach, or driving outside
the walls to pay her respects to her haughty mother-
in-law at Herrenhausen,
The young Princess found It exceedingly hard at
first to accommodate herself to all the formaUties and
restrictions incidental upon her rank at the Hanoverian
Court. She never quite mastered all the minutiae of

9° Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
Court etiquette In which the Duchess Sophia revelled ;
she would forget, and in her childish, Impulsive
way, greet a member of the fourth class as though
he were a member of the third, or vice versa. She
followed her own likes and dislikes too much, she
was too friendly with one and not friendly enough
with the other, she • would sometimes withdraw from
the Court circle when she was bored, and did not
always appear when she was wanted. All this greatly
scandalised the Duchess Sophia, who considered Court
etiquette the very essence of royalty, and she often
wrote to the Duchess d'Orleans, complaining of the bad
up-bringing of her daughter-in-law and the way in
which her education had been neglected. Of course
they both blamed " Madame " of CeUe, who, being " a
nobody," could not be expected to teach Sophie Dorothea
the customs of a Court. Perhaps a little kindness
and forbearance on the part of the Duchess Sophia
might have taught the young Princess how to carry
her dignity even to that female martinet's satisfaction,
for she was very adaptive and quick to learn. But
the Duchess Sophia showed her no sympathy, and her
daughter-in-law's Uttle slips were Invariably made the
occasion of some slighting remark, either on herself
or her mother. It is no wonder, under these circum
stances, that Sophie Dorothea grew mutinous and
careless, and even took a pleasure in showing her
contempt for the rules of etiquette at the Hanoverian
Court by wilfully transgressing them whenever she
pleased. The poor little Princess, in these first months of her

Ube Court of ibanover 9^
married life at Hanover, surrounded by spies and
enemies, must often have longed to flee from the
hollow splendours of the Court to the home life at
Celle and the arms of her loving mother. While
all this importance was attached to the outward
semblance, no one at Hanover heeded, and no one
cared whether she was happy or not. It was hardly
possible for her to have been happy. Sophie Dorothea
was the victim of one of the crueUest of State marriages,
and her only hope of happiness lay in the chance of
some love and forbearance on the part of her husband.
In these first months of marriage her nature was
plastic to her husband's touch. A kind word might
have wrought her to love, as a harsh one often
drove her to tears and anger. With a little kind
ness, a little sympathy, all the misery and mistakes of
later years might have been averted, but George Louis
had no kind words for the daughter of " Madame "
of Celle, and even thus early In her married life she
was neglected, insulted, and forced through experiences
from which her girlish purity recoiled. Even If she
had no claim on his affection, she might have had
some on his pity. She was all alone and with none to
help or advise her, for though Celle was only twenty
miles away, the strained relations between the two
Courts were not at this date so smoothed over as to
admit of much visiting between them, and the means
of communication were so bad that her father's
principality seemed another country,
Sophie Dorothea had brought with her from Celle
a trusted friend. If not a very wise one, in a young

92 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
lady, Fraulein Eleonore von Knesebeck, who followed
her to Hanover as confidential lady-in-waiting. She
was a few years older than the Princess, and the
daughter of one of the councillors at Celle, whose
name appears as signing the marriage contract between
Duke George William and Duchess Eleonore, She
was a woman of considerable ability, and though no
beauty, had a fair share of good looks. Her devotion
to the Princess was beyond doubt, but her discretion,
unfortunately, was doubtful indeed, and even In these
early days she repeated to Sophie Dorothea many
things that would have been better ignored, and Incited
her against her enemies.
We obtain a fairly good idea of the way In which
Sophie Dorothea spent her day from her journals, or
diaries, and If her record may be taken as a sample
of the life of a German princess at the end of the
seventeenth century, there was nothing very edifying
or enlivening about it, even in so gay a Court as that
of Hanover, The forenoon would be spent by the
Princess either in bed (she was not an early riser) or
in her apartments writing letters, or working with her
needle. If the weather were fine, she might take a walk
in the gardens of the Palace, unless It were a morning
on which she " took her bath," In that case she kept
her room most of the day for fear of a chill ; but the
bath does not seem to have occurred too frequently,^
' The morning bath was not a daily institution at the end of the
seventeenth century, even with princesses ; for aught I know, it may
not be in Germany to-day. Cleanliness was not a prominent virtue,
and in the long list of servants at the Court of Hanover there appear
to have been only two washerwomen employed !

Ube Court of Ibanover 93
Sophie Dorothea would spend the greater part of the
forenoon In dressing, or rather in being dressed — a
lengthy operation, for she was fond of attiring herself.
When this was over to her satisfaction, attended by
her lady-in-waiting, and preceded by a page, she would
go down in state to the substantial mid-day dinner,
of which her mother has given so vivacious an account.
Ernest Augustus would descend In state from his apart
ments, the Duchess Sophia from hers, with her daughter,
Sophia Charlotte. The Prince of Hanover (as George
Louis was styled) would arrive ; and the younger
princes would also appear upon the scene, and, when
all were assembled In the great hall, they would sit
in order of rank, and the most rigid etiquette pre
vailed throughout. It must have been a funny sight,
the bowing and curtseying, the devouring of great
dishes of heavy food, the copious drinking of wine
and beer. After the dinner was over, their Highnesses
retired to their respective apartments, and very often
(not unnaturally) Sophie Dorothea would return to bed
for a period. When she arose, If the day were not too
far gone, she would take an airing In her gilded coach,
or pay some calls on ladies she wished to honour with
a visit, or receive some visitors, never alone, always
in the presence of her lady-in-waiting. By this time
it was necessary to dress again for supper, often an
occasion of great ceremony, when rich robes and
costly jewels were donned. Again the Prince and
Princess would repair to the great hall, and again
meet the Duke and Duchess and members of the
ducal family in order of rank. When supper was

94 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
over, the great personages would join the general
circle of the nobiUty ; there might be music and
conversation, but more likely they would play cards,
ombre, and quadrille, and large sums would be lost
and won, for play was high at Hanover in those
days. Then the Duchess Sophia and the Princess
would retire to their apartments, and the company
broke up. The next day, da capo. On occasions of
Importance, as, for instance, the arrival of foreign
princes or ambassadors at Hanover (and many
arrived at that time, for there was much buying and
selling of troops, and many Intrigues), there would be
more ceremony, larger banquets, balls and comedies
and plays. But the above record forms a fair specimen
of the average day at the Court of Hanover,
In this way the winter passed. The spring came,
the lime trees and acacias flowered along the banks of
the river LeIne, The summer came and went. There
were pastoral plays in the gardens of Herrenhausen,
and masques, and visits of princes and princesses.
But Sophie Dorothea gradually withdrew herself from
the festivities, and with the autumn days there came
good news to the Courts of Hanover and Celle,
The Princess gave birth to a son and heir, who
was born at Hanover on October 30, 1683, and
who was destined forty-four years later to ascend
the mighty throne of England.^
The christening was celebrated with much rejoicing,
and the infant was given the names of George
Augustus, after his two grandfathers. The event
' George II. succeeded his father in 1727.

Ube Court of ibanover 95
naturally Increased Sophie Dorothea's Importance, and
it set the seal upon the reconciliation of the Duchies
of Hanover and Celle, Henceforward we find the
Duke and Duchess of Celle visiting Hanover, and
Ernest Augustus and sometimes George Louis, but
rarely the Duchess Sophia, returning the visit at Celle,
or staying with George William and his wife at their
hunting-lodges of Gohre, Brockhausen, and WIenhausen.
Sophie Dorothea also visited her parents frequently,
and for long intervals.
After the birth of the son and heir, the Duchess
Sophia's manner towards her daughter-in-law seems
to have altered for the better. She apparently de
termined to make the best of Sophie Dorothea, and
though she never liked her, and had little in common
with her, she dissembled her dislike, and treated her
with outward courtesy. For good or evil, Sophie
Dorothea was her son's wife, and the mother of the
child on whom the accumulated dignities of the House
of Brunswick-Liineburg would one day descend. It
even seemed that the birth of the son might form a
link between George Louis and his wife ; such an
event surely made for greater Identity of interest be
tween them, for a man, unless he be thoroughly bad,
can hardly withhold some sympathy from the mother
of his firstborn child, and George Louis was by
no means wholly bad. He recognised the beauty
and grace of his wife, and if they had been left to
themselves, the young couple, despite their uncongenial
temperaments, might have managed to rub along
together fairly well.

96 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
But they were not left to themselves ; an enemy
was on the alert, Sophie Dorothea, by her amiability,
had made herself generally popular In Hanover, and,
as we have noted, she was especially viewed with
favour by her uncle and father-in-law, Ernest Augustus,
Her unaffected manners, her innocence and charm,
contrasted with the craft and full-blown charms of
Madame Platen, were like a cup of cold, pure water
after a highly spiced draught ; and Ernest Augustus
found himself attracted more and more to the society
of his daughter-in-law and away frorh the lures of
his mistress, Madame Platen saw this and trembled.
Vice always fears innocence, and when she noted the
growing influence and importance of Sophie Dorothea,
her envy and jealousy were aroused. Yet she had no
real cause of complaint. She had been largely respon
sible for bringing about the marriage, and she had
been liberally rewarded for her share In the transac
tion, possibly by William of Orange, certainly by a
commission on the substantial dowry ; and in addition
to these pecuniary rewards her husband had been
raised to the rank of Baron. On the strength of
these successes she had launched forth into a costly
and extravagant style of living. Her residence at
Monplalsir, conveniently situated half way between
Hanover and Herrenhausen, was beautified and en
larged until it vied with the ducal palaces ; her
entertainments were of the most lavish description,
her liveries and equipages rivalled those of the
Princess of Hanover, while in dress and adornment
she far outshone the Duchess Sophia. At Monplalsir

Ube Court of Ibanover 97
she held a Court hardly second to that of the Duchess
and attracted all the gay cavaliers and handsome
young nobles of Hanover, who went to bask in
the favour of the powerful mistress. High play,
deep drinking, and general looseness of conduct were
the rule at Monplalsir ; no wonder the young bloods
of Hanover found it so attractive !
The Duchess Sophia, true to her policy, steadily
ignored all these extravagances on the part of Madame
Platen, and continued to seek distraction in the con
solations of philosophy and the society of Leibnitz
and other learned men, whom, to her honour be it
said, she invited to the Court of Hanover. Not
so Sophie Dorothea, who was first astounded and
then Indignant at the impudent display of the Court
mistress. Perhaps vanity had something to do with
her indignation, for she objected to so many of the
young nobles absenting themselves from her quiet little
levees to pay their respects to Madame Platen. In
youth and beauty the Princess far outshone the more
mature Platen, and at the Court functions, splendidly
dressed and brilliant with jewels, she was easily first
and Madame Platen nowhere. Madame Platen had
so long been the leading lady at the Court of
Hanover, in fact if not in name, that she could ill
brook a rival near her throne, and she had imagined,
in her ignorance, that a mere girl like Sophie Dorothea
would be amenable to her wishes. But the Princess,
though young, and careless enough about etiquette
in the ordinary way, was not disposed to abate any
jot or tittle of the privileges of her rank and position
VOL. I. 7

98 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
In favour of Madame Platen, and quickly intimated to
the woman that she must keep her place. Perhaps
Sophie Dorothea would have done better to have
imitated the policy of her august mother-in-law,
and ignored the powerful mistress, but she was
young and not altogether wise, and her heart was
hot with Indignant anger at the woman's arrogance
and want of respect to herself. She expressed herself
with considerable freedom on the subject, and her
remarks, the reverse of complimentary, coming to
Madame Platen's ears. Incensed her the more against
the airs and graces of " the interloper," as she called
the Princess, Madame Platen was, in fact, hoisted
with her own petard ; she had helped to bring Sophie
Dorothea to Hanover, only to find her arrayed
against her.
When once Madame Platen's jealousy was aroused
there were no lengths to which she was not ready
to go. First she denounced Sophie Dorothea and her
mother as upstarts who had no right to the titles
they assumed, but this was old matter, and at the
best came second-hand from the Duchess Sophia,
therefore it did no harm ; then she coUected and
retailed to Ernest Augustus all the iU-natured gossip
she could gather about the Princess, but the Duke
pooh-poohed it good-humouredly and would not
listen ; he was quite ready to excuse his daughter-in-
law any little indiscretions on the ground of her
youth and good looks, and regarded all this tittle-
tattle as mere feminine amenities. Madame Platen
next sounded the Duchess Sophia, but that lady

Ube Court of Ibanover 99
only smiled her Inscrutable smile and pursued the
even tenor of her way, FaiUng with the Duke
and Duchess, she had recourse to the husband, and
with George Louis she was more successful. Like
most heavy and slow-witted young men, he was
pecuUarly sensitive to ridicule, Sophie Dorothea had
a nimble wit and a thoughtless tongue, which were
ever getting her Into trouble, and she sometimes made
fun of her husband and his boorish ways, letting fall
remarks that had better have been left unsaid. These
were retailed to Madame Platen by spies, and reported
again by her to George Louis with much embroidery,
thus inflaming his mind against his wife. Words
foUowed between them. Neither was blessed with a
very good temper, nor had much forbearance. From
words they proceeded to open quarrels, which be
came more and more frequent, and the relations
between the young couple were soon strained to the
utmost, Madame Platen's next move was to recall
her sister, Madame Busche, to Hanover, and throw
her once more in the way of George Louis, but this
missed its mark. Probably he was inconstant in
his amours, and perhaps he had a new favourite ;
at any rate he refused to be fascinated again by the
charms of Madame Busche, Meanwhile, his wife
and he drifted more and more apart. By-and-by
George Louis turned again to his first love — military
service, and the next year or two found him far more
in the camp than at the Court. The neglected Sophie
Dorothea found consolation in her little son and in
frequent visits to her parents at Celle, Brockhausen,

100 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
and elsewhere, and spent only a few months of the
year under the same roof as her husband.
About this time (1684) there were great festivities
at the Court of Hanover, for the Duchess Sophia's
match-making proclivities bore fruit In the marriage
of her only daughter, Sophia Charlotte, to the
Elector of Brandenburg, who later became first King
of Prussia. True, the Elector was eleven years older
than his bride and a widower, but the Duchess
Sophia, did not consider her daughter's IncUnations
In such a matter as her marriage, especially one so
advantageous as this. Sophia Charlotte was the young
lady of whom her mother said, when sounded on the
subject, " that she was of no religion as yet," and
by this marriage her faith was finally settled on the
Protestant side. The Electress of Brandenburg seems
to have justified this up-bringing, for she was a
princess of extremely liberal and advanced views, a
free thinker, and lax In her conduct. She had in
herited her mother's abilities and also her contempt
for Sophie Dorothea, There was never any love
lost between them, so the Princess was glad when
the Electress of Brandenburg took her departure from
Hanover,

CHAPTER VII
THE POWER OF COUNTESS PLATEN
(1684—1688)
Trust not the treason of those smiling looks
Until ye have their guileful brains well tried,
For they are like unto the golden hooks
That from the foolish fish their baits do hide.
Ed. Spenser.
SHORTLY after the marriage of his daughter to
the Elector of Brandenburg, the Duke of
Hanover gave himself a holiday from the cares of
State and made another journey to his beloved Italy,
where he stayed this time nearly two years. He
travelled with much magnificence and a large suite.
Including the indispensable Madame Platen — and her
husband by way of keeping up appearances. Ernest
Augustus made his head-quarters at Venice, where he
maintained considerable state, which he was now well
able to do with the aid of Sophie Dorothea's dowry,
Madame Platen was the great lady of this miniature
Court, and no doubt Ernest Augustus often regaled
her with tales of the merry days which he and George
William had spent In the city of the Doges, Brilliant
festivities, some of which cost seven or eight thousand

I02 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
thalers, and a princely liberality, endeared him to the
hearts of the nobUIty and people, and consoled the
Venetians for the large subsidies they paid for the two
thousand four hundred Hanoverian soldiers Ernest
Augustus sold them by agreement in 1684, The Duke
of Hanover was shrewd even in his pleasures, and was
always ready to do a good stroke of business when
the opportunity came his way. He had not much to
sell except his soldiers, but they were good fighting
men, and fetched a high price in the market, — he sold
them like cattle in herds, and squandered the blood-
money on his Platens and extravagant living.
Meantime Ernest Augustus's lawful spouse, the
Duchess Sophia, was left behind at Herrenhausen to
carry on the government of the Duchy, and, what
was more difficult, to keep in order the unruly cubs,
her sons, who were now growing up to man's estate,
and whose only point of resemblance was the hatred
they bore to one another in general and their father
in particular. They drank, gambled, and swore in
the approved fashion of the time, squandered their
substance In riotous living, and quarrelled and fought
until Hanover became a bear-garden. The Duchess
Sophia must have had great trouble with her unruly
brood, and It Is impossible to withhold pity from
her, for she was fond of them. Prince Augustus
(" Gustchen "), her second son, was the first to faU into
disgrace. We find her writing : " Poor Gus is thrust
out, and his father will give him no more keep. I
laugh In the day and cry all night about it, for I am
a fool with my chUdren." Maternal love was indeed

Ube BSower of Countess jplaten 103
the soft side of the great Duchess's character. For
the rest, she was no doubt glad to be rid of Ernest
Augustus and Madame Platen for a while. The latter
had made herself so aggressive of late, and raised so
many breezes in her quarrels with Sophie Dorothea,
that she must have ruflled even the Duchess's serene
philosophy. Sophia, too, was greatly Interested in
affairs in England at this time. Her first cousin,
Charles II., was recently dead, and his brother,
James IL, had ascended his uneasy throne, Sophia
heard of Monmouth's ill-starred rebellion, of King
James's unwise rule and the rising tide against Popery,
of WiUiam of Orange's intrigues, and these things ab
sorbed her to the exclusion of lesser annoyances. She
paid little or no attention to her daughter-in-law,
Sophie Dorothea, who, also forsaken by her husband,
remained alone at Hanover ; for George Louis had
now marched to Hungary to make war on the Turks,
with the soldiers ordered from Hanover and Celle
to assist the Emperor. When the campaign came to
a close, George Louis went to join his father at
Venice without returning to Hanover.
Ernest Augustus then bethought himself of Sophie
Dorothea, who was having a dull time of It at Hanover
shut up with her stern mother-in-law. Ernest
Augustus had a tender spot In his heart for his niece,
and perhaps he had a twinge of conscience about
spending all her money on Madame Platen without
giving her any of the fun ; perhaps, too, he thought
it was time that she and her husband should come
together again. They had not met for nearly a year.

104 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
and had parted in anger. So he sent General von
Ilten, who was In his suite, back to Hanover with
Instructions to escort the Princess to Venice. Sophie
Dorothea was delighted with the prospect of the
change ; she packed up her prettiest dresses and jewels,
and taking with her Madame von Ilten, the Mistress
of the Robes, and Eleonore Knesebeck, her lady-in-
waiting, she set forth at once. She arrived in Venice
just before the carnival.
Sophie Dorothea was now in her nineteenth year,
and every year seemed to add to her beauty. She
had warm French blood in her veins, and her spirits
rose to overflowing at this opportunity of seeing the
world ; it was her first experience of foreign life,
and she threw herself into the pleasures of the carnival
with a zest that delighted her uncle and slightly
shocked the prim Mistress of the Robes, Yet Sophie
Dorothea's gaiety was innocent enough ; It was merely
the expression of a young girl's delight, and a rebound
after having been shut up so long with her grim mother-
in-law, Ernest Augustus, whose taste for pleasure was
somewhat dulled by time, was so pleased at the
keenness with which his daughter-in-law enjoyed
everything, and the praises he heard on all sides
of her wit and beauty, that he decided to give her
a further treat and take her to Rome for the
Easter festivities. Madame von Ilten was unable to
accompany the Princess, as her duties as Mistress
of the Robes compeUed her to return to the Duchess
Sophia at Hanover, but Eleonore Knesebeck went

Ube ©ower of Countess ffiilaten 105
in attendance. Prince George Louis did not travel
to Rome with his wife, some trifling difficulty about
a point of etiquette arose, he seized it as an excuse,
and went to Naples Instead.
While she was at Rome Sophie Dorothea met
the Marquis de Lassaye, and about their short
acquaintance much has been written which has no
foundation in fact. Lassaye was a personage. He
had served with distinction in the Imperial army
against the Turks, and, when the campaign was over,
journeyed to Italy like Prince George Louis ; he
may have travelled with him. He was a French
nobleman, wealthy, and brilliant, and exceedingly
given to amours and adventures, Burnet, in his
edition of the Correspondence of the Duchess d'Orleans,
writes of him : " The life of the Marquis de Lassaye
was filled with adventures romantic enough to form
the substance of a most improbable novel " ; and
the Biographic Universelle says he was " weU known
by reason of his birth, his wit, his marriages, his
law suits, but still more by an uninterrupted series
of love affairs, which occupied the greater portion of
an extremely lengthy career," This gay Lothario
died in 1738, at the age of eighty-seven, without
having experienced any misfortunes, or, as he happily
expressed it, " without having unpacked his goods."
The fame of the Marquis de. Lassaye was at its
zenith when he threw himself across the path of
Sophie Dorothea In Rome, and, If we may believe
his word, for we have no other evidence, he promptly
seized the opportunity to make love to her. Some

io6 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
fifty years later, before he ended his days in his
castle of Lassaye, he made a collection of everything
he had written, or was supposed to have written,^
and had it privately printed by his own press in his
castle. In this compilation he inserted thirteen love-
letters, which he asserts that he wrote to Sophie Dorothea
when she was In Italy ; but none of them are dated,
and all are the vague rubbish which In those days
formed the stock-in-trade of gaUantry. They are
couched in extravagant expressions of devotion, but
are singularly unconvincing. If we may believe his
letters, there was a flirtation between the Princess
and the Marquis, Eleonore Knesebeck, acting as a
go-between ; the affair was discovered, broken off,
and the Princess was admonished, and Lassaye forced
to quit Rome. The letters are not worth repeating
In full, but the last one he alleges that he wrote to
the Princess will serve as a specimen of the rest :
" I do not desire that you should run the risk of
ruining yourself by keeping up relations with me :
it is better for me to die and for you to Uve less
unhappily. Stop, then, writing to a man who always
' This collection is called Memoires de Monsieur de Lassaye. It
bears also the better title of Rectceils de differentes choses, for the
parts of which it is composed are very varied and disconnected —
love affairs, philosophy, ethics, satire, reflections on various matters,
and letters, all jumbled up together. Lassaye had only a few copies
of this collection printed for himself and a select circle of friends,
so copies are extremely rare and cannot be bought. Herr Edward
Bodemann managed to stumble across one in a second-hand book
shop in Paris, and to hira I am indebted for the perusal of the
correspondence in the original French.

Ube Slower of Countess platen 107
brings misfortunes in his train, and whose fates are
unpropltious. I have almost lost the habit of sleeping,
and am scarcely able to support myself Why have
I been born with such a sensitive heart ? Why was I
destined to be always unhappy ? Suffering seems to
be my only lot in the world. Life is a burden to me,
and in dying I should be able to secure your peace
and happiness, FareweU, dear Princess ; I can no
longer bear the grief that overwhelms me."
That Lassaye ever sent these letters to the Princess,
or even wrote them, is extremely Improbable. The
letters did not see the light until fifty years later,
when the woman whom he slandered was dead, and
unable to refute his accusations, and it Is unUkely
he made copies when he wrote them and kept
them aU that time. To what end ? It would
have been more to the point if he could have
published the letters he alleges he received from
Sophie Dorothea, but his audacity stopped short
at the point of forgery. He was an exceedingly
vain and garrulous person, fond of boasting of his
conquests with the fair sex, and, if we may believe
him, half the princesses of Europe had capitulated to
his fascinations. The high rank, beauty, and romantic
history of Sophie Dorothea made him desirous of
adding her to his list, and he deliberately exaggerated
a passing acquaintance to suit his purpose. The
truth seems to be this, Sophie Dorothea was flattered
by the homage of the brilliant Frenchman, She
may perhaps have coquetted with him a little after

io8 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
the fashion of the time — that Is to say, she may have
listened to his pretty speeches and laughed at his
sallies. But when she saw he was Ukely to put a
false construction upon her amiabiUty, and take advan
tage of her good nature, she nipped the acquaintance
in the bud and dismissed him abruptly. Lassaye,
with aU the pettiness of a small mind, cherished against
the Princess a grudge for the blow she had inflicted
upon his vanity, and revenged himself by composing
bogus letters.
After a few months in Italy, Sophie Dorothea re
turned to Hanover, and settled down again to her
routine Ufe. The following year (1686) she gave
birth to a daughter, who was christened Sophie
Dorothea, after her mother, and who. In years to
come, married her cousin, the King of Prussia, and
became mother of Frederick the Great.
It would seem that the birth of a daughter instead
of a son was in some sense a disappointment to the
Ducal FamUy of Hanover, though why poor Sophie
Dorothea should be blamed it is not easy to see.
The event certainly did not tend to increase her
prestige, as the birth of George Augustus had
done ; and her husband, who was now home again,
became more Indifferent and colder than ever. In
these two children, for she bore no more, Sophie
Dorothea found all the happiness she experienced in
her unhappy married life. Some of this unhappiness,
it must be admitted, she deliberately provoked.
Though she did not love her husband, she was
furiously jealous of his amours with other women.

THE ALTE PALAIS, HANOVER.

[To face p* loB.

Ube ipower of Countess IMaten 109
and resented the presence of his favourites in prox
imity to herself The little Hanoverian Court was
a very hot-bed of intrigue, a nest of envy, hatred,
maUce, and all uncharitableness, and the more we
look into It the more we can understand the philo
sophic policy of the Duchess Sophia, who ignored
and kept aloof from it all. No doubt she chose the
better part, though It seems a somewhat unnatural
one, for interference would have been useless,
and by abstaining she preserved her dignity, Sophie
Dorothea was different. At the outset she made an
enemy of Madame Platen, and met gibe with gibe and
intrigue with intrigue. Of course she had the worst
of the duel ; It was like a fight between a hawk and
a dove. She was no match for the older woman, who
thwarted her at every turn, and grew daily In authority
and arrogance. About this time Ernest Augustus
advanced Platen to the tide of Count, and his wife
blossomed into a countess. Her power was now so
great that even the stoutest of her foes feared to
provoke her, and lesser obstacles were simply swept
out of her path.
As an illustration may be quoted the case of the ablgail
Use, Court ladies In those days had often in their
household an attendant who filled the middle distance
between the servants and the mistress. Use occupied
this ambiguous position with the Countess Platen, and
a very hard time she must have had of it. She was
young and fairly good-looking, and probably not too
strict in her views of right and wrong. Duke Ernest
Augustus was in the habit of consulting his Prime

no Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
Minister's wife far more frequently than his Prime
Minister, and whiled away many an hour in her
congenial society at Monplalsir. As a rule he sent
her notice of his intention of coming to see her,
but one fine afternoon, as he drove back from
Herrenhausen, he thought he would pay the Countess
a surprise visit. He entered Monplalsir by the garden
door unannounced. The Countess was absent, but
under the trees was the ablgail Use, whom Ernest
Augustus had never seen. The Duke could not resist
the temptation of a few words with a young and
pretty woman, and insisted that the ablgail should
not withdraw. Use remained, and was laughing and
talking with the Duke, when suddenly the Countess
Platen came upon them like a whirlwind. The
Countess curbed her rage for the moment, and confined
herself to an expression of astonishment that Use should
have had the Impertinence to thrust her company
upon the august presence of His Highness, She bade
the ablgail begone, and then, no doubt, gave Ernest
Augustus a piece of her mind on his lack of dignity
and good taste.
Whatever may have taken place between these exalted
personages, one thing Is certain ; Use was dismissed from
Countess Platen's service with every mark of ignominy.
Nor did her punishment end here. The following
week Ernest Augustus went to Osnabriick, and the
moment his back was turned the Countess Platen
clapped the unfortunate ablgail into the common gaol,
or rather that part of it which was a sort of " spinning
house," The fact that a woman without any trial

Ube power of Countess platen m
should be dragged off to prison on a trumped-up charge
shows how powerful Countess Platen was In Hanover ;
her word seems to have been as good as the
Duke's sign manual. Use was kept in prison some
time, and then " dry drummed " (a sort of seven
teenth-century rough music) out of Hanover as a
woman of loose character, dangerous to public morals.
The girl found herself without the walls, friendless
and penniless. In this plight she appealed to
Ernest Augustus, but that volatile Prince had already
forgotten her, or was afraid to arouse the ire of
Countess Platen. He sent her a small present of
money, and cynically counselled her to give Hanover
a wide berth In future. Use then made her way to
Celle, and laid her sad case before the Duchess Eleonore,
no doubt expatiating upon Countess Platen's enormities
and her intrigues against Sophie Dorothea. The Duchess
of Celle, after sifting the facts of the case, took Use
into her employment, and found her an asylum in the
castle. Countess Platen resented the Duchess's action
as a personal Insult to herself, and she was the more
enraged against her and Sophie Dorothea. So the
quarrel grew.
At the Court of Hanover, as we have seen, there
were plots and counterplots ; In addition to the women's
squabbles, father was arrayed against son and son
against father, and brother against brother. Among
the unruly sons of Ernest Augustus, Sophie Dorothea
had her friends, and the young princes for the
most part hated Countess Platen quite as much as
she did. Of them all, Maximilian was the most

112 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
ungovernable, and had an unlimited capacity for
getting Into scrapes. Though well preserved. Countess
Platen was by this time past her first youth, and
she had recourse to divers means to heighten her
charms, milk baths, artificial roses, and cosmetics.
The rouge-pot, like dram-drinking, grows with habit,
and the lady's cheeks became so ruddy that they
were the byword of the Court, There was a quaint
conceit that the water peas were boiled In was an
infallible test of rouge, and the monkeyish Max,
having a grudge against the Countess, procured a
bottle of this decoction from the kitchen, and on the
occasion of a Court ceremonial, when she appeared in
fuU war paint, he squirted some in her face, with the
result that she had to retire amid the suppressed
titters of the assembly. The Countess, boiling with
rage, complained to Ernest Augustus, and the offender
was severely reprimanded and locked up In his room
for many days. The punishment was not a heavy
one, but it served to engender bad blood between the
father and son, and after he was liberated we find
Maximilian intriguing with his two brothers, Augustus
and Charles, against his eldest brother, George Louis,
and his father,
Ernest Augustus's great desire was to add to
the lustre of the House of Brunswick-Liineburg,
To this end he sought to unite the Duchies of
Celle and Hanover, and he established primogeniture.
He made his eldest son heir to all lands and territory,
and only allotted to his other sons moderate sums
of money whereby to support their dignity. This

Ube power of Countess platen 113
poUcy was the opposite to that pursued by his
ancestors and by most of the German princes of his
time, who in their wUls were in the habit of
dividing their territory among all their sons. It is
no wonder, therefore, that the younger princes of
Brunswick-Liineburg disliked the Innovation, protested
noisily against It, and intrigued for its overthrow.
The Duchess Sophia also disliked it. The disaffection
was this time nipped In the bud by the vigilance
of Countess Platen, who tried to implicate Sophie
Dorothea in the plot, but nothing could be proved
against her. It is possible that she had a hand In
it, for the terms of her marriage settlement, which
practically cut her off from inheriting territory, and
left her at the mercy of her husband, were so
unfavourable that she might be pardoned if she tried
to alter them to her advantage.
These things did not tend to improve Sophie
Dorothea's position at the Court of Hanover. Her
best friend, Ernest Augustus, suspected her of intrigu
ing against him, and George Louis disliked her the
more because he thought she wished to upset the
marriage settlement ; except Eleonore Knesebeck, she
had not a friend to whom she could turn. It is
hard to imagine a more difficult position, but her cup
of suffering was not yet full.
Mention has been made of the unsuccessful efforts of
Countess Platen to enamour George Louis again with
her sister, Madame Busche, who had now returned to
Hanover a widow. It was the policy of Countess
Platen to widen the breach between George Louis
VOL. I. 8

114 Ube Xove of an TDlncrowneb diueen
and Sophie Dorothea by every possible means, and,
knowing the young Princess's jealous disposition, she
felt that the most efficacious way to prevent a reconcilia
tion would be to engage the Prince in another intrigue,
Madame Busche having ceased to charm, she must
find some one else. The lady whom she chose as
a decoy was Ermengarda Melusina von Schulenburg,^
the daughter of an illustrious and noble house, who
might have been capable of better things. But
Ermengarda Melusina, not being over endowed with
this world's goods, was anxious to settle herself,
honourably If she could, dishonourably if no other
chance offered, according to the custom of the time.
The young lady had only recently arrived at Hanover,
and had stayed at Monplalsir. Countess Platen took
her up, presented her at Court, and established her
there as a lady-in-waiting, Ermengarda Melusina
seemed of a docile and confiding disposition, and
Countess Platen thought she would find In her a
willing tool; but though she made no pretensions to
wit, and was slow of speech, she was shrewd, more
shrewd than her chaperone gave her credit. In
appearance she was the opposite to Sophie Dorothea ;
her features were of the heavy German type, and she
was of gigantic height (the Duchess Sophia called her
" the tall Malkin ") ; but, en revanche, she was only
nineteen, had good features, large blue eyes, fair hair,
and a fine figure. The Countess introduced her to
George Louis on his return from Hungary, As he
was short himself, he admired tall women, and was
' Many years later Duchess of Kendal.

Ube power of Countess platen us
much struck by Ermengarda Melusina's large and
placid charms, and began to pay her marked attention.
He was seen with her everywhere, riding with her in
the hunting-field, seated next to her at the play, and
leading her out at the dance. His wife was openly
neglected for this new rival.
To do Ermengarda Melusina justice, she was not
spiteful nor aggressive, nor desirous In any way to
Injure Sophie Dorothea. At first she hung back
from the glittering prospect before her, but being
very poor, and, as subsequent history proves, very
avaricious, she did not hold out long, and then
surrendered at discretion.
About this time the Countess Platen consoled
Madame Busche for the loss of her power over the
Crown Prince by marrying her In second wedlock to
General Weyke, who must indeed have been a bold
man, for Busche had only been dead a few months,
and it was well known that his death had been
accelerated by his wife's extravagance, bad temper,
and misconduct. Probably Weyke was induced to
marry the widow on the strength of promises of
promotion. Countess Platen resolved to make her sister's
nuptials the occasion of proclaiming, more or less
informally, George Louis's infatuation for Schulen
burg, and with a refinement of cruelty she tried to
induce Sophie Dorothea to be present. Though Sophie
Dorothea always treated Countess Platen with coldness,
that lady maintained the semblance of respect for
the rank, if not the person, of the Princess, and

ii6 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
she waited upon her to invite her to the wedding
festivities, and in the course of the interview dropped
many hints and veiled taunts wrapped up in the cloak
of flattery. Sophie Dorothea had the good sense to
keep her temper. She declined the Invitation on the
plea of Ill-health, but said that she would send Eleonore
Knesebeck to represent her. The wedding was
celebrated with much splendour at General Weyke's
country residence a few miles from Hanover. After
the ceremony there was a banquet, and dancing followed
In the evening. The Prince of Hanover honoured the
occasion with his presence, and so did his brothers,
who, though they hated Countess Platen, were ready
to go anywhere to enjoy themselves ; but neither
the Duchess Sophia nor the Princess was present,
Eleonore Knesebeck was there to represent the latter.
The great personages at the feast, far eclipsing the
bride and bridegroom, were Ermengarda Melusina,
decked In jewels, and her lover, George Louis,
who paid her so much attention that every one
noticed It, and, when he lead her forth to the dance,
General Weyke and his bride had to take a second
place at their own festivities. When Knesebeck
returned to the palace she found Sophie Dorothea
waiting up for her In great agitation ; nor was she
content until she had had a recital of the whole affair,
and learned that she was openly flouted in the capital
of the Duchy,
From this time George Louis's amour with Ermen
garda Melusina assumed a recognised phase. She was
sumptously lodged, and he visited her daily, and spent

Ube power of Countess platen 117
most of his time with her. In this he was only
imitating his father, and, when all was said and done,
Schulenburg was much less offensive than Platen.
Unlike her mother-in-law, Sophie Dorothea writhed
and raged under her husband's infidelity, but she could
obtain no redress. The Duchess Sophia, true to her
poUcy, declined to Interfere, and to appeal to Ernest
Augustus was useless ; in her despair she turned to
Celle, and made complaint to her parents. From
her mother, who was helpless, she got both love and
sympathy ; from her father she got neither, A change
had come over the spirit of George WiUiam's dream,
for Bernstorff had plied him with many tales to the
detriment of his wife and daughter. So he bade
Sophie Dorothea to keep her place, Imitate the example
of her estimable mother-in-law, and ignore such trifles,
and he further exhorted her to be more amenable to
her husband, and not to give way to temper. Thus
repulsed in the quarter where she looked for help,
the unhappy Princess knew not where to turn ; she
was friendless and alone, unguided and unaided, ready
to seize at any means of avenging her wounded
pride. At this juncture her evil genius came upon
the scene in the person of PhiUp Christopher, Count
KOnigsmarck,

CHAPTER VIII
ENTER KONIGSMARCK
(1688— 1689)
, , . he seem'd the goodliest man
That ever among ladies ate in haU,
Tennyson,
COUNT PHILIP CHRISTOPHER KONIGS
MARCK had led an adventurous life since
the day when, a handsome youth, he parted from the
Princess at Celle, ten years before. He had grown
to man's estate, travelled far and wide, been through
dare-devil adventures and hairbreadth escapes, and
distinguished himself for audacity In many adventures
and gallantry in many Courts, He came to Hanover
with the reputation of being a brIUIant, dashing young
nobleman, a reputation which his wealth and personal
beauty did much to heighten.
Count Philip Christopher Konigsmarck was the
second son of a Swedish nobleman, the famous General
Count Konigsmarck, who was killed at the siege of
Bonne in 1673, leaving behind him two sons and two
daughters. Of the elder son more anon. The elder
daughter, Amalle Wilhelmina, had married Count
Lewenhaupt ; the younger, Marie Aurora, was stiU
118

Enter Ikonigsmarcft 119
unwed, and was distinguished through Europe for
her grace and beauty. She was then in her first
youth ; her subsequent adventures at the Courts of
Dresden, Sweden, and elsewhere would fill volumes,^
The, family of Konigsmarck was a curious pro
duct of the seventeenth century, and, to judge
them correctly, one must weigh them by the standards
of their time : they were wealthy, endowed with great
beauty, and of noble birth, and, had they been so
minded, could have lived and died in their native
land honoured and respected by all. But the spirit
of adventure was in their blood. The brothers were
military adventurers, and the sisters Court favourites,
to use no harsher word, and they each and aU of them
were conspicuous figures at the most brilliant Courts
of Europe. Most of the beautiful adventuresses of
this period were the daughters of poor noblemen.
But the Countesses Konigsmarck could not plead
poverty for embarking on their glittering and event
ful careers ; with them, as with their brothers, the
Incentives must have been the spirit of restlessness
pure and simple, the passion for display, and the love
of notoriety, which through all ages have been powerful
attractions to men and women of their temperament.
The elder brother, Count Carl John KOnigsmarck,
began his travels when quite a boy. He accompanied
his uncle, the celebrated Count Otho WiUiam, some
time Field-Marshal of France, and afterwards Governor
' They have done so : Palmblad's Aurora KSnigsmarck, published
in Swedish and German, Leipsig, 1852, gives a full account of her
adventurous career in six volumes.

120 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
of Swedish Pomerania, on a tour through the greater
part of Europe, He visited England In 1674. Soon
after we find him figuring at the Court of Versailles.
Later he joined an expedition of the Knights of Malta
against the Turks, when he nearly cut short his
promising career by tumbling into the sea ; but he
was dragged out half drowned, for the Konigsmarck
family, like cats, appeared to have nine lives. Later
we find him at Rome, Venice, and Genoa, and then
proceeding through Portugal to Spain, At the Court
of Madrid he was an honoured guest, and figured
with great eclat at the festivities consequent on the
marriage of the King, During these festivities he
took part in a bull-fight, wherein he distinguished him
self by his quickness and courage, and again met with
an accident which nearly cost him his life. He was
badly gored by a bull, but, bleeding and wounded,
continued to fight until he was carried fainting out
of the arena. The Spanish ladies were delighted with
his pluck, and unanimously declared him to be one
of the most gallant cavaliers that had ever visited
the Court of Madrid, After these experiences he
returned to Sweden for a time.
He found there Philip Christopher, his younger
brother, who had returned to the family nest from
the Court of Celle, where his presence was no longer
welcome. It was resolved to send him to England
to complete his education, and Carl John, who had
been in England before, undertook the charge of
his young brother. The two brothers sailed from
Gothenburg, in 1681, and, after a rough voyage, landed

Enter Iftonigsmarcft 121
at HuU. Count Carl John presented himself at the
Court of Charles II., bearing with him a letter of
Introduction from the King of Sweden. The fame
of his exploits had travelled before him, and the
merry monarch cordially welcomed so distinguished
a gallant, and appears to have taken a great liking
to him. Carl John at once plunged into the gaieties
of the dissipated English Court, His younger brother,
Philip Christopher, was lodged in London, and sent
to attend Foubert's Academy in the Haymarket, a
celebrated school of arms In that day, A man named
Hanson was engaged to act as his tutor and watch
over his morals in the gay metropolis, and, in the
intervals of his military training at Foubert's, to pre
pare him for entering the University of Oxford,
The rank and fortune of these distinguished youths
and the favour of the Court naturally gave them access
to the great houses of England, and we find them
on terms of Intimacy with the highest of the nobility.
This was especially true of the elder brother, who
became a general favourite, and won the favour
of many of the Court beauties. But the Swedish
noble sought more substantial advantages. Through
the Dowager Countess of Northumberland he became
acquainted with her young daughter, the Countess
of Ogle, who was one of the great heiresses of the
day. This lady was by birth Lady EUzabeth Percy,
orphan daughter and heiress of the eleventh Earl of
Northumberland. She was married to Henry Cavendish,
Earl of Ogle, son of the Duke of Newcastle, when
only eleven years old, according to the evil practice

122 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
of giving heiresses in wedlock when mere children ;
but, because she was so young, she never lived with
her husband. He died after his marriage year, leaving
his countess the bulk of his fortune, and a greater
prize than ever. The unfortunate child appeared in
widow's weeds at the Court of Charles II., and was
known as La triste heritiere. She had few pre
tensions to beauty, and suffered from the fact that
her hair was bright red, which in those days was not
admired, so she was given the additional nickname
of " the Countess Carrots."
Count Carl John Konigsmarck resolved to win
this prize, and paid his court to her assiduously.
Despite her precocious training, Lady Ogle was too
young to know her own mind ; but she seems to have
been attracted to her Swedish suitor favourably, and
would probably have yielded to his pleading had not
her family discouraged his suit. Count Carl John
came with the strongest credentials, and the King's
favour to boot, but the Dowager-Countess of
Northumberland, who shared the prevalent prejudice
against foreigners, sternly refused to hear a word in
his favour, and shut the door In his face.
Incensed at his unceremonious rejection, the Count
turned his back on England for a time. The spirit
of military adventure being strong within him, he
attached himself to an expedition against the Moors,
and fought at Tangiers with great bravery. The war
was of short duration, and a peace having been patched
up with the Moors, the restless Count next joined
a cruise against the Algerlnes. While he was thus

Enter Iftontgsmarcft 123
engaged, news came which determined him to return
to England without delay. Though rejected by Lady
Ogle's guardians, he had by no means given up
the idea of winning her, and hoped by distinguishing
himself in the wars to strengthen his suit ; she was
still so young that they could afford to wait a while,
and doubtless he felt that his doughty deeds would
make her heart grow fonder. Whether they did so or
not mattered Uttle, for her heart was the last thing that
Lady Ogle's guardians took into consideration ; they
felt the care of the child heiress a great responsibility,
and resolved to settle her safely as soon as possible.
Therefore, in Count Carl John's absence, they married
her privately, much against her will, to a country
gentleman, Mr, Thomas Thynne, of Longleat, In
Wiltshire, commonly called " Tom of Ten Thousand "
from his wealth, ten thousand a year in those days
being considered an immense fortune. The match
was a suitable one as regards money and position,
but In other respects it was disastrous, Thynne was
a young man of debauched habits, a notorious roue,
whom Dryden lampooned as Issachar in his Absalom
and Ahithophel. This marriage, like the previous
one, was never consummated. The pair separated
immediately the ceremony was concluded, and the
young bride fled to Holland to escape from her second
husband. She was then only fourteen years old !
Count Carl John took upon himself the role of
champion of the distressed damsel ; he considered that
he had been tricked and the lady betrayed, and by
some crooked piece of reasoning he persuaded himself

124 TTbe Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
that If he could only get Thynne out of the way he
would secure the heiress and the fortune for himself
Full of this Intent he arrived in London early in
1682, accompanied by a Captain Vratz, a dare-devU
fellow who had followed him in all his campaigns,
and was absolutely devoted to his interests. This
time the Count did not present himself at Court,
but took private lodgings and remained hidden, on
account, he afterwards said, of some skin disease he
had picked up in Morocco which made him unfit to
appear In public. He saw no one but his younger
brother, Philip Christopher, who was still pursuing
his studies at Foubert's Academy, and Vratz, It is
impossible to say what dark schemes were hatched
in Carl John's lodgings, but we know for certain
that Vratz, who was a noted duellist, tried to fasten
a quarrel upon Thynne, but that gentleman declined
his challenge and refused to meet him, Vratz was
determined to encompass his destruction, and, since
he could not kill him in what was known as an
" honourable way," he hired two swashbucklers, Lieu
tenant Stern, a needy rogue, and Borosky, a Pole,
who had come from Sweden with horses for Count
Carl John, to act as his seconds or confederates, and
again endeavoured to provoke his adversary. But
Thynne obstinately refused to come out, and, faUing
In his endeavour to murder him legally, Vratz
determined to dispatch him In some other way. It
chanced in this wise. One afternoon, just when the
dusk was falling, Thynne was driving in Pall Mall
with his boon companion, the Duke of Monmouth,

Enter IRonigsmarcft 125
He put the Duke down at his lodging, and drove
on, but his coach had not proceeded more than
a few yards when it was stopped by three mounted
men, one of whom, Vratz, seized the horses, another.
Stern, knocked down the postillion, and the third,
Borosky, thrust a blunderbuss in at the coach window
and discharged it at Thynne, The three desperadoes
then made off, leaving their victim so dangerously
wounded that he died in a few hours. There was
a great hue and cry. The position and wealth of
the murdered man, and the fact that such a deed had
been committed openly in a frequented thoroughfare
like Pall Mall, was too much even for those times.
The law was invoked at once, and the three assassins
were captured and thrown into gaol to await their
trial. Count Carl John was arrested as an accessory
before the fact. He denied that he had any
knowledge of the murder, but arms were found at
his lodgings ; It was proved that he had made Inquiries
as to Thynne's whereabouts, and it was even hinted
that the young lady, anxious to be rid of her ob
noxious husband, secretly encouraged him. There does
not seem to be any proof of this slander. Lady Ogle
(or Elizabeth Thynne) was a girl, and absent abroad ;
that she may have wished to be rid of her husband
is likely, and, under the circumstances, natural, but
it Is impossible to believe that she connived at his
murder. The trial took place in February, 1682, and was one
of the most celebrated trials of the reign, equaUing
in interest, if not importance, the notorious Popish

126 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
plots. The whole town was In a ferment, and for
days nothing else was talked about. The murdered
man had many friends of influence and position,
who were determined to bring his assassins to the
gallows, and popular opinion was with them. On the
other hand, the King's influence was known to be
in favour of Count Carl John ; he had come to him
with an Introduction from the King of Sweden, and
he was unwilling that so distinguished an ornament
of Courts and so brave a soldier should end his
days by means of the common hangman. Among
the witnesses for the defence was Philip Christopher's
tutor, from whose evidence may be gleaned many
particulars of the younger brother's sojourn In
England : for instance, that he had been sick of
the ague, that he had been on visits to certain of
the nobility, that he was about to leave Foubert's
Academy and go to Oxford, and lastly, that he,
a distinguished foreigner, had been brought to England
to be Instructed in the Protestant reUglon and a
proper knowledge of our free and enlightened In
stitutions, — thIS' point was supposed to carry great
weight with the jury. Young Philip Christopher
also gave evidence in his brother's defence. The
judge could not understand why Borosky had come
over from Sweden. Philip Christopher said that his
brother had sent for him because he was a great
judge of horses, and he wished to buy some, not
only for himself, but for him, " My lord," said
he, " I had a bill of exchange," " For how much
money, my lord ,'' " inquired the Lord Chief Justice

PHILIP CHRISTOPHER COUNT KONIGSMARCK. [To face p. 126.
(At the time of his visit to England.)

Enter Ikbnigsmarcft 127
Pemberton. " For a thousand pistoles to buy horses,
and he has bought one horse and wants to buy more,"
This testimony, preposterous though it may seem,
carried weight with the Lord Chief Justice, who
evidently had a hint from the King. In his summing
up he greatly favoured Count Carl John Konigs
marck, and the result was a verdict of " Guilty "
against the three desperadoes, but " Not Guilty "
against Carl John. The Count thus escaped by the
skin of his teeth ; and, when he heard the verdict,
there was a scene In court, for the acquitted man
had the audacity to exclaim, " God bless the King
and his honourable Bench ! " whereat foUowed great
uproar. The three accomplices were hanged in chains.
Count Carl John, though he saved his neck, ruined
his reputation In England. The tide of feeling was
strongly against him. The King plainly told him that
he could do no more, and the coldness of the Court,
the hostility of the nobility, and the threats of the
populace combined to make him quit England for
ever. He repaired to the Court of Versailles, where
his recent experiences rather added to his reputation
than otherwise. While there he had the audacity to
renew his suit to Lady Ogle (or Elizabeth Thynne),
now widowed for the second time, but she would have
nothing more to do with him. She probably felt,
and rightly, that to marry such a man would be
to Implicate herself In his crime. She went into
mourning for her husband — or, rather, " did not appear
public," as the phrase went — for some six or seven

126 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
weeks ; she then returned to England, and married
Charles Seymour, third Duke of Somerset, and added
her colossal fortune to his. The marriage was on
the whole a happy one, and she and the Duke were
important and powerful personages at the Court of
Queen Anne,^
Count Carl John returned to his estates in Sweden,
but he could not brook the quiet of country life, and
soon plunged again Into the dangerous delights of war.
War in those days was a game at which emperors,
kings, and military adventurers played for a pastime,
the soldiers being the pawns In the game. Carl John
was wounded at the siege of Cambray ; he then
followed his regiment to Spain, and distinguished him
self at the siege of Verona. The last stage of his
eventful career was when. In 1686, he went with his
uncle, Otho William, to the Morea ; he took part
' The Duchess of Somerset's character was above reproach. She
was one of the most virtuous matrons at the Courts of William and
Mary and of Anne ; but party feeling ran high in England, and
Swift's bitter pen tried to make her out an assassin at the age of
fourteen — that is to say, he endeavoured to implicate her in the
murder of Thomas Thynne, He tlius attacked her in a series of
preposterous puns, which he addressed as an ode to Queen Anne:
England, dear England, if I understand,
Beware of carrots from Northumberland.
Carrots sown thin (Thynne) a deeper root may get
If so be they are in summer set (Somerset).
They cunning's mark (Konigsmarck) thou, for I have been told
They assassine when young, and poison when old.
Root out those carrots, O thou whose name
Spelled backward and forward is always the same !
This was Anne, who sometimes wrote her name •' Anna,'' and the
allusion to " carrots " referred to the red hair of the Duchess of
Somerset.

Enter Iftonfgsmarcft 129
in divers sieges and battles, and so exerted himself
that he brought on an attack of pleurisy, of which
he died.^
Though Count Philip Christopher Konigsmarck
(now, by the death of his brother. Count Konigsmarck,)
had nothing to do with the murder of Thynne, yet this
untoward event influenced his fortunes not a little.
The name of Konigsmarck had become so odious In
England after this affair that, despite the young Count's
admitted innocence, the Court could not be brought to
look upon him with favour, and so he abandoned the
idea of going to Oxford and left England for France.
He was at VersaiUes some time ; he then travelled
through France and other countries. This was a
period of peace In the history of Europe ; the great
war which was concluded by the treaty of Ryswick
was not begun until some years later (1689), and
so there was no opening for Konlgsmarck's military
talents. It is not easy to follow his career during this
period, but on leaving France he seems to have gone
to the Court of Dresden, and proceeded with his
military studies, and while there to have formed a
friendship with Prince Frederick Augustus of Saxony
(Augustus the Strong), and to have accompanied him
on his travels In Spain, Portugal, and Italy, We know
that he was in Venice, and probably other parts of
' We have dwelt thus on the career of Count Carl John Konigs
marck because Horace Walpole and other chroniclers have fallen into
the error of confounding him with his younger brother, Philip
Christopher ; and Horace Walpole even goes so far as to describe
Philip Christopher in his Reminiscences of the Court of George II, ,
as the murderer of Thynne, which he certainly was not,
VOL. I, 9

130 TCbe Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
Italy, about this time, and we find him figuring in
his own letters as carrying on a liaison with a beautiful
ItaUan lady connected with literature.^
From 1682 (the date of the famous trial) to 1688
Konlgsmarck's career is involved in uncertainty. One
thing, however, is certain, that he appeared In Hanover
on March 12, 1688. This we learn from the records
of the Hanoverian Marshal von Malortie,^ Herein
it is stated that Konigsmarck was present at an
entertainment given by the Prince and Princess of
Hanover on the occasion of some public festival.
Before this date there is no mention of his name
in any contemporary records of Hanover, and after
this it occurs frequently ; we are therefore justified
in supposing that Konigsmarck did not appear at
Hanover before 1688, The point is important, more
Important than appears at first sight, because it has
been stated that Konigsmarck was In Hanover at
an earlier date than 1688, and formed an Intimacy
with Sophie Dorothea before the birth of her daughter,
thereby casting doubts on the legitimacy of her
daughter, afterwards Queen of Prussia, and so upon
the Imperial House of Germany, But there Is no
proof whatever (everything points the other way)
that KOnigsmarck was in Hanover before 1688, two
years after the birth of the Princess.
We may take it, there being no evidence to the
contrary, that Konlgsmarck's appearance at the Prince's
' Vide Cramer's Memoirs ofthe Countess Aurora KSnigsmarck.
' Published in Hanover, 1847, under the title of Der HannSversche
Hof.

Enter iRbnfgsmarcft 131
festival was synonymous with his arrival at the Court
of Hanover and on this occasion he first met the
Princess, Sophie Dorothea, again, after ten years.
Many changes had taken place. When they had parted
she was little more than a child, and it can hardly be
supposed that their youthful Intimacy had left any
deep impression on her mind,^ With Konigsmarck
it seems to have been different. If we may believe
his asseverations later, he loved the Princess as a child,
and never ceased to love her all his life long, even
when his cause seemed most hopeless. On this
occasion — their first meeting after many years — there
was no hint of his feelings ; he paid his homage to the
Princess of Hanover with the formal respect due to her
rank, though he probably recalled to her the days they
had spent together at Celle. She greeted him with
pleasure as an old friend and an acquisition to the
Court circle, and in this latter view she was supported
by Ernest Augustus, who was always glad to welcome
distinguished strangers to Hanover, especially when
they had money.
Witty and accomplished, and withal generous and
' The fact that Sophie Dorothea and KSnigsmarck were children
together is proved by a reference to the printed report of the judicial
inquiry with regard to FrSulein von Knesebeck, tried before the Vice-
Chancellor Hugo and Count Platen, In pages 76-86 appear these
questions :
" Hqw long is it that the Count and the Princess have loved each
other ? " The answer was : " They have loved each other from child
hood. The Countess Rens (? Reuss) has related to me that when they
were yet children they loved." "How old were they then?" "Nine
or ten years." "And they always loved each other?" "Yes, that
was always so, and thus he came to this Court to serve."

132 TCbe Xove ot an TUncrowneb diueen
given to hospitality, Konigsmarck soon became one
of the most popular gallants about the Court, He
did not omit, like all the young nobles, to pay his
respects to the powerful Countess Platen at Monplalsir,
and she, on her part, was much Impressed with his
handsome person and dashing manners. The fact
that Countess Platen was attracted to Konigsmarck
would not render him more agreeable to the eyes of
Sophie Dorothea, and it may be doubted whether
in that year (1688) the Princess saw much of him,
though he was at Hanover for some time.
Ill-treated and rebuffed on all sides, Sophie Dorothea's
troubles had begun to teU upon her health ; the Prince
neglected her more and more for Schulenburg, often
not coming near her for weeks at a time, Sophie
Dorothea felt this slight keenly, and one day visited
her husband In his apartments and demanded an
explanation of his coldness and neglect. Was it
due to any fault on her part ? she asked pitifully,
because if so she would endeavour to regulate her
conduct to his wishes. But George Louis would not
give her any explanation, and ordered her out of the
room. Sophie Dorothea's temper was never much under
control, and she lost it altogether at this rude rebuff.
High words ensued between the unhappy pair ; they
had a more violent quarrel than ever before, and
it was said that George Louis used personal violence
to expel her from his presence. When at last the
Princess returned to her apartments her agitation
was so great that it brought on a nervous prostration,
and some say a miscarriage. For some time she

Enter Iftonigsmarcft 133
was confined to her bed, and so ill that the Duchess
Sophia, who generally held aloof and Ignored her,
Interposed on behalf of the neglected wife. The
Duchess Sophia did not view the Schulenburg affair
with any favour, and reprimanded her son so severely
that George Louis was forced for a time to pay his
wife some attention — that is to say, he would come
and sit by her bedside for a few minutes, and sullenly
inquire after her health.
When Sophie Dorothea rallied a little, the Duchess
Sophia took her off to Herrenhausen with her
children, and paid her every care and attention :
this at least must be noted to her credit. It was
probably during this period that the Duchess gave
her daughter-in-law those long lectures on English
history which Poellnltz describes with such unconscious
humour,^ They lasted hours at a stretch, and poor
Sophie Dorothea had to listen to the end, though
often tired and bored, for she had not the same
interest in English affairs as her mother-in-law. Some
times she seems to have dropped a hint to this effect,
for we find the Duchess Sophia rebuking her want
of Interest, and telling her it was necessary that she
should know the history of a country over which she
might one day be called to reign as Queen Consort,
and, if so, she trusted she would do her duty. This
provoked Sophie Dorothea's retort that if ever she
were Queen of England she hoped she would have
' Histoire Secrette de la Duchesse d'Hanover, Epouse de Georges
Premier, etc., said to be written by the Baron von Poellnitz. Published
in French, London, 1732.

134 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
more sense than to run away and leave the crown as
King James had done ; for the flight of King James
and the accession of WiUiam and Mary had just then
astonished Europe, and were events especially agitating
the mind of King James's first cousin, Sophia, whose
sympathies at this period were secretly with the exiled
monarch and his family, notwithstanding the ties of
self-interest.^ After a time some sort of wretched truce was
patched up between the ill-mated couple, probably
through the mediation of the Duchess Sophia, and
Sophie Dorothea returned to her apartments In the
Old Palace and to outward union with her husband,
Konigsmarck had then left Hanover for a period.
The death of his uncle. Count Otho William, in the
latter part of 1688, called him to Italy, and In the
February of the following year we find him attending
the splendid obsequies of that distinguished relative
at Venice, for Count Otho William was not buried
until many months after he died. By his brother's
death Konigsmarck had become a rich man ; by
his uncle's death he became one of the wealthiest
noblemen In Europe, and the splendour of his
equipages, the lavishness of his entertainments, and
his reputation for gallantry made him an acquisition
to any Court, He was one of Fortune's favourites :
born In the purple, entering upon a large Inheritance
while yet a young man, he had the opportunity
of making the most of the good gifts Fortune
' In King William's chest was found a large bundle marked " The
Electress Sophia's correspondence with St. Germains."

Enter Iftbntgsmarcft 135
showered upon him. Every Court in Europe was
open to him ; there were many capital cities where
he might have found a fitting scene for the spend
ing of his wealth and the display of his peculiar
talents, but Hanover, little Hanover, drew him back
again — wherefore who shall say ? He had no ties
there of long standing, no attractions equal to those
of Versailles and Dresden, no friends, unless It were
the Princess whom he had known in boyhood, and
who was now in a position which should have
debarred intimacy. Whether it was chance or a set
plan, whether it was destiny or the desire of the
moth for the flame, whatever it was, Konigsmarck
returned to Hanover, and from that moment Sophie
Dorothea's good angel deserted her.

CHAPTER IX
PLAYING WITH FIRE
(1689)
Vet this joy, waited on by fear and doubt,
Plucked casually as by a fiower of accident,
On the rough lip and edge of danger's breach.
How sweeter is it than the rose to smell
We gather from our garden with gloved hands.
And find nor thorn, nor perfiime ! Swinburne.
ON his return to Hanover Konigsmarck set up
a sumptuous establishment. He took a house
not far from the ducal Palace, in a street that was
then one of the principal in Hanover, but which is
now one of the few bits of the old town remaining.
His beautiful sister, the Countess Aurora, came to
stay with him, and his married sister and her husband.
Count Lewenhaupt, paid him frequent visits. In
addition to his lands In Sweden, Konigsmarck pur
chased a large estate near Hamburg, and frequently
travelled there from Hanover, Some idea of his
establishment may be gathered from the fact that his
secretary, Hildebrand, mentions on one occasion that
Konigsmarck was attended by a retinue of twenty-
nine servants and fifty-two horses and mules. Where
136

BMasfng witb ifire 137
money was concerned Konigsmarck was absolutely
reckless ; his love of pleasure and display amounted
to a passion, and the result was, notwithstanding his
large fortune, he was often in need of ready money,
and had to raise it at ruinous interest. At present
his fortunes showed no shadow of embarrassment,
Hanover was dazzled by the advent of this wealthy
foreigner ; the splendour of his retinue, the magnifi
cence of his entertainments, and the beauty of his
sisters were on every tongue. His fortune was magni
fied tenfold, and Indeed It seemed inexhaustible. At
Court, at the chase, at the opera, in the ballroom,
at the carnival, Konigsmarck carried all before him ;
he was the central and brilliant figure,
Duke Ernest Augustus marked his appreciation of
the wealthy foreigner by appointing him a colonel
of his Hanoverian Guards, As the troops of the
ducal brothers were allied in accordance with the
treaty of 1676,^ he was sometimes with his regiment
at Hanover, and sometimes at CeUe, though he was
' A doubt has been raised as to whether Konigsmarck was ever
in the army of Brunswick-Luneburg at all, in consequence of the
trouble which was taken subsequently to erase his name from all
ofBcial documents of Hanover and Celle relating to the troops. But
the doubt is settled by the auditor of his regiment, named Radiger,
in his evidence in the Secret Senate Chamber of Hanover on
July 37, 1694. Radiger stated he had served in a regiment of foot-
guards commanded by Konigsmarck in Flanders. He had also served
in a regiment of dragoons in which KOnigsmarck held the same rank.
This document may be found in the Archives of Saxony, Royal Courts
of Justice, Dresden, The correspondence of Colt, sometime English
envoy at Hanover, also (as we shall shortly show) contain reference
to Konigsmarck as holding a commission in the Hanoverian troops.
This correspondence is in the State Paper Office, London.

I3S Tlbe Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
more particularly in the service of Hanover, The
post gave him free access to the palace, and was
considered one of the most honourable about the
Court, elevating Its holder to what was known
as the Third Degree, Though highly ornamental,
it was no sinecure ; the pay was not large, and
In Konlgsmarck's case it may have been honorary
to avoid jealousy at the promotion of a foreigner.
And there was plenty to do. The air of Hanover
was full of the noise of military preparations, and the
prospect of active service' was especiaUy attractive to
Konigsmarck. It was probably one of his objects
in taking the colonelcy of the Guards ; fctr though
his pleasure-loving soul delighted in the glitter of
Courts, the camp had its charms for him too. He
was a daring and a skilful soldier, an expert in the
profession of arms, and many kings would have been
glad of his services,
Konigsmarck struck up a friendship with the young
Princes of Brunswick-Liineburg, notably with Prince
Charles, the favourite son of the Duchess Sophia ;
and later he was very friendly with Prince Ernest,
the youngest of them all, who was many years
his junior, Konigsmarck was about the same age as the
eldest Prince, George Louis, and some six years older
than the Princess Sophie Dorothea, who was at this
time In her twenty-fourth year. His Intimacy with
Prince Charles, who was a great friend of Sophie
Dorothea, threw him frequently in her society. The
memory of their early friendship helped matters
considerably. He and the Princess had many things

plaising witb ifire 139
in common ; they both possessed a love of things
beautiful, and their tastes were artistic and refined.
This refinement showed itself in Konlgsmarck's dress,
equipages, and entertainments. His love of display
never degenerated into vulgarity, he could boast of
aU the superficial accomplishments, his manners and
address were graceful, and on things in general he
was remarkably well informed. In other ways Sophie
Dorothea and Konigsmarck were curiously alike. Both
possessed highly strung and mercurial temperaments.
Both were extravagant (Sophie Dorothea's expenditure
formed the subject of many a lecture from her hus
band). Both loved amusement, fine clothes, lavish
entertainment, balls, plays, dances, and continual ex
citement. Both were Impulsive, emotional. Imprudent,
and thoughtlessly generous, Sophie Dorothea was
much beloved by the poor in Hanover and Celle for
her kind heart, which was always ready to respond to
the cry of suffering and distress. Her Indiscriminate
almsgiving was another grievance against her. It can
easily be imagined how these two persons contrasted
with the cold, sluggish natures around them, and the
stiff routine of the German Court, If we bear In
mind all the forces at work, and the surrounding
circumstances, the trend of subsequent events seems
to have been almost inevitable.
The Princess was very unhappy, and welcomed
Konigsmarck as a friend. He was not backward
in assuring her of his respect and devotion ; his
society was pleasant to her, and his evident homage
flattered her vanity. But at this time there certainly

140 Zbc Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
was not, In the conduct of Sophie Dorothea, any-,
thing which would warrant the impression that a
deeper feeling than friendship existed. In a Court
of many intrigues their friendship simply meant that
Konigsmarck ranged himself with the adherents of
the Princess, Her health was not good, and she
spent many hours In retirement with her children,
Konigsmarck and Prince Charles would come to see
her, and amuse her by telling her the gossip of the
Court. The Princess never saw any one alone, but
always in the presence of her lady-in-waltlng, and the
pages were in waiting In the ante-chamber. There
was no impropriety in Konlgsmarck's visits, and none
was at first Imagined ; but it was playing with fire,
for In course of time the Princess began to speak to
her friend of her husband's Ill-treatment and neglect.
His conduct was open and notorious, so there was
no concealment in the, matter ; but though perhaps
natural, it was very imprudent for her to take Konigs
marck into her confidence — it is a commonplace
that a handsome young man Is about the worst
counsellor an Ill-used wife can find, Konigsmarck,
of course, sympathised deeply, and expressed his
indignation In no measured terms (what man would
not ,''), but his championship did more harm than good.
He seems to have had at this time some Idea of pro
voking George Louis to fight a duel with him, and so
rid Sophie Dorothea of an unsympathetic husband.
It is related that on one occasion, when Konigsmarck was
holding forth before a large company on the superior
splendour and attractions of the Court of Dresden,

IN THE GARDENS, HERRENHAUSFN,

[To face p. 140.

IPIasina witb if ire 141
Prince George Louis sarcastically asked him why he
ever left: It. Konigsmarck retorted : " Because I could
not bear to see a prince destroy the life and happiness
of his good and beautiful wife by neglecting her for
an impudent and worthless mistress ! " The company
gasped at the audacity of the answer, for though it
was true of the Elector of Saxony It had a double
application ; but cold and sullen George Louis ignored
the affront for the time being, though he never forgot
it nor forgave it.
Konigsmarck made his appearance at the Court of "
Hanover at a critical time in the fortunes of the Duchy.
Duke Ernest Augustus might well be excused over
looking domestic squabbles in the face of the wider
politics which were confronting him. The peace of
Europe was trembling in the balance. The great
European Coalition was forming against Louis XIV,,
and the Duke of Hanover was temporising as to
whether he would cast In his lot with the French
King or with the Allies. On the surface there does
not seem to have been any ground for his hesitation ;
the ties of religion, of blood, of race, of honour, would
naturally bind him to the Coalition. But these things
were nothing to Ernest Augustus in comparison with
the promptings of self-interest, and he determined
to sell his support to the highest bidder.
The dispute between the French King and the
Emperor Leopold had reached an acute phase. On
the death of the Elector Palatine Louis XIV. had
successfully invaded the Palatinate ; but his position
was uncertain at the close of 1688, and, urged by

142 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
the infamous counsel of Louvois, he determined to
devastate that fair province. Villages were burned,
churches wrecked, and thousands of families turned
out of their homes and suffered to perish from cold
and hunger. The beautiful Castle of the Elector
Palatine at Heidelberg and the fair town of Mannheim
were reduced to ruins. The wanton spoliation and
sacrilege, the cruelties and barbarities committed by
the French army aroused the Indignation of Europe.
It seems Incredible that Ernest Augustus, considering
how closely he was connected with the Palatinate
through his marriage,^ could have hesitated for one
moment on which side to throw In his lot. But
he hesitated.
The crusade against the French King was almost
a Holy War. Louis's only ally in Europe was the
Sultan of Turkey, whom he assisted against the House
of Austria, and whose Moslem cruelties to Christians
were rivalled by this " Most Christian " King in the
atrocities which his army committed In the Palatinate.
All Europe cried for vengeance. The Emperor Leopold,
Catholic though he was, made common cause with
the Protestant William of Orange, now King of
England, The King of Spain followed suit, and the
German princes, both Catholic and Protestant, one
by one allied themselves against the King of France,
The Grand Monarque had no one left on his side
but the Sultan, and the exiled King James II, of
England, whose reproaches from St, Germains to their
' The Duchess Sophia was the daughter of one Elector Palatine
(the "Winter King" of Bohemia) and the sister of another.

plaining witb ffire 143
Catholic Majesties of Austria and Spain for aUyIng
themselves with " that Protestant usurper and enemy
of Holy Church, William, Prince of Orange," were
without avail. The King of France had proved himself
a standing menace to the liberties of Europe, and in
the common effort to check his aggression all minor
differences gave way. Though the Emperor Leopold
at first took the lead, William of Orange was the
heart and soul of the European Coalition against Louis.
It was largely the result of his skilful negotiations ;
and many times when it was at the point of breaking
up, his statesmanship held it together.
In the face of so powerful a European combination as
this it would seem that the action of a petty State like
Hanover mattered little. To the Emperor Leopold it
mattered a good deal ; it was not merely a question of
Hanover only, but of Hanover and Celle, for the troops
of the ducal brothers were allied, and they had shown
their mettle in many a hard-fought campaign. Besides,
if Hanover and Celle, so nearly aUied to the Palatinate,
stood aloof^ other little states might do the same, and
the unity of the German confederation would be
broken. To WUliam of Orange it mattered some
thing, too, for the House of Hanover was nearly allied
to the Stuarts, and if It made common cause with the
protector of the exiled King James, his influence in
England would be sensibly weakened,
Ernest Augustus, wily old fox that he was, esti
mated the advances of these powerful potentates at
their true value. They wished for his support ; he
was wiUing to seU it, but at a high figure. His

i44 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
spouse, the estimable Sophia, also took a hand in the
game. Each had a coveted desire. The price
Ernest Augustus demanded of the Emperor was the
Electoral dignity ; Sophia asked of WUliam III, a
clearer recognition of her claim to the succession to
the Throne of England. The Emperor demurred.
There were then eight Electors In the German
Empire : two Protestant, Saxony and Brandenburg ;
three Roman Catholic, Bohemia, Bavaria, and the
Palatinate ; and three spiritual, the prince-archblshops
of Metz, Treves, and Cologne, The Emperor had no
constitutional power to add to their number, though
he might do so by a stretch of prerogative. Besides,
if such an Elector were elected, or rather created, the
elder branch of the House of Brunswick — ^Brunswick-
Wolfenbiittel — had prior claim. But Ernest Augustus
remained firm. He even began negotiations with
VersaiUes, and Sophia, no whit behind her spouse
in intrigue, opened up a correspondence with St,
Germains, These tactics were successful ; both the
Emperor and William III. came to terms. The
Emperor promised the dignity of Elector to the
House of Brunswick-Liineburg, but under heavy
stipulations. The Dukes of Hanover and Celle
bound themselves to support the Emperor against the
French King and also against the Turks in Morea, and
to pay annually five hundred thousand thalers ; to
furnish a force of nine thousand men, and to uphold
the Hapsburg dynasty in its dynastic disputes. The
Emperor held back the formal bestowal of the coveted
honour till a more convenient season, but he made a

UMai^ing witb ifire us
binding promise. King William III. promised to
advance the Duchess Sophia's chances of succession to
the English throne when he could, and (what was far
more Important to Ernest Augustus) to use his in
fluence for the House of Hanover with the Emperor.
Thus did Hanover join the confederation against
France. These matters settled, events moved rapidly through
out the winter of 1688 and spring of 1689. Hanover
resounded with military preparations, and there was a
continual coming and going of ministers and envoys,
for the Allies hostile to France were In constant com
munication with one another. The manifesto of the
German confederation was pubhshed in February, that
of the States General in March, that of Brandenburg
in April, and that of Spain in May. England followed
suit in the same month, and the great war between the
Allied Powers and France was declared, which did not
end until the Peace of Ryswick 1697,
Meanwhile another event, more directly bearing on
the fortunes of the House of Hanover, took place In
England. The Act of Settlement was passed by
Parliament, and though this Act did not specify the
Duchess Sophia and her heirs by name it expressly
excluded any Roman Catholic prince from ascending
the throne, and vested the crown in the Protestant
succession, WiUiam and Mary were childless, Anne
was In feeble health (the Duke of Gloucester, her
short-lived son, was not yet born), and so It seemed
in the course of nature that. If the Protestant suc
cession were upheld, the crown must ultimately devolve
VOL, I. 10

146 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
on Sophia or her children as the Protestant descendants
of the Stuarts In the line of succession. William also
intimated, that, when occasion served, he would do
more in the matter.
The Duchess Sophia received the news with the
liveliest feelings of joy, and even Ernest Augustus
was not insensible to the importance which accrued
thereby to the House of Hanover. Prince George
Louis remained unmoved ; he had not forgotten his
unsuccessful mission to England seven years before.
Prince Max, always In opposition, avowed himself an
ardent Jacobite; the other young princes probably
did not trouble about the matter at aU. In default
of a more sympathetic audience, therefore, the Duchess
Sophia turned again to her daughter-in-law, Sophie
Dorothea, and expatiated on the brilliant possibUities
before her. Poor Sophie Dorothea, who was 111 and
unhappy, proved even more indifferent than her hus
band ; the prospect of the English crown was much
too vague to allure her, and England was little more
than a name. The Duchess Sophia had again occa
sion to remonstrate with her daughter-in-law on her
lack of interest in a matter which affected not her
self only, but her children.
By way of emphasising the Importance of the Act
of Settlement, WiUiam appointed Sir WiUiam Dutton
Colt to be Envoy Extraordinary to the Princes of
Brunswick-Wolfenbiittel and Brunswick-Liineburg.
Colt was charged with the mission of representing
England at the Courts of Hanover, Celle, and
Brunswick, and of keeping their respective princes

Ipilaging witb ffire 147
well disposed towards the great Alliance, No easy
task, it must be admitted ; for all the princes pulled
different ways, and the perpetual journeys from
Hanover to Celle, and Celle to Brunswick, to say
nothing of following the Duke of Celle in his cease
less movements to Brockhausen, WIenhausen, and
Gohre, would have worn out any but a strong man.
As it was, we soon find Colt complaining of the
"perpetual motion" of the Court of Celle,
The new envoy arrived at Celle in July, 1689,
He was received by the Duke and Duchess " with
all y" respect and ceremony imaginable," but his first
Impressions of Celle were indifferent, " The town,"
he writes, " Is very poor, and all y^ country round
nothing but a deep sand and wood of smaU fyr trees,
full of all sorts of wild beasts, which with the Duke's
passion for hunting makes him reside constantly here
and at some little houses he has In y'= neighbourhood,
I fear to pass a very miserable winter here, in ex-
treame cold and very 111 houses," ^ But Hanover
cheered his spirits, " This place," he writes, " has
much more the appearance of a Court, and the town
much larger and finer, people laying out their money
in building and furnishing their houses, besides abun
dance of strangers resorting constantly hither." ^ And
again : " Nothing can be happier than we are here,
all the Court and the ministers showing us all
imaginable kindness." ^ His secretary, De la Roque,
» Colt's DespaUh, Celle, July 19, i68g,
^ Ibid., Hanover, July. 26, 1689.
' Ibid., Hanover, July 30, 1689,

148 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
was even more enthusiastic, "Yesterday," he writes,
" Sir William Colt had an audience with the Duke
and Duchess and Princess of Hanover [Sophie
Dorothea], who received him with every mark of
respect due to him as His Majesty's envoy. This
Court is as splendid as any in Germany ; genius and
civility reign here. The Duchess Sophia Is une personne
incomparable d'un esprit, d'une bonte, et d'une civilite
a charmer. She speaks all living languages as well
as her own. Her beautiful daughter [In law], the
Princess, is both accomplished and agreeable." ^
Soon after this the Duke and Duchess of CeUe
paid a visit to the Court of Hanover. The two
brothers had much to talk about in connexion with
the part they were to play in the great war and the
Intrigues for the Electorate. It Is more than probable
the Duke of Celle thought at this time that, as he
was the elder brother, the Emperor would confer the
Electoral dignity on him, and he was such a fool
that the cunning Ernest Augustus, with the aid of
his unscrupulous tools Bernstorff and Platen, could
hoodwink him as much as he pleased. He seemed
to be rapidly losing any will of his own, and he
became more and more the pawn of his ambitious and
scheming brother. Proportionately as the Hanoverian
Influence waxed, that of the Duchess Eleonore waned,
and she had now no voice in affairs of State and
comparatively little in matters of a purely doniestic
nature. The Celle-Wolfenbiittel combination had long
ago fallen to pieces, and George William's dislike of
' Letter of De la Roque, July 26, 1689,

Iplaging witb jfire 149
Antony Ulrich was not far short of Ernest Augustus'
hatred of the same prince. Between the Courts of
Brunswick and Hanover there existed the most intense
jealousy. The records of the time reveal a network
of intrigue, bribery, treachery, and falsehood between
these petty German Courts which has seldom been
equalled and never surpassed ; the restricted area and
the pettiness of the disputes added Intensity to the
bitterness. The Duchess Eleonore was not a very welcome
guest at Hanover ; but the Duchess Sophia had by
this time sufficiently masked her animosity to receive
her with civility, and. Indeed, on account of their
grandchildren, little George Augustus and Sophie
Dorothea, common sense told the older people that
it would be well to dissemble their dislikes, and there
was nothing to be gained by perpetual strife. It
had no such lesson for the Prince and Princess of
Hanover, whose mutual dislike seemed to increase as
time went on ; and though Duchess Eleonore had
abundant love and sympathy for her unhappy daughter,
we find her henceforth preaching prudence and patience
to her, and urging her, for her children's sake, to
make the best of her lot.
There were many festivities at Hanover in honour
of the visit of the Duke and Duchess of Celle, and
among them the Prince and Princess of Hanover
gave a ball to which the Court and nobility
were invited. Everything was done on a scale of
magnificence. Duke Ernest Augustus and the Duchess
Sophia with a numerous suite attended in state, and

15° TEbe Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
sat on a raised dais with their honoured guests. The
Duchess Eleonore must have felt that at last she was
a duchess indeed, especially if she contrasted these
flattering attentions from her haughty kinsfolk with
their former snubbings and insults. The evening
began with a play — probably a pastoral with dances ;
then there was a procession to the banquetlng-haU,
and after supper Sophie Dorothea opened the baU
with her father the Duke of Celle, The Duchess
Sophia and the Duchess Eleonore did not dance, but
sat apart on the dais, Duke Ernest Augustus was
too stout, so George Louis led out the Countess
Platen, as vis-a-vis, she being the greatest lady present
after their Serene Highnesses, and it is recorded that
the splendour of her jewels and attire far outshone
those of the Ducal party. When the flrst set dance
was over, the dancing became more general, and
Konigsmarck and the Princess stood up for a minuet.
Konigsmarck wore a suit of pink and silver, while
the Princess appeared as Flora, aU in white, with
no jewels and a wreath of natural flowers. They
made so handsome a couple, and withal danced so
exquisitely, that they called forth the admiration of
the whole company. Indeed, the Countess Platen
was so struck by the grace of Konlgsmarck's dancing
and the beauty of his person that when the dance
was over, she went up and complimented him in
most extravagant terms before the whole assembly,
to which Konigsmarck, who was nothing if not
gallant, replied In a fitting manner. The incident
did not fail to attract the notice of the Court, except

placing witb jfire 151
that of Ernest Augustus, who seemed blind and deaf
where his favourite was concerned.
From this hour Konlgsmarck's intimacy with the
Countess Platen ripened rapidly — an intimacy which
may be palliated, but certainly cannot be excused.
He became a frequent visitor to Monplalsir, where
drinking was deep and play was high. The Countess
was always willing to win a little money from her
admirers (it was the recognised way of buying her
favours), and before long rumour spread the tale that
an intrigue existed between the two. It is difficult
to say what was the truth of the matter. The
Countess Platen must at this time have been about
forty years of age, but she was at- the height of her
opulent charms ; ^ she had power, wealth, and the
art of making herself pleasant and fascinating to
men, and she was not troubled with any scruples.
KOnigsmarck was neither better nor worse than other
young nobles of his day, and the probability is that
Poellnitz's narrative is in the main true, and in an

' Thackeray calls her a " hideous old Court lady " ; on what
authority I know not. She certainly was not old at that tirae, and far
from hideous. There is a picture of her at Herrenhausen in a rich
crimson robe, a fine, voluptuous-looking woman, with black hair and
an ample bust, just the sort of woman one would expect her to be.
Curiously enough the picture hangs immediately beneath that of
Kdnigsraarck, Thackeray also says of KSnigsmarck that " a greater scamp does not
walk the history of the seventeenth century " ; but there is nothing
to show that Konigsmarck was any greater scamp than his con
temporaries ; in raany things— notably in his bravery, his generosity,
and, later, his fidelity to a great love passion — he was better than most
of them.

152 TTbe Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
unguarded moment Konigsmarck threw over his good
intentions and discretion.^
Konigsmarck was soon smitten with remorse. He
could not ignore the fact that his intimacy with the
bitterest enemy of the Princess must look very much
like treachery In Sophie Dorothea's eyes, and he
sought an audience to make excuses to her for his
conduct, declaring, not very ingenuously, that it was
necessary to win the favour of the Countess if he were
to be of any real service to the Princess. The Princess
answered coldly that It was a matter of indifference
to her how he spent his time, or with whom, and
he was wise to pay his court to the mistress, as she
could prove a much more powerful and influential
friend than she (the Princess) could ever be. Indeed,
she went on bitterly, she had no friends ; she was
betrayed and deserted on every side. Only recently
she had craved leave to return with her father and
mother to Celle for a time, but, through the interference
' Poellnitz asserts that on receiving the Countess Platen's corapliments
on his dancing at the ball, " Konigsraarck comprit tout le sens de ces
paroles, et la passion qu'il avoit pour la Princesse ne le rendit pas in
sensible aux avances d'une aussi belle personne que la Coratessb. II lui
repondit qu'il Stoit confus des bontez qu'elle vouloit bien avoir pour lui
qui le mSritoit si peu, et que puisqu'elle lui permettoit de I'aller trouver
le soir. . . . Konigsmarck fut chez la Comtesse, qu'il trouva en deshabille
sur un lit de repos. Elle se leva et ayant laiss6 toute modestie, elle
courut I'embrasser, en lui avouant sa foiblesse et lui faisant voir tant
de charraes, que KOnigsmarck ne se fit point scrupule de r^pondre k sa
tendresse. Le jour 6toit pr6t k paroitre quand il se retira chez lui. II
se jetta sur son lit pour y prendre quelque repos, mais ce fut en vain,
et il se reprochoit continuellement d'avoir 6t€ sensible aux charmes de
I'ennemie d6clar6e de la Princesse." — Histoire Secrette de la Duchess
d'Hanover, pp. 80 — 81,

placing witb jfire iss
of Countess Platen, Ernest Augustus had refused
permission, and she must needs remain In Hanover
surrounded by enemies. She burst Into tears, and
Konigsmarck, smitten by self-reproach, became scarcely
less agitated, and vowed with great fervour his re
spectful homage and lifelong fidelity to her interests.
Just at this point Prince Charles came in to pay
his respects to Sophie Dorothea, and, finding both
his sister-in-law and Konigsmarck violently agitated
with an emotion they were unable to conceal, his
suspicions were aroused. He was a well-wisher of
both, and, though he said nothing to the Princess,
when the visit was over he took Konigsmarck aside,
and warned him that the path he was treading was
a dangerous one, and it behoved him to walk more
warily. Konigsmarck thought so too. His passion for the
Princess was growing daily, ,and threatened to outstep
all bounds of discretion. He was not wholly selfish ;
he loved her with all the love he was capable of feeling,
and he began to see that his presence, so far from
serving her cause, was likely only to Increase her
difficulties. His brief-lived intrigue with Countess
Platen filled him with disgust and remorse ; he was
at his wits' end to repel her advances with civUity,
and there were the elements of danger In it, too, for
should Ernest Augustus suspect anything, his career
at Hanover would be closed for all time. The only
way out of the dilemma was a temporary absence.
The opportunity soon came. In accordance with his
treaty with the Emperor Leopold, Ernest Augustus,

154 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
who this summer had sent troops to Flanders, and
his eldest son, George Louis, to the Rhine, was also
sending, In the autumn of 1689, some regiments of
his famous Hanoverians to the Morea, to fight with
the Imperial forces against the Turks, and Prince
Charles, Konlgsmarck's bosom friend, was to accompany
them. What more natural than that KOnigsmarck
should volunteer to go too, especially when the Duchess
Sophia made an appeal to his friendship and entreated
him not to suffer her best-loved son to face the perils
and dangers of this far-away campaign alone i* He
at once craved permission to serve with the Hanoverian
troops in the campaign, and it was granted. Dearly
as he loved miUtary adventure, he did not go without
sadness and misgiving. It was hard for him to tear
himself away from the object of his passion ; and as
the day of departure drew near his depression was
noticeable to the whole Court, and the more Inexplicable
because he had come to Hanover with the reputation
of being a brave and keen soldier. The Countess
Platen remonstrated with him on his decision ; she
had no wish to lose so amiable a gallant. He told
her coldly but civiUy that his determination was
unalterable, and doubtless In his absence she would
forget him. With the Princess his leave-taking was
more difficult. Unaware of the depth of the feeUngs
he entertained for her, and seeing In him nothing but
a sincere and devoted friend, Sophie Dorothea did not
hesitate to express her regret that he was leaving her
at a time of great stress and difficulty, when she had
most need of his counsel and advice. She besought

plaining witb jfire 155
him to take care of himself and return quickly, for
she saw before her a time of sore tribulation when she
would need to the utmost all her friends. Konigsmarck
was so moved by these gracious words that he had
great difficulty in restraining his emotion ; as It was,
he contented himself with vowing again his devotion
and fidelity to her interests, and bade her adieu.
The rigours of an early winter had set in, the snow
was lying on the plains around Hanover, when
Konigsmarck and Prince Charles set forth for the
Morea.

CHAPTER X
THE EMBROIDERED GLOVE
(1690 — 1691)
They two alone one summer day :
"Ah Love," she said, "is hard to lose.''
"And harder still," he said, "to say
The bitter words that you must choose
Between the lover of to-day
And the true friend of yesterday." Lady Arabella Romilly.
THE winter was one of the most rigorous known
for years, and brought much ¦ hardship and
suffering to the troops fighting In the Morea and
privation and want to the people at home. The
Hanoverian subjects groaned under the weight of the
large and increasing military burden imposed on them.
Taxes were high and discontent was general,^ But,
though soldiers might die and peasants perish of cold
and starvation, the Court of Hanover was as gay
and extravagant as ever. Countess Platen kept open
house at her palace of Monplalsir ; her jewels and
dresses grew more and more resplendent ; her hazard
' " Every prince here keeps more troops than he can possibly
maintain," — Colt's Despatch, Hanover correspondence, December 4,
1689, 156

Ube Embroibereb (Blove 157
table was the focus of all the dissolute young nobles
about the Court, The opera was thronged nightly.
Thousands of thalers were squandered on feasting and
music and dancing, though the Duchy was involved
In a bloody and unprofitable war, and its troops were
being mowed down like grass by the scimitars of the
Moslem hordes.
The New Year opened with much festivity, '* This
family is here together," writes Colt, " except the
Duke of Celle and his Court. We have had a
Carnaval and a most magnificent Opera of voyces
from Venice, which has drawn much Company
hither." ^ And again : " Our opera is most magni
ficent fine, exceeding even that of Italy." ^ But there
was a spectre at the revels which would not be shut
out. " I am under dreadful apprehensions," he con
tinues, " that our mirth will not end well, being
concerned for the safety of Prince Charles, the fourth
son of this Duke, who Is marching from Prestlna, If
he be killed it will bring both the Duke and the
Duchess with sorrow to their graves ; nor, indeed, have
I ever seen one more generally beloved," Poor Sophie
Dorothea was probably under " dreadful apprehen
sions," too, not only for the safety of her favourite
brother-in-law, who had always taken her part, but
for the man whom she deemed her faithful friend
and devoted adherent ; if she lost them she would
be friendless indeed. But however much her heart
might ache, it behoved her to smile and to deck herself
' Colt's Despatch, Hanover, January 24, 1690,
' Ibid., January 28, 1690,

158 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
In jewels and brave attire, and take her place In the
festivities of the Court by the Duchess Sophia's side,
who had sorrow and anxiety too,
A few weeks later, and the evil forebodings were
realised. News came that the young Prince, the flower
of his race, the darling of his 'mother's heart, the idol
of the Court, was lost in the Morea, There were many
contradictory reports : some said he was slain, others
that he was only wounded, others that he was taken
prisoner and carried to Constantinople, Then foUowed
a month of wearing anxiety ; the Duchess Sophia broke
down under it utterly, and the Electress of Brandenburg
came to comfort her mother. It was supposed, too,
that Konigsmarck was killed or taken prisoner. At
last the suspense ended, "We have received ¦ certain
news," writes Colt, " that Prince Charles was killed
on the spot where his body was found, with several
of his officers and servants round him, dead. He had
several cutts with a gymeker, and was run thro' the
body with a lance. Their last hope of his being a
prisoner has very much increased their sorrow here,
and we are going into mourning." ^ Konigsmarck was
not numbered among the dead ; the Konigsmarck luck
was on his side, and by some miracle he escaped,
though the Hanoverian troops were literally decimated.
The Duchess Sophia feU dangerously IU on receiving
the news of her favourite son's death, and the Court
despaired of her life. The sad affliction in which the
ducal family were plunged broke down for a time aU
minor jealousies. The Duke of Celle came personally
¦ Colt's Despatch, Hanover, February 25, i6go.

Ube Embroibereb ©love 159
to Hanover to offer his condolences, and the common
sorrow seemed to draw all members of the family
closer together, A month later the Duchess Sophia
rallied sufficiently to go with the Duke to Carlsbad
to take the waters. In April Konigsmarck came back
to Hanover from the Morea, In company with the
miserable remnant of the gallant troops who had set
forth so bravely the autumn before. Some idea of
the slaughter may be gained from the fact that of the
Duke of Brunswick- Wolfenbiittel's contingent, which
started eleven thousand strong, only one hundred and
thirty returned.
The summer of 1 690 was a sad one at Hanover, The
death of Prince Charles and the illness of the Duchess
Sophia cast a gloom over a Court which as a rule
suffered not death, nor sickness, nor misery to Interrupt
its dissipations and revelries. Prince George Louis
went to Flanders to command his father's troops, and
took Prince Ernest, the youngest of the princes, with
hlm,^ It was not a dangerous expedition, for the troops
of the Allies were for the most part mobilising this
year, William of Orange was not in Flanders ; he
had his hands full in Ireland, where, at the head of
a motley army (EngUsh, Dutch, Danish, and German
— doubtless the firstfrults of the great confederation),
he was grappling with King James at the battle of
the Boyne,
Konigsmarck did not go to Flanders ; he had had
enough of fighting for the present, and he stayed
on at Hanover, where the Princess Sophie Dorothea,
' Colt's Despatch, Celle, May 27, 1690.

i6o Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
abandoned, as usual, by her husband, who much pre
ferred the camp to the Court and his military to
his connubial duties, remained almost alone. Regarding
Konigsmarck as her staunch adherent and trusted friend,
she rejoiced greatly on his safe return from the jaws
of death, and gave him ready and frequent audience.
In the lifetime of Prince Charles these Interviews had
excited no remark, for he went often to see his sister-
in-law and took Konigsmarck In attendance. But things
were now different : the beloved Prince Charles, the
true friend of both, was dead, and there was an enemy
once more at work plotting the Princess's destruction.
This was the Countess Platen, who, to her long
standing dislike of the Princess, now added an element
of personal jealousy. She too had greeted Konlgs
marck's return with joy; but he had courteously but
firmly repelled her advances, determined not to be
caught tripping a second time. The Countess fancied
she saw the cause of his coldness in his devotion to
Sophie Dorothea, and from that moment she determined
on her ruin. Opportunity to Injure her soon came.
The etiquette of the Court was very strict, and
the Princess, as we have remarked, was not always so
careful to observe it in public as she might have been.
As colonel of the Guards, Konigsmarck had free access
to the Palace, One day, when he was there on duty,
he met the Princess coming in from the gardens
with her little daughter. In the ordinary course he
should have saluted and passed on. But the Htde
girl was tired, and shirked the long flight of steps
leading to the apartments of the Princess, Instead of

PHIUP CHRISTOPHER COUNT KONIGSMARCK. [To fate p- l6o.

Ube Embroibereb (Blove i6i
handing her over to an attendant, Sophie Dorothea
Impulsively caught her up in her arms, and began
to mount the steps with her burden. This alone was
supposed to show a deplorable lack of dignity, and,
to make matters worse, Konigsmarck laughingly re
monstrated with Her Highness, and insisted on taking
the young Princess from her arms and carrying her
up the stairs to the door of her apartments. Just
at this moment who should pass by but the Countess
Platen, who, seeing them laughing and talking together,
cast a withering glance, and, with an ironically deep
obeisance to the Princess, hurried off to report to
the Duke this monstrous breach of etiquette,
Duke Ernest Augustus was now home from Carlsbad,
much the better of his gout, and In fairly good temper
with things generally. He was indulgent to Sophie
Dorothea and her whims, except when they crossed
his wishes. In this case he could not see anything
very wrong in her conduct, though the circumstance
was grossly exaggerated by the Countess, and he turned
a deaf ear to her hints and Innuendoes, refusing to
believe any evil. Perhaps he had a shrewd Idea that
jealousy was at the bottom of It, But afterwards
he remonstrated with the Princess, and reprimanded
Konigsmarck for having been guilty of an impertinence,
though, Hanoverian etiquette apart, he seems to have
only performed an act of natural courtesy. The
incident was reported about the Court, and from the
tittle-tattle came the first breath of scandal which
afterwards tarnished so sadly the mirror of Sophie
Dorothea's fair name,
VOL, I. II

1 62 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
Soon after this the Hanoverian Court, except the
Duchess Sophia, went on a visit to Brunswick, according
to their annual custom, to divert themselves with an
opera and the falr.^ The Duke and Duchess of
Celle were there also, and Duke Antony Ulrich with
his family and a numerous Court, Antony Ulrich
had now become co-Regent with his elder brother,
Duke Rudolph Augustus, who, being a scholar and
recluse, practically left all government In his hands.
It was Antony Ulrich who dictated the policy of
the House of Brunswick-Wolfenbiittel, and he kept his
Court sometimes at Wolfenbiittel and sometimes at
Brunswick, Brunswick was then a Hanseatic town
of considerable importance, strongly fortified, and
much frequented by merchants. The annual fair was
a great event which the pleasure-loving Court of
Hanover would not forego. Not the recent death
of the Prince, nor the reverses of the army in the
Morea, nor the ill-concealed enmity between the Duke
of Hanover and Duke Antony Ulrich sufficed to keep
Ernest Augustus from the Brunswick revels. Just now
in the interests of the great alliance the feud between
them was slumbering. Sophie Dorothea was there
too, and so doubtless was Konigsmarck. The death
of the Elector Palatine put a sudden end to the
ill-timed festivities.
At the end of October Prince George Louis returned
from Flanders with his troops, for winter quarters,^
Absence had not improved his domestic relations;
' Colt's Hanover Correspondence, August 12, i6go,
* Colt's Hanover Despatches, October 24, 1690.

Ube Embroibereb (Blove 163
he spent aU his time with Ermengarda Melusina
Schulenburg, and his unhappy wife saw Uttle or nothing
of him ; at this time she was his wife In name only.
In January, 1691, the Duke of Wolfenbiittel and
the Duke of Hanover, each with a numerous retinue,
went to the Hague to meet William and take part
in the deUberations of the great Congress of the
AUies. The Duke of Celle was to have gone too,
but an attack of gout at the last moment prevented
him, much to his chagrin, as he was a staunch friend
of England. The quiet Dutch town presented a
spectacle of extraordinary gaiety. William had just
made his triumphal return to his own country for the
first time since he had become King of England, and his
Dutchmen welcomed him with acclamations and delight,
which showed how deeply the Dutch phlegm could
be stirred on occasion.-' The streets were decorated
by day and illuminated by night ; every house was
crowded, and the retinues of the princely throng were
sore put about to find a lodging for their masters,
much more for themselves. It was an imposing
gathering ; never before had Europe witnessed such
a congress. The haughty Elector of Brandenburg
was there, the young Catholic Elector of Bavaria,
the Regent of Wiirtemburg, the Landgraves of Hesse-
Cassel and Hesse-Darmstadt, and princes of the
Sovereign Houses of Saxony, Holstein, Nausau, and,
as before mentioned, of Brunswick-Wolfenbiittel and
Brunswick-Liineburg ; plenipotentiaries extraordinary
' A similar exhibition was made on the occasion of the coronation
of Queen Wilhelmina.

1 64 Ube Xove of an Tttncrowneb diueen
were there from the Emperor Leopold, the kings
of Spain, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, and the Duke of
Savoy. The Hague was transformed. As Macaulay says :
"The grave capital of the most thrifty and
Industrious of nations was as gay as Venice in the
carnival. The walks, cut among those noble limes
and elms in which the villa of the Prince of Orange
is embosomed, were gay with the plumes, the stars,
the flowing wigs, the embroidered coats, and the gold-
hilted swords of gallants from London, Berlin, and
Vienna. With the nobles were mingled sharpers not
less gorgeously attired than they. At night the hazard
tables were thronged ; and the theatre was filled to
the roof Princely banquets followed one another in
rapid succession. The meats were served in gold." ^
It was magnificent, but it was not war. The great
Congress resolved to oppose Louis with two hundred
and twenty thousand men, but while they were talking,
feasting, and junketing, the Grand Monarque was up
and doing, Mons, the most important of the fortresses
of the Spanish Netherlands, was besieged and fell. The
glamour of the Congress was at once destroyed and
the Allies were disquieted, Louis returned In triumph
to Versailles, and William went back in chagrin to
England for a brief visit. The other princes and
potentates broke up In dudgeon and went their several
ways, among them the Brunswick dukes, who returned
to Hanover and Wolfenbiittel respectively.
' Macaulay's Histofy of England, \ol. iv., p. 7. Macaulay's authority
was. Relation de la Voyage de son Majeste Britannique en Hollande,
Burnet 11, 72.

Ube Embroibereb (Blove 165
On the return of the Brunswick princes. Intrigues
and discontents ran high at the Courts of Hanover and
CeUe, The fall of Mons and the continued uncertainty
about the coveted Electorate made the Duke of Hanover
turn his back upon William of Orange and lend a
wiUing ear once more to the overtures of the French
King. An envoy of Louis was at Hanover, and was
received with great favour by Ernest Augustus and
by Count and Countess Platen, to whom he made large
presents. The Duke himself does not seem to have
been above the suspicion of bribery, for, writes Colt,
" to show some of us he doth not want money, he
bought a jewel of forty thousand crowns from a Jew
of Amsterdam, or else It was a present, for by that
channel the French money comes," ^
The English envoy was hard put to It to counteract
these influences. The Duchess Sophia was on his side,
but she could do little. Prince George Louis was with
him too, but he could do less. On the other hand, the
Princess Sophie Dorothea favoured the French party,
" The eldest prince," writes Colt, " is a very reserved
man and has good parts, and not In the least French in
his Inclinations, which give that party some discontent ;
they make all y° court Imaginable to y" Princess, and
I fear not without success, but she has no great fond
ness for the Prince," ^ The Princess was probably
Influenced by her mother, who was French at heart,
as well as by birth, and, with the Duke of Hanover,
they united in dissuading the Duke of Celle from
' Colt's Despatches, Locknam, June lo, 1691,
' Ibid., Hanover.

1 66 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
sending troops to Flanders, Colt had spoken of the
Duchess of Celle as likely to support France,
" She be a French woman, and consequently loves y°
imaginary glory and greatness of France ; yet I am
persuaded she wishes us [the English] better than
those I have mentioned [Bernstorff, the Platens, etc],
whom she hates, because they have lessened her credit
with the Duke, with whom she can now do but little."
But now he had no doubt. " The Duchess of CeUe
be on yi French side very much now. For my
part I doubt she is changed In the principalis of her
religion too, for she maintains that the Protestants
might have stayed in France, and have complyed by
going to Mass as a less crime than quitting their
King and country. It makes me often wonder at
the Duke's patience, and how he suffers it. . . . The
Duchess here [Celle] hath engaged the Princess to
assist her in persuading the Duke." ^ And again :
" The Princess of Hanover and her son have been
here till this day to take their leave of the Duke,
and to remind him how much the Duchess is to
be his care as well as theirs, so that the Duke of
Hanover acts on sure grounds both ways. This Duke
shows great fondness of his daughter and grandson," ^
But George William's sympathies were stoutly
English. He had great admiration for William of
Orange, who had just sent him a present of horses, and
nothing would Induce him to intrigue with France.
But he was won over to adopting a neutral attitude for
» Colt's Despatch, Celle, May 8, 1691.
» Ibid., Celle, May 22, 1691,

Ube Embroibereb Glove 167
a time, with the result that no troops from the princes
of Brunswick-Liineburg were sent to Flanders for the
campaign of 1691,
These cross-currents and intrigues were very trying
to the EngUsh envoy, and he writes home pages and
pages teUing of his efforts to stem the tide. Among
other things, he gave a great party and entertained
at supper all the distinguished visitors who were at
Hanover, Including the Electress of Brandenburg, the
Duchess of Celle, the Duchess of Hanover, the Duke
of Saxe-Gotha, the Princess of East Friesland and her
party, and all the young princes,^ The French emissary
Immediately gave another yet more splendid, and as
he reinforced it with costly presents all round, his
Influence was paramount.
The Princess Sophie Dorothea attended both parties ;
her sympathy with France Is practically the only
authenticated instance of her interference in politics, if
we except her suspected Intrigues with Wolfenbiittel,
As far as we can judge, Konigsmarck sided with
England. He had gone to the Hague In the suite
of the Duke of Hanover, and among the gallants
who swaggered and gambled and played In the taverns
and streets of the old Dutch town none cut a braver
figure than he. His intimacy with Sophie Dorothea
seemed to grow no nearer ; he could be of no service
to her, and, though most friendly, she kept him at
an arm's length. He was her most obedient servant,
most faithful friend, but nothing more, and he desired
to be much more. Baffled and depressed at this time,
' Colt's Despatch, Hanover.

1 68 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
he wanted to leave the Hanoverian service and join
the army of WiUiam ; he had known England and
loved it, and while at the Hague had been presented
to the King, who had been pleased to receive him
very graciously, and would have taken him into his
service, for he had need of dare-devil soldiers of the
Konigsmarck type. But the Duke of Hanover would
not let him go. He liked his dashing colonel of the
Guards, and was unwilling that his Court should lose
so brilliant an ornament ; he, however, gave him leave
to go to Brabant to see the English army, and thither
Konigsmarck went in May, but a month later he was
back in Hanover.
Konigsmarck celebrated his return by giving an
entertainment, a masquerade, which was honoured by the
attendance of many of the members of the ducal family.
The Prince and Princess of Hanover, Princes Christian
and Ernest, Count and Countess Platen, and the leading
nobility of Hanover were among the guests. Every
one came In fancy dresses and masks. It was a warm
summer night, and the company were dispersed about
the dimly illuminated gardens. The opportunities of
flirtation and Intrigue were great, and the Countess
Platen determined to Improve the occasion by a
dramatic little plot of her own. She had jealously
watched the growing intimacy between Konigsmarck
and the Princess, and cast about for an opportunity
to ruin them — or at least the Princess, To this end
she stole one of Sophie Dorothea's gloves which she
had inadvertently put down at supper (it was one of
a pair George Louis had brought her from Flanders,

Ube Embroibereb (Blove 169
richly embroidered and ornamented with her initials
and coronet), and, concealing it in her dress, she presently
lured Konigsmarck into accompanying her to a far-off
pavilion In the gardens. Here, without ado, she plunged
Into a violent flirtation with him, and so engrossed his
attention that he did not hear footsteps until two
men stood in the path before them in the moonUght.
They were Count Platen and George Louis. The
Prince had been led this way, seemingly inadvertently,
by the husband in agreement with his wife. Uttering
a startled exclamation, as though afraid of being dis
covered. Countess Platen took Konigsmarck by the
arm and fled from the pavilion ; at the same time,
unperceived by him, she dropped the Princess's glove.
George Louis, who was not near enough to distinguish
the masked lady, asked Count Platen who it was.
The wily Minister professed ignorance, but on entering
the pavilion picked up the glove and handed It to
George Louis, who recognised it as one of a pair
he had given his wife. His jealous suspicions were
aroused, and later they were confirmed by hearing the
Princess ask for her missing glove. She could give
no account of when and where she had lost it, and
so far as the Prince was concerned these tactics were
completely successful. Notoriously unfaithful himself,
he was only too ready to suspect his wife of un
faithfulness. But up till now Sophie Dorothea, though she had
shown signs of wavering, had not told Konigsmarck
that she viewed him In any light but as a friend. He,
on his part, had now gone far beyond the bounds of

17° TTbe Xove of an TUncrowneb diueenJ
the most privileged friendship, and, forgetful of her
rank and lonely position, had addressed the Princess
in terms of extravagant devotion. Had she been wise,
Sophie Dorothea would at once have closed the
acquaintance. But she was not wise ; and in a Court
of universal laxity and Intrigue she saw no harm In a
little flirtation. It was the almost universal custom of
the time. Nearly every woman of youth and beauty,
whatever her rank, and whether married or not, had
gallants sighing for her smiles and wearing her favours.
The Electress of Brandenburg (her sister-in-law) had
many lovers, and openly avowed her preferences ; so had
the Duchess of Saxe-Eisenach, the Princess of Etting,
and other princesses. Why should not she have one
too ? She was piqued by her husband's neglect, flattered
by Konlgsmarck's homage, and perhaps, too, her heart
was touched. She had known him from childhood.
He had loved her always, so he swore. He was the
ideal lover, young, handsome, and ardent, and she was
hungry for love — even love like this. She had no
idea, when she listened, of going beyond the bounds
of discretion ; yet even for her to listen was Indiscreet,
nay dangerous, surrounded as she was by spies and
enemies. She had no one In whom to confide ; no one
to advise her except Eleonore Knesebeck, who, though
devoted to her mistress, was a sentimental, silly young
woman, eager to vary the monotony of her duties by
acting as go-between in an intrigue. It was impossible,
now that suspicion was aroused, for Konigsmarck to see
the Princess so frequently as he had done, and in an
evil moment she consented to allow him to write to

Ube Embroibereb (Blove 171
her from time to time, though not promising to reply.
The letters, to disarm suspicion, were to be addressed
to Eleonore Knesebeck.
Thus did Sophie Dorothea first open the sluice-gates
a lltde way to a little stream, which later swelled Into a
mighty river, carrying her and Konigsmarck before It,
and engulfing them finally in the rush and roar of its
waters. But the story of all this is best told in the
letters themselves.

CHAPTER XI
HISTORY AND AUTHENTICITY OF THE LETTERS^
I, for my part, value letters as the most vital part of biography,
Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
THE original manuscripts of the remarkable corre
spondence between Sophie Dorothea and Konigs
marck, a correspondence unparalleled Inthe annals of
passion, except, perhaps, by the love-letters of Mirabeau
and the Marquise de Monnier, is still preserved In the
University Library of Lund, In Sweden,
The history of the letters previous to their finding
a resting-place at Lund can be traced back through
many generations.
It will be noted that the correspondence begins in
July, 1691, and ends in December, 1693, thus covering
a period of two and a half years. The first few letters
of Konigsmarck show that he was not quite sure of
his footing with the Princess, and the liaison between
them was yet in the bud. Within a few months
we find his passion not only avowed without disguise,
but reciprocated by the Princess with equal ardour.
' This chapter is an interpolation dealing with the history and authen
ticity of the correspondence and does not affect the narrative.
J72

ibistors anb Hutbenticits of tbe Xetters 173
Except for a break in the first part of 1693, the
letters follow the period of their love story until
the last six months, January to June, 1694. During
the greater part of this latter time Konigsmarck was
at Dresden, and a few days after he returned to
Hanover he was assassinated (July i, 1694). It Is
known that many letters passed between the Princess
and Konigsmarck during this last six months, and
a bundle of letters were seized by the Hanoverian
Government in Konlgsmarck's lodgings a few days
after his murder. These last letters are therefore
missing from this correspondence, which otherwise
forms a fairly complete record of the Princess's love
story. The pertinent question is, how came the many
hereafter published to be preserved ?
Konigsmarck, as we have seen, had two sisters,
Amalie Wilhelmina, who married Count Carl Gustaf
Lewenhaupt, a Swedish nobleman, who held for a time a
commission as colonel in the army of the Duke of CeUe,
and served with the troops of Brunswick-Liineburg in
Flanders, and the beautiful Aurora, who was never
married. Aurora was In the confidence of the lovers
and on terms of friendship with the Princess. Countess
Lewenhaupt must also have been cognisant of the affaire,
though in a lesser degree. During Konlgsmarck's
connexion with the Court of Hanover Aurora resided
sometimes at Hamburg, often with him at Hanover,
and was occasionally at Celle, Brunswick, and other
places, but always circling around the Courts of
the Brunswick princes. The Countess Lewenhaupt
was for the most part with her husband, whose

174 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
military duties kept him much at Celle ; but she
frequently met her brother or sister. Both sisters
often saw their brother, and between him and them
there existed a strong affection.
Aurora sympathised with the love affair between
her brother and the Princess, and at quite an early
stage we find her aware of it. Letters were often
sent through her hands ; and so active a part did
she play that when suspicion was aroused in the
autumn of 1692, Ernest Augustus sent her a message
to the effect that she would do well to give Hanover
a wide berth In future. For the lovers to keep
each other's letters in their several possession was
dangerous, and they were unwiUIng to burn them. For
their safe keeping, therefore, it would seem that both
Konigsmarck and the Princess deposited (at stated
periods, probably at the end of every six months)
their letters with Aurora : the Princess giving up
those she had received from him, and Konigsmarck
those he had received from her.
This continued until the end of 1693, In the six
months that followed (January to June, 1694) Konigs
marck did not see his sisters ; he was in Saxony, and
they were at Hamburg. The letters he had received
from the Princess during that period were stIU in his
possession when he was murdered, and, as we have
seen, were seized by the Government. The letters
the Princess had received from him were in her
possession, and she probably burned them at the first
hint that everything was discovered. But the rest
— those published here — were in Aurora's keeping

"Ibistors anb Butbenticits of tbe Xetters 17s
at Hamburg, outside the jurisdiction of the Elector of
Hanover. Of the efforts which both sisters, especially Aurora,
made to discover their missing brother, and to bring
his assassins to justice, we shall have occasion to speak
later. They mourned their brother long and sincerely,
and treasured everything connected with his memory.
Doubtless these letters were among their most cherished
possessions, Aurora, it is well known, led for some
years a wandering and adventurous life, and for better
security she must have transferred this momentous
and bulky correspondence to her sister's. Countess
Lewenhaupt's, keeping. Count Lewenhaupt, soon after
the murder of his brother-in-law, quitted the service
of the Duke of Celle, and returned with his wife to
Sweden, where he henceforth lived on his estates.
From this time the history of the letters Is cate
gorical, and may be traced step by step. Amalie,
Countess Lewenhaupt, kept the letters, and on her
death-bed gave them to her son. Count Charles EmU
Lewenhaupt, teUing him to cherish them with great
care, as they had cost " her brother his life, and a
king's mother her freedom." Count Charles Emil
Lewenhaupt duly fulfilled his mother's Injunction,
and the letters remained among his most carefully
guarded possessions aU his life. He died without
male heirs, and this branch of the house of Lewen
haupt became extinct. He bequeathed the letters
to his daughter and heiress, AmaUe Beata, who was
married to a great Swedish noble, Baron Hans Ramel,
of Ofvedskloster. In a chest in the library of

176 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
Ofvedskloster, the country seat of the Ramel family,
these letters remained for many years. Amalie Beata,
Baroness Ramel (nee Lewenhaupt) died in 1810, and
at her death bequeathed the letters to her daughter,
Elisabeth Sophia Amalie Beata, who was married to
Count Gustaf Adolph Sparre. The offspring of this
marriage was also a daughter, Christina Amalie Hedvlg
Adelaide, who married Count Jacob de la Gardie, of
Loberod, the founder of the famous de la Gardie
Archives, Count de la Gardie, who was a wealthy
nobleman, a bibliophile, and a great antiquarian, was
naturaUy interested in these letters, which came Into
his possession in 1817 through his marriage with the
lady aforesaid. Quite apart from their historical value,
the way In which they had been handed down through
generations of his wife's family (she was the great-
great-granddaughter of Countess Lewenhaupt, nee
Konigsmarck) gave them a personal Interest In his
eyes. The letters were removed from Ofvedskloster
to Loberod, where they formed part of his celebrated
coUection of books and manuscripts.
It was after the letters came into Count de la Gardle's
possession that their existence became known to the
outside world ; hitherto they had been treated as family
papers of a private nature. The famous coUection of
archives at Loberod attracted scholars from far and
wide. In 1831 Probster WIselgeIn, in his work, De
la Gardieska Archivet (the de la Gardie Archives),
vol, ix,, mentions that this correspondence forms part
of the archives, and quotes a single letter from the
Princess in the original French as a specimen. Two

Ibistons anb Hutbenticitg of tbe Xetters 177
years after, this same letter was republished In the
Magazin fiir Literatur des Auslandes (Journal of
Foreign Literature), 1833. But the correspondence
did not receive much attention until 1847, when
Professor Palmblad, of the University of Upsala, in
the Blatter fur Literarische Unterhaltung, published
a few short extracts In the original French, together
with a brief Introduction. This he afterwards re
published as an appendix in his historical romance,
Aurora Konigsmarck. To Palmblad's labours we
shall have occasion to refer again.
When Count de la Gardle died he bequeathed his
almost priceless collection to different libraries in
Sweden, To the University of Lund he left many
valuable books and manuscripts. Including the corre
spondence of Sophie Dorothea and Konigsmarck, In
accordance with the Count's bequest the letters were
deposited in the University Library of Lund in 1848,
and they remain there until this day. It is not easy
to see how the history of these documents could be
better authenticated,^
Shortly after the letters were deposited at Lund,
J. H, Gadd, who from 1848 to 1850 held the post
' Table showing the descent and ownership of the letters from the
time Aurora KSnigsmarck gave them to her sister until the present day :
Amalie, Countess Lewenhaupt (nee Kfinigsmarck),
Count Charles Emil Lewenhaupt (her son).
Baroness Ramel (his daughter),
Countess Sparre (her daughter),
Countess de la Gardie (her daughter),
Count de la Gardie (her husband).
The University Library of Lund, 1848,
VOL. I. 12

178 XTbe Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
of assistant-librarian to the University, made a copy
of the correspondence. This copy he afterwards sold,
or gave, to the late Mrs. Evelyn Everett Green,
a lady well known for her historical researches, and
who was for many years employed in the State
Paper Office, Mrs, Everett Green, who was in corre
spondence with Count Schulenburg-Klosterrode, author
of TDie Herzogin von Ahlden, apparently thought of
publishing these letters, for she began the fragment
of a preface. But for some reason she desisted from
her task, and in 1870 sold Gadd's manuscript copy to
the British Museum. This copy. In French, bears
nothing to show where" the original letters are pre
served. I discovered by accident that they were at
Lund, when at Leipsig in 1898. On communicating
with the University authorities at Lund I found that
none of them had any knowledge of the manuscript
copy in the British Museum, and they seemed doubtful
of its genuineness. I therefore made a journey to
Lund for the purpose of consulting the original
manuscripts, and found that the copy in the British
Museum was on the whole a faithful one. At Lund,
too, I was able to trace the history of the letters and
to examine in detail the documents.
It would be hard to find a more fitting resting-place
for these letters than the University Library of Lund.
Nestling under the shadow of the great cathedral,
surrounded by the elms and limes of the beautiful
Lundag^rd, the old library seems to breathe the very
spirit of the past. In the silent rooms, with their
mellow tomes and paintings of dead and gone worthies.

THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY, LUND, SWEDEN.
{Where the letters are preserved.)

[To face p. 178.

Ibistors anb Hutbenticits of tbe Xetters 179
there reigns a profound peace, in strong contrast
to the riotous passion, the fret and the fume, the
rapture and despair, which run through these records
of an ill-fated love, and make them human documents
indeed. As we read, the hopes and the fears, the
joys and the struggles of the unlucky lovers rise
before us with extraordinary vividness. The writers
live and move and breathe again ; the air is peopled
with their presence ; and then — we look up from the
page and come back to the old library and the
great stillness, and realise something of the littleness
of human passions beside the passionless flight of
time. Two centuries have gone ; the lovers are
dead ; the hands that penned these burning words,
the eyes that wept, the hearts that throbbed as they
were written, have crumbled into dust. But their
witness is here — here in these old and faded pages,
which breathe even now, faint as the scent of dead
rose leaves, the perfume of their passion.
A word now as to the outward semblance of these
letters. They are fairly well preserved, the paper being
for the most part of a tough though flimsy nature,
which in places shows the handwriting through. The
ink is dim and faded to a dull brown ; here and there
it Is so faint as to be almost Illegible. Konlgsmarck's
letters differ in size, some being written on the ordinary
notepaper of the day, others on scraps torn apparently
from a pocket-book ; some, too, are weather-stained,
as though they had travelled far. Envelopes in aU
cases are missing ; nor were they generally used in
those days. The letter was folded and sealed. Some

i8o Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
of Konlgsmarck's letters bear his seal in red or
black wax, and a device — a little heart within a
large one — with the motto, Cosi fosse il vostro dentre
il mio. One, in addition, has the ends of a green
silk ribbon under the seal, showing how the letter
was tied. One, bearing date Halle, August j-, is
addressed to " Madamoiselle la Frole de Knesbeck,
a Zelle " ; one is addressed " a la Gouvernante," one
merely " Pour la Personne Connue " ; but there
are none directly addressed to the Princess, AU
Konlgsmarck's letters are written in the same
great sprawling hand.
The letters of the Princess are written on paper
of good quality, and almost without exception of
uniform size. Like Konlgsmarck's, they bear evidence
of having been folded ; but the envelopes are missing,
and, unlike his, none of them bear seal or superscrip
tion. They are written in two distinct handwritings,
which bears out the theory that some were written
by the Princess in her own hand, and others (for
motives of secrecy) by Knesebeck at the Princess's
dictation. In some also an attempt is evidendy made
to disguise the handwriting — so that the caligraphy
does not present the uniform appearance noticed in
Konlgsmarck's letters ; but, disguised or undisguised,
transcribed by Knesebeck or the Princess, they are
easier to read than Konlgsmarck's, on account of their
better penmanship, though occasionally they too show
traces of haste.
The letters number over two hundred, and form two
bulky packets. With the exception of a few fragments

Ibistors anb Hutbenticiti? of tbe Xetters iSi
of German poetry which Konigsmarck quotes here and
there, they are all In French, that being the language
then generally used at Courts, and especially by
the Princess, on account of her French mother and
education. To Konigsmarck — a Swedish noble by
birth — French was more famUiar than German, though
his knowledge of either was far from perfect. The
letters are arranged in little or no chronological order,
and run in batches ; thus we have first a batch of
the Princess's letters, then a batch of Konlgsmarck's,
then another of the Princess's, and finally another batch
from Konigsmarck. Quite two-thirds are written
by Konigsmarck and the rest by the Princess — If
we except two or three brief notes, or rather postscripts,
from Knesebeck.
If the lovers' letters differ in outward appearance,
they differ even more in style and diction. Konlgs
marck's are very badly written, iU-spelt, and often
ungrammatical, which may be explained by the fact
that he was writing in a foreign language which,
though he could speak it fluently, he had not thoroughly
mastered. Often, by accident or design, he falls back
on phonetic speUing of French words, which at first
renders them almost impossible to decipher, and it Is
only by reading them aloud that one can grasp their
meaning. For instance :
Saite = Cette
Can = Quand
Sansaire = Sincere
Cas = Qua
Astor = A cette heure

i82 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
and many other renderings equally erratic. Konlgs
marck's style, like his handwriting, was rough-and-ready.
Many of his letters were written in haste when on
active military service, and one does not expect literary
grace from a soldier writing often under difficulties,
and always in a foreign language. His sentences are
abrupt, and frequently broken by exclamations, interjec
tions, and interrogations, especially when he writes
under stress of excitement. But he has a knack of
occasionally enforcing his meaning by a happy phrase
or homely lUustration, and this, combined with frequent
aUusions to men and things, makes his letters of more
general Interest than those of the Princess, Egotism
Is the dominant note. His wit has at times a knack
of degenerating into coarseness — a coarseness so great
that even In that coarse age we cannot help wondering
how a man In his position should be found writing
such things to a princess, to a woman he loved
and reverenced. But we have to remember that it
was an age of license and freedom of speech ; and
even the letters of the estimable Electress Sophia
to the Duchess d'Orleans, whose virtues were un
questioned, and whose intellectual accomplishments
were far In advance of her time, were disfigured by
a coarseness bordering at times on Indecency. If a
great princess could so write to another princess we
cease to wonder at Konigsmarck, who was a man
and a soldier and surrounded by the licentiousness
of camp and Court. Most of his worst lapses are
anecdotes relating to his companions In arms ; they
are riot many, and I have taken the liberty of

1bistori5 anb Hutbenticit^ of tbe Xetters 183
suppressing them, since they are not germane to
the narrative.
The letters of the Princess are very different in
style and diction from those of her lover. They are
absolutely free from coarseness (in this respect offering
a favourable contrast, for instance, to the letters of
the Electress Sophia and the Duchess d'Orleans), and
give evidence of a refined and gentle nature. They
are in admirable French, and If here and there a
word Is misspelt it Is evidently the result of haste.
Many of the Princess's letters are written with grace
and felicity of diction, to which no translation can
do justice. The burden of her theme is ever, " I love
you," or, " You are not true to me." The whole
of the correspondence, indeed, both her letters and
Konlgsmarck's, are alternated with passionate avowals
of love or equally passionate reproaches. Theirs was
not a love that ran smoothly, but was broken from
first to last by fears from without and jealousies from
within. Yet it is Impossible not to see that, after
their manner, each loved the other fondly.
The Princess was a ready writer, the chief blemish
of her letters being a tendency to repetition and an
extraordinary difiliseness ; she would take pages to say
what might have been compressed into a few sentences.
But this Is a fault common to love-letters — which are
not written for the edification of the world, but only
for the one to whom they are addressed ; and we must
not judge them by the ordinary canons of literary
criticism. In the Princess's case, too, there was often
a necessity for her to wrap her meaning in a cloud

1 84 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen

of words, lest it should be too readily discovered,
if her epistles fell into other hands. Though her
letters are in at least two distinct handwritings, they
are aU Identical in style and expression — another proof
that those the Princess did not write with her own hand
she dictated word for word to Knesebeck.
An elaborate cypher, or rather series of cyphers, Is
used throughout the correspondence for the names of
persons and places. To this cypher the lovers alone
held the key. All the personages mentioned In the
letters are disguised under different names ; as, for
instance :

L' Aventuriere 
Le Reformeur (Le ..
R^formateur)
Don Die'go 
La Romaine 
Le Grandeur 
La Pedagogue 
La Perspective 
La Boule 
Le bon Homme 
U Innocent 
Colin 
La Marionette 
Le Satyre 1 , .
Le Barbouilleur J • ¦
La Douairiere 
La Gazelle 
La Grosse Dondon . .
La Confidente
La Sentinelle
La Gouvernante

Countess Aurora Konigsmarck,
Prince George Louis,
The Elector Ernest Augustus,
The Electress Sophia,
The Duke of Celle.
The Duchess of Celle.
The Countess Platen.
The Electress of Brandenburg,
Marshal Podevils,
Prince Ernest Augustus,
Prince Maximilian,
Princess of Hesse,
Hanoverian Ministers,
The Princess of East Friesland,
Countess von Lewenhaupt,
Madame von Ilten,
Fraulein von Knesebeck,

Ibistorg anb Hutbenticits of tbe Xetters 185

LeonisseLa Cceur Gauche
La Petite Louche
Le Chevalier \
Tercis j ,,,

Princess Sophie Dorothea,

Konigsmarck,

Some of these nicknames are not very complimentary
to the persons for whom they are intended, but they
are comparatively easy to decipher. The task Is much
more difficult when we come to the other cypher. In
figures. Speaking roughly, numbers of one hundred
and upwards signify names of men ; two hundred and
upwards, names of women ; three hundred and upwards,
names of places. As for example :

100 ... .

 Elector Ernest Augustus.

lOI ,., ,

 Duke of Celle.

102

 Prince George Louis.

103 ...

 Marshal Podevils,

112

 Prince Maximilian,

120

 Konigsmarck,

128

 Biilow,

129

 Bernstorff,

200

 The Electress Sophia,

201

 Princess Sophie Dorothea.

202

 Countess Platen.

207

 Fraulein von Schulenburg.

214

 Fraulein von Knesebeck,

226

 Countess Aurora Konigs

marck.

227

 The Duchess of Celle,

300 ...

 Hanover,

i86 Ube Xove of an TDlncrowneb diueen
301  Luisburg.
302  Herrenhausen,
305  Celle.
306  Brockhausen.
In the letters which follow, translated from the
French of the original manuscripts into English, I have
endeavoured to render this intricate cypher legible, and
have substituted everywhere the real names of persons
and places. The task of translation and unravelUng
the cypher has not been easy,^ and if an error should
be discovered it must not be ascribed to any Inaccuracy
In the original letters, but to my rendering, since in
spite of every care It is impossible to guard against
the possibility of a chance error. I have further
endeavoured to reduce the letters to something Uke
chronological order — also a difficult task, for only four
have the year inscribed, many are without date, some
have the day of the week, and a few the time of day ;
and in such cases it is only from the text that one
can guess the dates with accuracy. To do this It has
been necessary to sort the letters from the batches
Into which they are divided in the original manuscripts,
and to allow them to answer one another In due order.
In the correspondence during the campaign of 1692,
for Instance, it will be seen that Konlgsmarck's letters
and those of the Princess answer one another freely.
I have also, to better elucidate the text and preserve
the flow of the narrative, interspersed the letters
with a record of current events gleaned from Colt's
' In this task I was aided by the fragment of a key to the cypher
found with the letters at Lund.

Ibistors anb Hutbenticitg of tbe Xetters 187
despatches and other documents, and have annotated
them where necessary. The letters hereafter given
represent two-thirds of the whole ; the remainder has
been omitted simply because it Is made up mainly of
repetition and unimportant details, and to quote it in
full would be to weary and not to edify. For the
first time these letters are published In any language —
if we except the few fragments (which would make
not more than six pages of this book) given by
Palmblad in a Swedish book long since out of print
— and for the first time they are now translated
Into English from the original manuscripts, edited,
and compared and tested with contemporary records.
Palmblad, as we have mentioned, prefaced his extracts
with a brief Introduction, which it is well to examine in
detail, since this is practicaUy the only medium through
which the existence of the correspondence has hitherto
been known.
W, F. Palmblad was a man of considerable literary
repute, a professor of the University of Upsala, and
a zealous antiquarian. But he lacked one quality
indispensable to the historian — accuracy ; he was too
ready to jump to conclusions without first verifying
his facts from contemporary records. He examined the
manuscript letters when they were at Loberod in the
possession of the Count de la Gardie, and learned their
history from their owner, which was amply verified from
the family records. He then made an examination ot
the correspondence which can only be regarded as
cursory, took out a few extracts here and there, and
prefaced them with an introduction, in which he

1 88 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
declares his firm belief in the genuineness of the letters,
but by his inaccuracies unconsciously does damage to
the very point he labours to prove — inaccuracies which
one or two subsequent writers have seized upon as
proofs of the spurlousness of a correspondence they
have never seen. Later, It Is true, another authority,
Count Schulenburg-Klosterrode, who also believed in the
genuineness of the letters. In Die Herzogin von Ahlden,
endeavoured to set Palmblad right on certain points
of chronology and cypher, but a false Impression had
been given of the correspondence which It was not
easy to eradicate.
Even in his description of the appearance of the
letters Palmblad Is Inaccurate. He speaks of postmarks,
but there are none visible ; he describes the Princess's
letters as written " In an elegant hand, on very
fine, gilt-edged paper," It is a mere detail ; but the
paper is not gilt-edged, and is the ordinary letter-paper
of the day ; while as for the " elegant hand," which
would convey the idea of a sloping Italian penmanship,
the Princess's letters are in two distinct handwritings,
and in each case written In rather a bold hand for a
woman, certainly the reverse of "elegant."
The professor has also made mistakes about the
cypher, especially the cypher In numbers; and in the
extracts he publishes he has muddled men, women,
and places in a hopeless manner, and this makes
nonsense. His extracts, which are taken mainly from
Konlgsmarck's letters, are chiefly made up of the racy
anecdotes, which for reasons already given I do not
quote. The professor has collected every one of these

Ibistors anb Hutbenticits of tbe Xetters 189
anecdotes (not many in aU), and gives them as a fair
specimen of the whole. Doubtless this course avoided
chronological and other difficulties ; but to quote them to
the exclusion of other and more important matter is to
give a false impression ofthe correspondence and the man.
Again, Palmblad makes the assertion, " Of Konlgs
marck's liaison with the Countess Platen the letters
do not say a word." Here again it is evident he
has made a mistake in the cypher, and confused the
Countess with some one else, for, as will be seen, the
letters teem with allusions to Countess Platen (either
as La Perspective or as 202), and there are frequent
references to an understanding or flirtation between
her and KOnigsmarck. The Princess is again and
again Inflamed with jealousy on this account, and re
proaches her lover bitterly, while he is equaUy fluent
with his excuses.
But the gravest Inaccuracy Is yet to come. In his
survey of the letters Palmblad made no attempt to
classify them or arrange them In order of date — a
task which he declares to be " impossible." As he
had little knowledge of Hanoverian history at the
time the letters were written, or of contemporary
events, the task was doubtless Impossible to him ; he
would therefore have done wisely to have left it alone
altogether, and not have tried to cover his Ignorance
by the wildest guesswork. Yet this Is what he has
done. He says : " In one letter mention is made of
Busche, who was the trusty friend and confidant of
Prince George, and who died in the beginning of the
year 1688, and four other letters have the year 1693

190 TTbe Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
given, so we know with certainty that the correspon
dence was spread over a period of six years." And
again : "In the letter in which Busche Is mentioned,
therefore, written before or during the year 1687,
Konigsmarck is on the most trusted footing with
the Princess ; and In the year 1685 Kbnigsmarck
was evidently In Hanover ; and soon after that It
appears that the very close Intimacy between them
began. The Princess, her daughter, who afterwards
married the King of Prussia, was born March 16,
1686 ; and It is a matter of surmise and strong
doubt whether the family of Prussian kings spring
from the Guelph or Konigsmarck blood." The whole
of this theory is built upon the surmise that the
Busche mentioned (not In one letter only, but at least
a dozen) was the same Busche who married Countess
Platen's sister, and who died early In 1688.
Now the Busche family was a numerous one, and
held a high position in Hanover, If Palmblad had read
the letters carefully, and had possessed any knowledge of
Hanoverian affairs, he would have seen from the context
that the Busche mentioned was not the man who died
in 1688, but Philip Albert Busche, a privy councillor
and prominent minister, who later was president of
the divorce court which pronounced judgment on the
Princess. Thus the statement that the letters began
In or before 1687 and extended over a period of six
years Is absolutely incorrect, and the endeavour to cast
a slur upon the legitimacy of the Princess's daughter,
afterwards Queen of Prussia, is consequently abortive.
There exists no shred of evidence to show that Konigs-

Uistors anb Hutbenticit^ of tbe Xetters 191
marck was In Hanover in 1685 (he was in England),
nor, indeed, until 1688, two years after the birth of
the Princess's daughter. And it will be seen from the
letters themselves that the affaire between KSnigsmarck
and the Princess did not assume an Intimate footing
untU the end of 169 1 or the beginning of 1692 ; untU
then the borderland had not been crossed. Whatever
were his later relations with the Princess, he was
neither at Hanover nor Celle when her children were
born, and there is no doubt as to their legitimacy,
Palmblad's slur on the birth of the Queen of Prussia
Is as gross a fabrication as the Jacobite lie of caUing
George 11, " the little Konigsmarck," The whole
theory, which can only have been invented to gratify
Palmblad's hatred of the House of Prussia, therefore,
falls to the ground ; and It Is no wonder that, starting
from so false a chronological point, he finds it " impos
sible " to arrange the letters in any order of date.
We have dwelt fully on Palmblad's introduction
and extracts not because of Its merit, which is little,
nor its size, which Is infinitesimal, but because It has
hitherto been practically the only publication which deals
with these letters, and students and historians have
had no other criterion whereby they might test their
genuineness. There were the original letters at Lund,
it is true ; but the few authorities, such as Schaumann
and Kocher,^ who have passed adverse judgment on this
correspondence, never took the trouble to go there and
' Against the adverse opinion of these authorities may fairly be set
Thackeray and Carlyle, who accept the letters as genuine. But, like
Schaumann and KOcher, they never saw the originals.

192 TEbe Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
examine the manuscripts personaUy, but founded their
theories on Palmblad's version. Yet it is obviously
impossible to pronounce a fair judgment on a corre
spondence of this kind without seeing the original
manuscripts, and with no knowledge of It save a few
fragmentary extracts and an introduction fuU of
chronological and other errors. It is only by exa
mining the whole correspondence in the original
manuscripts, and comparing It with comtemporary
documents, that a just Idea of its value can be gained.
Judged by this test, these letters wiU reveal them
selves as absolutely genuine, and further examination
will show that they contain Internal evidence of their
authenticity. Let us briefly glance at this also.
For our present purpose the correspondence may
be divided into :
I. Konlgsmarck's letters to the Princess prior to
the campaign in Flanders of 1692 (July,
1 69 1, to June, 1692),
2. The Princess's and Konlgsmarck's letters to
one another during the campaign in Flanders
and until the granting of the Hanoverian
Electorate (June to December, 1692).
3, The Princess's and Konlgsmarck's letters to one
another, when she was at Brockhausen and CeUe
with her parents, and he at Hanover (June to
July, 1693),
4. Konlgsmarck's letters to the Princess when
he was campaigning against the Danes and
after his return to Hanover (August to
December, 1693),

Ibistors anb autbenticits of tbe Xetters 193
This is merely a rough classification, but it wiU
serve. The times were stirring In the Courts of Hanover
and Celle, and indeed in all Europe, because of the
war of the great AUiance against Louis XIV, Konigs
marck served with the allied armies In the campaign
In Flanders of 1692, as colonel of a Hanoverian
regiment, and the following year he served as colonel
of a regiment of the troops of Hanover and CeUe
in the abortive campaign of the Brunswick-Liineburg
princes against the Danes on the banks of the
Elbe. Many of his letters to the Princess were
written when on active military service ; and though
one does not look to love-letters for news. It Is only
to be expected there should be some allusion to current
events. We find In Konlgsmarck's letters from
Flanders mention of King WiUiam of England, Prince
George Louis, the Elector of Bavaria, Duke Frederick
Augustus of Saxony (afterwards the Elector Augustus
the Strong), and other exalted personages who were
with the allied armies at that time ; also of certain
events In the campaign, such as the battle of Stein
kirk, the attempted siege of Charleroy, and so forth.
In the same way, the following year, during the
campaign against the Danes, allusion is made to the
burning of Ratzeburg and the negotiations between
the Danes and the Brunswick-Liineburg princes.
The same may be said of the Hanoverian intrigues
for obtaining the Electorate, If these mentions of
well-known persons and events were in any way
incorrect, it would afford, of course, strong presump-
VOL. I, 13

194 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
tion against the genuineness of the letters ; but they
are quite accurate. Moreover, the allusions are made
evidently without design, and arise naturally and
casually in the course of the correspondence as things
known, not only to the writer, but for the most
part to the person to whom he is writing.
It may be admitted that, so far, this does not
prove much, for the events and personages In con
nexion with the great campaign In Flanders, for
Instance, were so well known that only a clumsy forger
would make a mistake. But the case is far other
wise when we come to analyse the many references
which both the Princess and Konigsmarck freely
make concerning the persons who figure in the life
of Hanover and Celle, and incidents which were
occurring from day to day In those little Courts,
We have, for instance, frequent mention of, or allusion
to, the arrival of this prince, or the departure of that
princess, the coming and going of foreign envoys,
and the movements of the Hanoverian Court from
Hanover to Luisburg, or Luisburg to Hanover or
Herrenhausen ; of the perpetual motion of the Court
of CeUe irom Celle to Brockhausen, to Epsdorff, to
WIenhausen, to Gohre, and so on ; of visits between
the ducal brothers, of journeys to Hamburg, Brunswick,
or Berlin, of carnivals and Court festivities, all of which
could not possibly have been written except by some
person or persons intimately acquainted, or connected
with the daily life of these petty Courts, Now, a
forger of spurious love-letters would certainly avoid
frequent reference to minute events, and content himself

THE COUNTESS AURORA KONIGSMARCK. [Tofacep.igi.

Ibistors anb autbenticlti? of tbe Xetters 19s
with writing mere vague avowals of passion^ which
might be written by any one to any one ; in short, he
would keep to generalities and avoid particularities,
which are so many pitfalls into which he might tumble,
and by his errors betray his fraud.
Here, then, we have a test. If the frequent references
to persons and incidents In these letters can be proved
to be incorrect or inaccurate ; if, for instance, it
can be shown that when the Electress of Branden
burg Is said to have been visiting Hanover she was
at Berlin, that when Prince Max is stated to have
been at Celle he was In Italy, that when the Court
of Celle was at Brockhausen it was at Epsdorff,
that when the Princess writes from Celle she was at
Hanover, that when certain envoys are represented as
having been at Hanover they were not there, or certain
festivities are described which did not take place, — if
It can be shown that these things (of no importance
in themselves, but very important in their bearing
on the letters) are falsely and inaccurately stated, then
it follows, as a matter of logic, that the letters are
themselves false and inaccurate and could not have
been written by the persons from whom they profess to
come. But if, on the other hand, it can be proved by
independent testimony and " undesigned coincidences "
(as Paley would say) that the mention of persons are
accurate and the allusions to even minute events correct
In every detail, it affords the strongest possible proof of
the genuineness and authenticity of the letters,
' The letter of Lassaye, quoted in vol. i, pp. 106-7, affords an
excellent illustration of this.

196 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
But how to apply such a test ?
At first sight this is difficult, for the daily life of
these little German Courts is not a matter of history,
and the ordinary historical records shed little light
upon it. Fortunately 1 found in the State Paper Office,
London, the despatches and entry book of Sir William
Dutton Colt, sometime English envoy at Hanover,
which furnish exactly what we want — Independent
and authoritative documents with which we may test
the accuracy of many of the minute events mentioned
in these letters, Colt was envoy to the princes of
Brunswick from 1689 to 1693 ; his entry book covers
the period from July, 1689, to December, 1692, so that
the period of eighteen months only Is coincident with
the letters, which do not begin until July, 1691, Early
in January, 1693, he went to Dresden, and afterwards
was but little at Hanover or CeUe, so further evidence
Is lacking. But there is enough for our purpose. In
Colt's entry book we have a record, week by week,
almost day by day, of the Courts of Hanover and
Celle ; it is wholly made up of copies of his despatches
to the English Government, At his death the book,
with other official documents, was sent to London, and
has since been preserved in the Archives, It was, of
course, never seen by any one In Hanover outside the
English Legation, and it has only been open to the public
in England since the Home Office and Foreign Office
papers of that period were removed to the State Paper
Office, It is scarcely necessary, therefore, to say that
between this official record and the correspondence now
at Lund there could have been no possible collusion.

"Ibistorg anb Hutbenticitg of tbe Xetters 197
By no possibility could the writers of these letters have
seen Colt's despatches. Where coincidences arise they
are absolutely undesigned, and the points of agreement
are those which necessarily occur when truthful and
Independent records touch on the same incidents,
Colt's despatches are a record of facts and events ;
the love-letters of Sophie Dorothea and Konigsmarck
are love-letters first of all, and where mention is made
of persons and events, it is made incidentally and
secondarily. Nevertheless, many coincidences occur and
afford strong corroboration of the genuineness of the
letters, I have noted them in more detail in the
correspondence Itself, Here it will suffice to quote a
few in illustration of my meaning :

The Letters.
On and after June 20,
1692, the Princess dates her
letters from Brockhausen,
showing that her parents,
with whom she was staying,
had moved thither from
Celle.

Coifs Despatches.
"The Duke of Celle is
now at Brockhausen." —
Colt's Despatch, June 17,
1692.

In her letter of June 23,
1692, the Princess mentions
that Prince Max is staying
with the Court of Celle at
Brockhausen.

In his despatches of this
time Colt also mentions that
Prince Max was staying with
the Duke of Celle at Brock
hausen, he being in disgrace
with his father because of
the Moltke affair.

198 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen

"You have been dancing
at Colt's fite'' — Konigs
marck to the Princess, Venlo,

" I am grieved you are
displeased because I went
to Monsieur Colt's fite, but I
could not avoid going ; they
pressed me so much." — T/te
Princess to Konigsmarck,
Brockhausen, (?) July 2, 1692.
" What was the day of
the fite ? " — Konigsmarck
to the Princess, Dist, July ^,
" Sunday was the fite I
spoke to you about." — The
Princess to Konigsmarck,
Celle, July '-^ 1692.

From Colt's Despatch,
Hanover, June 20, 1692, we
learn that on Sunday, the
I Sth, he gave a great " diver
sion," which the Duke and
Duchess and all the Court
attended.

"They say the Electress
of Brandenburg is at Luis
burg on a visit to her
parents." — The Princess to
Konigsmarck, Celle, July ^j,
1692.

" Moltke was executed on
Monday, and the Court of
Hanover has gone to Luis
burg to be out of the way."
— Colt's Despatch, Hanover
July 18, 1692.

" The floods still detain " The extraordinary floods
us here unfortunately." — have kept the Duke from
The Princess to Konigs- Celle." — Colt's Despatch,
marck, July 2, 1692. July 4, 1692.

Ibistorg anb Hutbenticiti? of tbe Xetters 199

" We start to-morrow for
Celle." — The Princess to
Konigsmarck, Brockhausen,
July 7, 1692.
Her next letter, July 9,
is dated from Celle.

"The Duke since his re
turn hither  "—Colt's
Despatch, Celle, July 11,
1692.

"My Lord Portland showed
me much favour, and assured
me the King held me in
his esteem." — Konigsmarck
to the Princess, Wavern,
August ^, 1692.

Colt mentions in his
despatches that Lord Port
land was with the King in
Flanders during the cam
paign of 1692.

"The Duke of Celle has
lost a great many men [in
the Battle of Steinkirk]."—
Konigsmarck to the Princess,
from the camp near Wavern,
about August 5, 1692.

" The Duke here is really
very much troubled for the
loss of his troops in the late
action." — Colt's Despatch,
Celle, August 5, 1692.

The Princess, to Konigs
marck, in a letter from Celle,
August J, 1692, notifies
the movements of the Court,
and says in two days she
will accompany her mother
to Wiesbaden (which she
does). "Max is going the , day
after to-morrow to meet
the Electress of Branden
burg, and will accompany her

"This Court [Celle] will
the next week remove from
hence, the Duke to follow
his hunting, and the Duchess
goes to Wiesbaden, near
Mayence, for her health."
— Colt's Despatch, Celle,
August 5, 1692.
" The Electress of Brand
enburg is passing by here
on her way to Luisburg,
where the Hanoverian Court

200 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen

to Luisburg." — The Prin
cess to Konigsmarck, Celle,
August ^, 1692.
"They tell me the Electress
of Brandenburg has post
poned her visit. She was
to have arrived two days
after I left. All the horses
were ordered for her equip
age. The Duke had given
up to her his apartments at
Luisburg, and they also
brought a band. All that for
nothing ! " — The Princess
to Konigsmarck, Wiesbaden,
August j-^, 1692.

is at a country house." —
Colt's Despatch, Celle,
August 12, 1692.
"Just now we have the
news that the Electress of
Brandenburg doth not come
so soon as she intended, all
things having been provided
for her."— Colt's Despatch,
Celle, August ^, 1692.

" My news from your part
of the world [Hanover] tells
me the Duke is going to
hunt at Epsdorff, where your
father already is." — Konigs
marck to tlie Princess, Denise,
September i-°, 1692.

In his despatch, September
15, 1692, Colt mentions that
the Duke of Celle is at
Epsdorff.

" I was hindered the day
before yesterday from finish
ing my letter by the alarm
that the French were going
to attack Charleroy, but it
came to nothing." — Konigs
marck to the Princess,
Afflegen, October ^^, 1692.

" We have just heard the
welcome news that the
French have failed in their
design on Charleroy." —
Colt's Despatch, Gohre,
October ^, 1692.

Ibistors anb Hutbenticits of tbe Xetters 201
"The journey to BerUn "The journey to Berlin
will not take place."— is postponed."— Colt's Des-
Kdnigsmarck to the Princess, patch, Hanover, November
Hanover, November, 1692. 18, 1692.
These few coincidences, examples of many more,
afford proofs of the genuineness of the correspon
dence, which a perusal of it as a whole cannot fail to
strengthen. The very faults of the letters go to prove
their authorship. But the strongest evidence of all.
In our opinion, is to be found in the frequent and
unconscious self-revelations of the personality of the
writers. These revelations do not always show the
lovers in the most favourable light, but at least they
are very human. Love has been defined as I'egdisme
a deux. If that be true, it would be hard to find a
stronger illustration of it than these letters afford.

CHAPTER XII
THE DAWN OF PASSION
(1691)
What can we fear, we two ?
O God, Thou seest us Thy creatures bound
Together by that law which holds the stars
In palpitating cosmic passion bright ;
By which the very sun enthralls the earth,
And all the waves of the world faint to the moon.
Even by such attraction we two rush
Together through the everlasting years.
Stephen Phillips, Paolo and Francisca.
THE first mention of Konigsmarck in Colt's
despatches tallies with the first letter in the
following correspondence, and sets at rest the question
as to whether Konigsmarck actually held a commission
In the Hanoverian service. Some doubt had arisen
concerning the safety of Hamburg ; and Colt, writing
to Lord Nottingham, says, " There Is not the least
appearance of any danger for the city of Hamburg.
The troops of Hanover march towards the Elbe
and two regiments of Foot under Konigsmarck and
Cordons," ^
It was while Konigsmarck was absent on this expedi
tion that his correspondence with the Princess began,
» Colt's Despatch, Celle, ^¦^^^, 1691,

Ube 2)awn of passion 203
The first letter, written while he was on the march,
runs as foUows : " Aht, July i,
" I am in extremis, and the only thing that can
save me is a few lines from your incomparable hand.
If I had the good fortune to behold them I should
forthwith be healed, I hope you will not be so cruel
as to refuse me this favour, for, since it is you who
cause my sufferings, it Is only just that you should
send me comfort. Were I not writing to one for
whom my respect is as great as my love, I would
find better terms to express my devotion ; but, fearing
to offend, I end here, only beseeching you not to
forget me wholly, and to believe me always your slave,"
The Princess did not respond at once ; she had
not promised to answer Konlgsmarck's letters, though
she consented to receive them. She must have known
how dangerous it was for her to embark on a corre
spondence of this kind; she hesitated, and, hesitating,
yielded. After a little time she seems to have sent
him a few Unes, and that the trend of her epistle
was not rebuke may be gathered from his reply :
"[On the March, undated].'
" I received your answer to-day. How anxious I
have been all this time ! I vow the fear that you had
utterly forgotten me has been the cause of my Illness
lasting so long ; the suspense gave me intense suffering.
Now that I know the contrary I pick up courage,
and shaU hope soon to see you again. Verily, it is I
' Wherever square brackets occur the matter is interpolated.

204 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
who should complain, I who am constrained to take
so many precautions and suffer cruel suspense. But I
can now bear my hapless lot with fortitude, since the
most amiable, captivating, and charming being In the
universe Is the cause of all. For the rest, I will never
change unless you compel me. Ah ! how happy I
should be in your service ! — my bliss would be perfect
and I should wish for nothing else in the world !
These words of mine mean a great deal ; I do not know
whether you weigh them well. If you would graciously
deign to answer me two words, I should quite recover,
and then be better able to assure you by word of
mouth that 1 am verily your most obedient servant."
Alas ! the Princess did not weigh his words weU ;
perhaps she did not grasp their full import, certainly
she did not realise to what they must Inevitably lead.
On Konlgsmarck's return he seems to have presumed
overmuch on the Princess's condescension, for he was
ever a bold lover. She treated him with reserve, and
took alarm at his temerity and her Imprudence,
KSnigsmarck was only at Hanover a week, and
then went off again to Hamburg on a diplomatic
mission to the King of Sweden,^ The Kings of
Sweden and Denmark at first had been IncUned to
join the confederation of the AUies, and sent envoys
to the Conference at the Hague ; but after the fall
of Mons they showed signs of wavering, and were
' "Since my last, July 31, the Count Konigsmarck is sent from
Hanover with the ratification of the late Treaty to Hamburg, either
to carry it to Sweden himself or send it thence." — Colt's Despatch ,
Celle, August 4, 169 1.

Ube Dawn of passion 205
now intriguing with the petty German Courts, with
the object of forming what William of Orange called
a " Third Party In Europe." Duke Ernest Augustus,
already disaffected and leaning towards France, true to
his poUcy of seUing to the highest bidder, coquetted
with this Third Party, and, without consultation with
the Dukes of Celle and Wolfenbiittel, he entered on
an offensive and defensive treaty with Sweden.
The fact that Konigsmarck was despatched on this
mission shows that he still stood high in the favour
of the Duke of Hanover, who doubtless sent him
thinking, as he was a Swede by birth, he would be
persona grata with the King of Sweden. In this Ernest
Augustus was mistaken, for the Swedish monarch loved
not absentee nobles, and disapproved of Konlgsmarck's
holding a commission In the Hanoverian service. Later
he marked his displeasure in a decided way. Frequent
efforts were even now made to induce the Count to
quit an alien service and enter that of his native King,
and It would have been the right and proper thing for
him to do ; but there was a magnet at Hanover which
drew him thither with a force he could not resist. His
passion for Sophie Dorothea had completely mastered
him ; without her, \\fe was worthless to him, and he
was ready to cast away every consideration to remain
by her side. While absent on this mission he wrote
this letter to the Princess, evidently In answer to a
note from her: " Hamburg, July 34.
" If you had been free from blame you would not
have deigned to write at all ; yet in spite of the way

2o6 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
In which you have treated me, I needs must worship
you still. The sorrow and contrition you express
have determined me to leave here the day after to
morrow. If you stUl wish to comfort a poor dejected
heart torn by jealousy and love, let me come back.
You well know it is probably the only favour 1 shaU
ever ask of you, for I hope the good God wiU take
me out of this world rather than let me suffer so.
Do not, I Implore you, refuse my prayer, and beheve
that whatever course you may force me to take I
shall never cease to love you,
Alas ! I love my destruction.
And nurse a fire within my breast
Which will speedily consume me.
I am well aware of my perdition.
Because I have aspired to love
Where I should only have worshipped." ^
From this it would seem there was a likelihood of
Konlgsmarck's not returning to Hanover at this time,
and he had probably threatened to enter the service
of the King of Sweden, But, whether by desire of
the Princess or not, he came back, and she gave him
audience as before. Timid and fearful though she
was, she could not resist the temptation of playing
with fire, — the very danger lent a zest. But still the
Princess held back from committing herself definitely,
and her uncertain attitude towards her lover threw
him Into a tumult of alternative hope and despondency.
The state of his mind is expressed in the foUowing letter :
' Some lines of German doggerel which can only be rendered thus.

Ube 2)awn of passion 207
"[Han»ver, undated].
" I am In the depths of despair at finding so little
opportunity of speaking to you. I dare not even
admire the eyes that give me Ufe. For pity's sake
let me see you alone, that I may say four words —
only four small words. Oh ! how dearly It costs me
to love you ! But the joy of speaking to you now
and then makes amends for all the pain, I shall
go away to-morrow, God knows if I shall ever see
you again, my life, my goddess ! The thought that
we may never meet more Is death to me, I feel ready
to plunge a dagger Into my heart ; but since I must
live, I pray that it may be always for you."
His threat to leave Hanover was not carried out
for the " four words " were granted, and the Intimacy
went on ripening until the end of August, when the
Duke of Hanover, attended by his ministers and a
numerous suite, went to Brunswick to meet his cousin
Antony Ulrich in conference, for Ernest Augustus
still remained hostile to the Allies.-' Konigsmarck
went In his train, but Sophie Dorothea remained at
Hanover. On the journey Konigsmarck wrote to the
Princess, and again on receiving an answer from her.
That the intrigue must have grown during those few
weeks is evident from the fact that the cypher agreed
upon between them now makes its appearance in
the correspondence, and from the bolder and more
affectionate tone of his letters. Hitherto he had signed
himself Fotre esclave, or Fotre tres-obeissant valet;
¦ Colt's Despatch, Brunswick, August 28, 1691.

2o8 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
now he ends, Adieux, emable "Brune. Je vous embrasse
les jenous. Truly a stride in intimacy. " [Brunswick], August —
" No mortal was ever so happy as I when, on
arriving here, I found your letter. I am now In your
good graces, and am losing all the weak suspicions that
tore my heart in twain. Do not doubt my love ; God
be my witness, I have never loved as I love you. Were
you to see me now you would exclaim, • Is It possible
that any man can be so downcast ? ' My dejection
Is wholly the result of absence from you. My noble
travelling companion^ could tell you of the state in
which he sees me daUy, though you may be sure that
I hide from him the cause. You may not believe it,
but on the word of a man of honour, I am often
so overcome that I am near swooning away ; and
yesterday evening, when I was out walking, and
thinking of the many days that I must pass before
seeing you, I became so agitated that It brought on
a palpitation of the heart, and I was obliged to return
home, I know not what would have happened had
not my servant brought me a cordial, and even
then It was a long time before 1 recovered. Were
It not for your dear letter, I should have utterly
broken down. Your medicine is excellent for my
malady ; send me some oftener. , , . I am ready
to cast at your feet my life, my honour, my future,
my fortune. I have forsworn all other women
¦ Probably Prince Ernest Augustus, youngest son of the Duke of
Hanover.

Ube 2)awn of passion 209
for you ; if you doubt this, name any one you
would like me to abandon, and 1 will never speak to
her again. Adieux, emable Brune. La poste pars, il
faux finir. Je vous embrasse les jenous." ^
The Court returned from Brunswick, Konigsmarck
in Its train, and remained at Hanover through
September. Again the Princess became alarmed at
the growth of the intimacy ; she saw herself on the
brink of a precipice, and as she did not want to
fall into it, she urged her lover to go away for a
time. KOnigsmarck promised obedience, but fell ill
of malarial fever, which he had contracted in the
Morea — an illness he did not fail to make the most
of The Princess's sympathies were touched ; nothing
more was said about his leaving, and during his
sickness she even seems to have been so imprudent
as to pay him stolen visits at his house by night. It
was not difficult. The house where Konigsmarck is
reputed to have lived in Hanover is in a street hard
by the palace. There was a way through the gardens
in those days, and under cover of the darkness,
disguised, with the help of Knesebeck, the Princess
could have avoided notice. Besides, at that time
KOnigsmarck probably had his sister Aurora staying
with him, and she could be made the excuse in case
of discovery. But, all the same, the risk was con
siderable. The Princess felt that she had gone too
far, for when KOnigsmarck recovered she again tried to
check his ardour. All this is touched upon In the four
' Here and elsewhere the writers are responsible for their French.
VOL. I. 14

2IO Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
following letters which Konigsmarck wrote to the
Princess during this period, "[Hanover, undated]
" Alas ! why do you hold out the hope of letting
me see you alone without meaning it .? 1 know you
too well : you are not brave enough to venture on
such a course, and 1 do not even ask you, for fear
you should expose yourself to danger. You wish me
to leave. It Is settled my journey begins to-morrow
week. You wish it — that is enough. I see, alas ! too
weU that everything is against me. To live in Hanover
without your society is Impossible. I would rather
go and plough the earth than stay here under such
conditions. Oh ! if I could only crawl away and
die quietly somewhere ! But, after all, nothing
matters. I can no longer hope for happiness. My
Intimate^ takes tolerable care to keep us apart, and,
for him to succeed, you have only to give credence to
all he may tell you. I hope, however, that the love
you seem to bear me will hinder you from being
deceived. If you wish to do me a favour, let me
know with whom you talk at Court ; it Is not from
jealousy that I ask, only from Interest. If you answer
this the same messenger will be waiting to receive
your letter, at the same spot. Comfort me, I implore
you, for I suffer much for love of you. If by chance
you should play [cards] In the Grand Hall, my man,
for fear of being seen, will be waiting In the gallery
leading to your apartments." ^
' Prince Ernest Augustus.
' This letter is ornamented with a seal. The device represents an

v^l

¦v,-4

^1

FACSIMILE OF ONE OF KONIGSMARCk's LETTERS TO THE PRINCESS.
Photographed from the original manuscript in the University Library of Lund.
[To face p. 210.

s

n£//]/

m^.-''- A

Ube 2)awn of passion 211
" You have laid down a law which it will be hard
for me to keep — to be all day long without seeing you,
but, since you wish It, I must obey. I hope, however,
that you will let me wait on you in your apartments
this evening. If you cannot manage this, will you
meet me to-night at my house ? Let me know your
decision. Should you decide on the latter course, you
wUl find no one at my place ; the door will be open,
so come in boldly and without fear. I am dying
of impatience to see you. Answer me soon that I
may know what to do. Farewell, dear heart."
" Nothing could have comforted me more In my
sickness than your sweet letter, I find it full of
tenderness, I am sorry you have found the time
so tedious, I suffer from the same misfortune, and
have no chance of being happier to-day unless you
wish to play. If my fever be not too great, I will
pass under your windows In the hope of seeing you.
You will not refuse me this grace ; you know the
sight of you will be a soothing balm in my sickness ;
a visit fi-om you would be an infaUible remedy. You
speak to me of passion. Alas ! it is for me to speak
of It — mine Is so great that it will consume me utterly
at last. Oh ! my dear, my dear ! do you think that you
love with as much passion as I love ? , . , It is cruelly
hard for me not to be with you always — 1 am com
pelled to keep away from you, God knows with what
altar, on which burns a heart ; a hand pours out some oil, and on the
top is to be seen the sun ; at the foot, a motto, which may be translated,
" Nothing impure lights me.'' Beneath the seal may be seen the ends
of a green silk ribbon.

212 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
grief. The Count de Reuss ^ prevents me from ending
my letter as I would,"
" Of a truth I was IU pleased with the cold airs
you treated me to yesterday, and I spent the night
most miserably. I was in great sorrow and fain to
weep, and all these emotions made me very feverish
for nearly three hours, I vow, my divine beauty,
that I never remember having been In such a
pitiful plight before. ' Alas ! ' I cried, ' God burns
me with sickness, and gives me no comfort, for He
freezes the heart of my divinity, and life is Intolerable,'
I threw myself on my knees, tears in my eyes, and
prayed that if it were true that you loved me no
longer, I might die, , . . I cannot tell you, therefore,
the joy your letter gave me, I kissed it time and
again, I hate myself for having thought you guilty
of inconstancy ; I cast myself at your feet, praying
pardon, and I promise never to be so ready to
believe things again,
" I am awaiting Her Highness's commands,^
When you give me leave I shall fly to you ; and
if I am not wanted, I shall show that I cannot
attach myself to any one else, for I shall take the
first mail coach to join my regiment. I hope that
In time Fortune will get tired of persecuting me
so cruelly, and Fate will be in my favour ; but
whatever misfortunes may befall, I shall bear them
* The Count de Reuss was the uncle by marriage of Sophie
Dorothea ; he had married Angelica d'Olbreuse, sister of the Duchess
of Celle.
' I.e. the commands of the Princess.

Ube 2)awn of passion 213
with joy so long as the heart I adore remains
constant to me. My happiness and fortune are there,
my ambition Is bounded there. For pity's sake believe
me faithful. To convince you the better how I love
you, how I worship you, I sign this with my blood.
Whilst you love me, you will be worshipped by
" Konigsmarck.
"(Written in bloody'
Duke Ernest Augustus was now setting out on
an autumn visit to the Duke of Celle at his hunting-
seats of Epsdorff and Gohre.^ The Duke of Celle
was much keener on the chase than on affairs of State.
Every autumn he went to Epsdorff, a village some
eight miles from Hamburg, where he had a schloss,
to hunt the stag and the wild boar ; and then
to Gohre, a remote spot some fifty miles from
CeUe. He took his Duchess and his Court with
him ; and this year he combined pleasure with
business, for he invited the Duke of Hanover and
Duke Antony Ulrich to hunt with him by day and
discuss affairs of State in the evening. The result
of this visit was that the Duke of Hanover was
persuaded to take up a neutral, and no longer
hostile, attitude towards WiUiam of Orange,
Princess Sophie Dorothea was setting out for
Epsdorff with her father-in-law, but the day before
starting she was taken 111, Konigsmarck at first
hoped that the indisposition was feigned, in order
to avoid her departure from Hanover and from him,
' Colt's Despatch, October, 1691, Epsdorff.

214 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
" Alas ! " he laments, " we shall never be happy.
No sooner do I recover from sickness than my
adored one sinks under it, I suffered in mine, but
yours makes me suffer a great deal more ; it hurt
me so much to see you in pain that I wished myself
a hundred miles away. You will say that was not
very kind, but I could not bear to see you in such
agony. If perchance your illness were not so grave
as it seems, it would be a little comfort, for I might
think you were pretending, for love of me,"
He quickly found that she was not pretending,
and as soon as she recovered the Princess went to
Epsdorff and then to GOhre, Konigsmarck suggested
that he should go to Hamburg, which was near the
latter place, so that he might see something of the
Princess; but she wisely begged him not to go,
and he went to spend the period of absence with
his regiment, which was quartered near Hanover, A
little later he writes : " [From the Camp, undated.]
" I have been hoping to receive one line from your
charming hand. Can it be, after all you told me,
that I am quite forgotten.'' I cannot believe it, I
wiU pardon you this time, but have pity. Without
an assurance of your love I cannot live, ... 1 will
not go to Hamburg. I take Heaven for my witness
that since you have been away from me I have not
spent an hour without thinking of you, without
picturing your charms, I delight in doing so ; It
nourishes my poor heart crushed with sadness. Why
cannot I take wings like my desire,? I should this

Ube Dawn of passion 215
moment be in your lovely arms, tasting the sweet
delights of your lips, ... I have already brushed
away the thing asked of me, and I hope to succeed,
but, remember, it Is for the love of you that I am
giving everything up,^ I am shut up here in my
room without seeing any one ; I scarcely ever leave it,
I am away with my thoughts, far away from the earth.
If by chance an officer wants to speak to me concerning
the regiment, I am furious at losing so much time
without thinking of you. I hope after all these
assurances you will not ask me again whether I love
you. If you still doubt it will kill me. But I must
tell you that I have a consolation here, close to me ;
not a pretty girl but a bear, which I feed. If you
should fail me I will bare my chest and let him tear
my heart out, I am teaching him that trick with
sheep and calves, and he doesn't manage it badly.
If ever I have need of him — God help me ! I shall
not suffer long."
During this separation Konigsmarck addressed other
letters to the Princess in a similar strain, full of
extravagant expressions of passion. It is not necessary
to quote them, because they are. In the main, a
repetition of what has gone before. The Princess
apparently answered some of the letters, but she
was chary of writing to him from Epsdorff, for, in
spite of all the caution observed, the Intrigue had
begun to excite suspicion. It was mentioned to the
' Probably he refers to an appointment offered him by the King of
Sweden,

2i6 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
Duchess of Celle, and she took the opportunity of her
daughter's visit to remonstrate with her, and to Implore
her to avoid further communication with Konigsmarck,
The warnings of her mother, who dearly loved her,
aroused the Princess to a sense of peril. She made
another effort to draw back. When she returned to
Hanover, she wrote to KOnigsmarck urging him to
marry, as the only way of freeing them both from
the dangers that threatened them. Her letter called
forth the following remonstrance : " [Hanover, undated.]
" Alas ! the miserable day has dawned that I have
feared so much. I must marry, since you wish it ;
it shall be done. I will obey your wishes ; it is
enough that you will have it so. My death-sentence
is subscribed by the hand I adore. I confess I should
never have expected to see so dreadful a sentence passed
on me by you. But of what am" 1 complaining ? 1
must remember that I have loved you, and I ought
to have known the sex better than to believe all you
vowed to me. Alas ! I was weak and believed It ;
I must now be firm enough to support the consequences.
Your cruelty goes too far, for, unless you wished to
wound me, you could never have treated me thus.
Why has not God given you a heart less cruel and
me a heart less tender ,'' — we should agree better then.
I have never been but yours ; I wanted to be so aU
my life,^ but you do not regard my constancy. . , ,
You wish me to marry to save myself from destruc
tion, but you do not reflect that marriage would
' A reference to their early friendship.

Ube 2)awn of passion 217
surely bring about my ruin. There are two ways of
escape from this dilemma. The first, and the more
agreeable to me, is for you not to suffer me to
marry ; and If my ruin follows, as I foresee, not to
forsake me. The second will be easier for you. It
is to let me marry, and swear to me on your oath
that you will always cherish the affection you have
seemed to show me, I will wait until your answer
comes, which I hope to receive from your hand (not
disguised, it you please) ; ^ and I mean to regulate
my conduct accordingly, so that 1 may have nothing
to reproach myself with. But you love me no
longer — your head has triumphed over your heart ;
and It Is not even enough that you love me no longer,
you wish me to love you no more. What a hard
thing ! How will it be possible for me to obey ?
No, Madame, In spite of all, I shall always adore
you ; my love will be extinguished only with my
life. Pray believe this from your most humble and
affectionate servant."
Sophie Dorothea was by nature weak in judgment,
strong In passion. She could not sit down and pen
the sentence of what she supposed must be lifelong
wretchedness to her lover, and urge him to marry
while his heart was still whoUy devoted to her. She
had neither the courage nor the firmness to insist on
separation ; In fact, until she came face to face with
' This is a reference to the fact that most of the Princess's letters to
him at this time were dictated by her only, and actually written by
Knesebeck (La Confdente) to disarm suspicion.

2i8 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
the alternative of giving him up for ever, she had
not realised how much she loved him nor how great
an Influence he had gained over her. So the marriage
scheme was dropped. She wrote him to the effect
that she could not help loving him, but he must
restrain himself and be more prudent In the future.
She was rewarded by an ecstatic reply:
" I am the happiest man in the world. If it be
true that you love me as you say, and your love
will last always, where is the bliss to equal mine .'' 1
fear my joy will be too apparent, that every one wiU
see in my eyes It can only emanate from you, I will
restrain myself as much as I can ; but ' when the
heart is so proud the eyes play the traitor,' Your
eyes, more than I dared hope, declared to me last
evening the feelings of your heart. I am so overjoyed
that I am hardly able to express myself. I hope to
teU you this evening all I am not writing,"
It was now the autumn. Military operations In
Flanders had reopened In the summer, but the cam
paign of 1 691 had been more or less of a farce. The
two armies, that of William and that of Louis, had
marched and countermarched, advanced and retreated,
without coming to an engagement, and after having
thus performed a stately minuet for some months,
both armies retired to winter quarters. The Brunswick
prince took no part in the campaign, and all this
time Prince George Louis, who was very friendly with
William, had been sulking over his enforced inaction
at home. In October he was seized with a serious

Ube 2)awn of passion 219
attack of measles,'^ His Illness aroused the slumbering
sympathies of his wife, and she nursed him towards
recovery ; doubtless she felt that such conduct was
the best answer to the malicious tales of her enemies,
Konigsmarck was thrown Into despair on hearing of
the improved relations between Sophie Dorothea and
her husband, for his passion for her was very virile
and very selfish. He addressed to her this jealous
protest :
" With what grief I hear that you have been in other
arms than mine ! I cannot express what I feel, but
it must be so, I suppose ; at least, you suffer it with
regret, and take care to tell me, I ccwifess I should
never have enough power over myself to endure the
embraces of a person I did not love ; 1 would rather
see all the Furies than an object I detested. However,
your promises reassure me of your affection, and give
me comfort ; without that small consolation I should
be miserable indeed, I adore and love you to dis
traction, yet I must not see you ! Are there any
torments like this in hell ? But I can endure the
anguish by remembering my martyrdom is through
you, and it is for love of you I suffer : you are well
worth the pain, I am wrong to be so disturbed since
you assure me of your love. ' What will assure me
of your constancy ? ' Your conduct is the guarantee I
ask of you. It is superfluous for me to make new
protestations of love and faithfulness, for I have given
you solid and convincing proofs ; but if, haply, you
• Colt's Despatch, October ^, 1 691.

220 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
will not believe these, believe the vows I made you
and am ready to make at any time."
Despite this letter, the illness of the Prince made
the Princess more friendly with her husband, and this
friendliness was accompanied by a coldness on her
part towards KOnigsmarck. When he remonstrated
she excused herself on the ground that he had shown
her Indifference, This caUed forth the following :
" If I had behaved like you I might be accused of
indifference, but when sorrow wears me to a shadow
you are cruel to thus accuse me. All the Court is
asking me what ails me ; they think my face as haggard
as If I were recovering from a serious Illness. I have
been obliged to pretend that I fell downstairs ; but
many will not believe this excuse. Let them think
what they please, so long as they do not suspect that
the true cause of my Illness arises from your in
justice and disdainful airs. Do you think me the man
to easily condone such conduct ? If so, you are
mistaken, I would rather go off to the Indies than
be treated In this way. If our love were a little
fashionable gallantry, well and good ; I should accom
modate myself to your moods, and quarrel with you
almost every day, but I treat our affair more seriously,
and therefore I cannot possibly submit to your coldness.
Did I not beg of you, for God's sake, to tell me what
ailed you ? But I could get nothing from you except,
' Leave me in peace,' I answered, ' No, I will know
at any cost,' You then had the courtesy to say,
' Get you gone.' I went at once, with a firm resolution

Ube Dawn of passion 221
not to appear before you again unless you positively
ordered me. That Is why 1 have not seen you this
evening," The rest of the letter contains requests that he
might know how he stood with the Princess, so that
he might shape his course accordingly. He was
beside himself with jealousy. He could not believe
that she had any compassion for her husband, and
persisted In looking for the cause of her coldness
elsewhere. Especially he resented her attending the
opera and taking part In sledge-parties to which he
was not Invited, and he wrote to Knesebeck complaining
bitterly of the Princess's treatment.
The Princess so far relented as to receive from her
lover two letters expressing grateful delight at the
change of her conduct ; but his delight apparently
was not unalloyed. When Prince George Louis was
better, the Princess left to visit the Duke and Duchess
of Celle at WIenhausen,^ another country place of the
Duke's a short distance from Celle, From WIenhausen
she went to Celle, whither KOnigsmarck followed her,
greatly daring. The Duchess of Celle, who had
learned that KOnigsmarck had neither married nor
gone away, and things were apparently much as
before, again remonstrated with her daughter, and
urged her to break with him definitely. The Duchess
did not dream there was anything more than a passing
fancy, a little Imprudence ; but she reminded her
daughter that she was surrounded by enemies who
• Colt's Despatch, November 19, 1691

222 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
would seize on any pretext to encompass her ruin.
The Princess saw the force of her mother's reasoning.
She had not yet reached that point of passion which
takes no count of consequences ; but Konigsmarck
had reached It, and compromise seemed Impossible.
She implored her lover to leave her, at any rate for
a time. Seeming to acquiesce, he wrote :
" [Celle, undated.]
"I see nothing but ruin before my eyes, but I hope
to avert it by a glorious death, which I will seek aU
over the earth. It Is the only thing to pray fOr now :
for since I may not live with you, I will not live at
all. I am very grateful to you for undeceiving me
about your coolness. You give me back life by as
suring me that all they tell you does not turn you
against me. , , , I have had a letter from a friend
who is in the same state as myself, — that is why he
is going to the Morea.-' If Fortune does not change,
I shall go on that expedition with him, and, I hope,
never return. Perchance you may be kind enough
to have a memorial erected for me ; if so, do not
forget to inscribe on it that I welcomed death with
joy, because I was forbidden to look into your beautiful
eyes. Ah, Madame ! how you make me suffer ! Are
these the delights of love ?
Amour vols les mos que tu fais
Aux oii les Mens que tus promes
Natus pas pitie de ma peine 1 ^
' Troops were being sent to the Morea at this time, and Prince
Christian, son of the Duke of Hanover, wished to go with them. He
did not go. — Vide Colt's despatches.
' This is a literal rendering of KSnigsmarck's French.

Ube Dawn of passion 223
When wilt thou have pity ? When shaU I overcome
thy coldness ? Wilt thou ever keep from me the
rapture of tasting perfect joy ? 1 seek it in thy arms ;
and if I may not taste it there, I care for naught else.
No ! If I may not be happy with you, I wIU not be
happy at all. If fortune were to destine me to a
kingdom, I would not care for It without you. On
the contrary, if I desire anything for myself, to win
renown, to push myself to great estate, it is only for
the love of you and in the hope that you may love me
more, for an insignificant lover without high employ
ment cannot hope to be long in the good graces of a
lady of your rank. If God spare my life, I vow I will
remain a constant lover, and advance In dignity and
honour. You see, Madame, 1 have a good opinion
of myself. Know this : when one wishes to climb for
the love of the lovely one, one succeeds or one sinks
utterly ; It will be one or the other with me. My
resolve to leave you is not consistent with such tender
love, I admit ; but you suffer too much on my account.
I should be the crueUest man on earth were I not to
go away, and so give you a little relief from the
persecution you are suffering ; for when my enemies
see me no longer happy, they will cease from tattling.
But will absence Injure me with you ? Are you a
woman who can still love without seeing the loved
one ? Will my envious enemies succeed in their
infamous designs ? Will you forsake me?"
The Princess was so much frightened at the thought
that her lover was going on another perUous campaign

224 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
in the Morea, where he had narrowly escaped death the
year before, and where Prince Charles was slain, that
she recalled her words and wrote begging him to
stay. KOnigsmarck at once seized the advantage he
had gained ; he became bolder and more definite in
his demands. For every inch the Princess yielded he
took an ell. He answered :
" You know only too well that I should not go away
except on your account, and since you ask me to stay
I will do so with joy. My greatest delight Is to pay
you my court. But, Madame, you are unjust to
imagine I love you no longer. Is it for people we do
not love that we change our moods and plans ? Is it
because I do not love you I suffer no end of humiliation,
anxiety, and sorrow ,'' I am not so unjust as you ;
I like to believe that you love me. There are many
men who would not believe all you say took place,
but for myself I set such store on everything you
tell me that I believe it like the Gospel, Rest assured
that my love is above all things, I see you in so
tender a mood that I cannot find words to thank you
enough, though I fear you are wiUing to let me con
tinue in misery, even though you no longer fear your
parents' preachments. You are too charming, my divine
Princess, I am so touched that I rule myself wholly
according to your will, I would leave my head on
the scaffold rather than neglect anything you may
wish me to do, I had very little opportunity of
speaking to you yesterday, yet I was much relieved,
for the only sign I received, though given in haste.

Ube Dawn of passion 225
reassured me so much that I slept soundly. It Is
the first time I have slept since I came to Celle, , , ,
Commune with your heart : if It be true to me. It wiU
encourage you to do something bold. Courage,
Madame ; see me for once — no more — half a quarter
of an hour. I wish to thank you on my knees for
your constancy. It Is the only thing I ask you. But
do not risk anything for me ; it might spoil all.
It is better to suffer a Uttle while than always,"
That his prayer was granted may be gathered from
the following :
"The moments seem to me centuries, I cannot
watch the daylight without raging. Why do not the
hours shut up into moments ? What would I not give
for twelve o'clock to strike ? Be sure to have ready
de I'eau de la reine d'Hongrie, for fear my rapture
may make me swoon away. What ! I shall embrace
to-night the loveliest of women. I shall kiss her
charming mouth. 1 shall worship her eyes, those eyes
that enslave me. 1 shall hear from her very lips
that she loves me. I shall have the joy of embracing
her knees ; my tears will chase down her Incomparable
cheeks. I shall hold In my arms the most beautiful
body in the world. Verily, Madame, I shall die of
joy. But so long as I have time to tell thee that I die
thy slave, I care for naught beside,"

VOL, I. 15

CHAPTER XIII
CROSSING THE RUBICON
(1692)
Bist du mein ?
Hab' ich dich wieder?
Darf ich dich fassen ?
Kann ich mir trauen?
Endlich ! Endhch !
Art thou mine ?
Do I behold thee?
Do I embrace thee?
Can I believe it ?
At last ! At last !
Tristan und Isolde.
WHILE the Princess was stIU at Celle an event
happened at Hanover which created much
excitement. Colt writes : " The gates have been shut
for two days at Hanover, accompanied with a great
consternation. Yet first the two Moltkes were brought
to Court under a guard, where they are kept close,
and all their papers taken. One is Jagermaster,^ and
hatK been employed in the business with the Duke
of Saxe-Gotha ; and the other was Lieutenant-Colonel,
and had waited upon the Prince Max ; and there is
also secured a secretary to the Duke of Wolfenbiittel,
' Grand Master of the Hunt.
226

Crossing tbe IRubicon 227
who formerly served Prince Augustus, the Duke's
second son, who was killed In Transylvania. And
next day Prince Max was secured under guard In
his chamber, none of his servants being suffered to
come near him ; but the Duchess, who Is under great
affliction, and the Duke sayd publicly that there were
designs against his person and Government, and many
storeys are dispersed about." ^
The story circulated by authority was that Count
Moltke, who was In waiting on the Duke, had
presented a snuff-box to His Highness when he was
playing at quadrille. The Duke, suspecting something
wrong, asked the Count to take his cards for a moment,
and going into the adjoining room gave a pinch of
the snuff to a pet spaniel, with the result that the
dog immediately expired. When he had given some
hurried orders, the Duke returned to the card-table,
and presently told Count Moltke that some one was
waiting for him without. When the Count went out
of the room, he found himself a prisoner, and his
arrest was followed by that of his brother, the Wolfen
biittel secretary, and Prince Maximilian.
This was the rumour industriously spread abroad ;
but it was not correct. Moltke had made no attempt
against the life of his sovereign ; but he had un
doubtedly plotted against his authority. The old
question of the union of th^ Dukedoms of Celle
and Hanover, and the settling of all territory on
Prince George Louis to the exclusion of his younger
brothers, had cropped up again. This was the Duke
' Colt's Despatch, Celle, December 8, 1691.

228 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
of Hanover's darling scheme, a necessary step towards
the coveted Electorate, and he would allow nothing
to come between him and his ambition. The younger
princes stoutly opposed It and rebelled. The Duke
of Wolfenbiittel secretly abetted them, because primo
geniture would add largely to the future aggrandise
ment of Hanover ; and even the Duchess Sophia
regarded the plan with dislike, as it pressed so hardly
on her younger sons. Prince Augustus being dead,
it now fell on Prince Max, the third son, to rebel,
and Count Moltke and his brother aided and abetted
him. The Wolfenbiittel secretary was also ImpUcated ;
the plot was almost ripe, and a rising was planned,
when the conspirators were betrayed by a double
traitor, who had wormed himself Into their confidence
by pretending to be their friend. An outbreak of
the populace was feared, for the people's sympathies
were with the young princes in their resistance to this
innovation, and Prince George Louis was unpopular.
The Duke of Hanover's resentment was very great,
especiaUy against his cousins of Wolfenbiittel, with
whom all relations were abruptly broken off. Prince
Max continuing mutinous, and, vowing he would never
submit, was kept a closer prisoner than ever ; his
guards were doubled and his mother forbidden to
go near him. Indeed, she herself was -suspected and
examined before the Council, It has been said that
the Princess Sophie Dorothea was ImpUcated too, and
Moltke was offered his Uberty if he would confess her
share in the business, but he refused and denied. The
suggestion was probably made at the instigation of the

Crossing tbe IRubicon 229
Countess Platen, who would start any lie against the
Princess, There is no authority for the statement ;
Colt in his long account of the affair does not even
mention the Princess's name. She was at Celle at
the time the plot was discovered, and both the Duke
and Duchess of Celle were in favour of the ultimate
settlement by primogeniture of the dukedoms on
Prince George Louis, seeing that he had wedded their
daughter, and the children were their only descendants.
The Princess and her children came back to Hanover
with her parents early in January for the carnival.
" The Court of Celle arrived here last night," writes
Colt, "and were received with extra kindness, much
different to what I have seen since I have been In
these parts, and they seem to bind all their thoughts
to secure the union of these two dukedoms." ^ And
again : " The Court of CeUe will continue here for
some time, and the Duke and Duchess of Celle shew
an extraordinary fondness for their daughter and
grandchildren." ^
By this time Prince Max had been sent away as
a prisoner to the Castle of Hamelln, and after a
good deal of blustering had promised to submit to
paternal authority under certain conditions. Further
inquiries revealed that the plot was an old one and had
many branches. Duke Antony Ulrich had been the
moving power, and both the dead princes, Augustus
and Charles, were inculpated. The feeling at the
Hanoverian Court ran strongly against Duke Antony
' Colt's Despatch, Hanover, January 5, 1692,
* Ibid., January 8, 1692.

230 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
Ulrich, and even the Duchess Sophia found herself
exposed to resentment, though nothing could be
proved against her, poor lady, beyond that, having a
mother's heart, she had helped her unruly sons now
and then out of her slender pin money (not that she
had much to give — Countess Platen saw to that), when
their father had cast them out with the proverbial
shilling. It must have been a sore time for the
proud, high-spirited Duchess. To add a spice more
of bitterness to her cup, the Duchess of CeUe was
now at Hanover, a witness of the humiliation of
her rival, and herself flattered and courted. It may
be doubted If Eleonore had sufficient magnanimity not
to vaunt her triumph ; yet she would have done well
to be humble in the days of her prosperity, for even
at this, its apogee, there was a far more dangerous
Intrigue than any Prince Max was involved In, secretly
but surely undermining her future happiness, and
threatening to bring disaster on her cherished schemes
and ruin and dishonour on all most dear to her.
But whatever misery and wretchedness lay behind
the scenes, externally the Court of Hanover was as
gay and brilliant as ever. The New Year opened
as usual with the carnival, an Italian opera, and a
series of festivities, in which all took part, from the
Court down to the common people. The taverns
were thronged with mummers and masqueraders, the
streets of the old town were bright with booths and
bunting, and a large concourse of merrymakers flocked
to Hanover from the surrounding towns and villages.
The nobiUty came from their country estates, and

Crossing tbe IRubicon 231
many of the neighbouring princes and princesses came
for the carnival too. In all these festivities Sophie
Dorothea was the central figure. Every one paid court
to the beautiful young Princess of Hanover, who,
high in the favour of her parents and the Duke of
Hanover, triumphed for the moment over her enemies
and seemed to gather up in herself and her children
all the briUiant hopes of the House of Brunswick-
Liineburg. The children formed the strong link of the alliance
between Celle and Hanover. Even the Duchess of
Celle had come to see that, however much in her
heart she might disUke the Duchess Sophia and the
Hanoverian Influence, henceforth their interests were
to a great extent identical. The young Prince George
Augustus was now nine, the little Princess Sophie
Dorothea five ; they were her grandchildren and the
representatives of the fast accumulating dignities of
the House, The future union of the dukedoms was
settled,' the Electorate of Hanover was almost assured,
the Crown of England, now that William and Mary
had ascended the throne, no longer a mere mirage.
Who could tell to what brilliant future these children
might not be destined ,'' Her descendants — the de
scendants of the hated and despised Eleonore — the
"Frenchwoman," the "canaille," the "little clot of
dirt " — might live to ascend the mightiest thrones
of Europe,^ These considerations might well give
' As, in point of fact, they did, George Augustus as George II, of
Great Britain; Sophie Dorothea as Queen of Prussia, and mother
of Frederick the Great.

232 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
Duchess Eleonore pause, and make her watch closely
the conduct of her daughter, lest by foUy or indiscretion
she might blight her career and Injure the prospects
of her children. She again spoke to the Princess and
urged her to avoid KOnigsmarck. The Princess-
Dowager of East Friesland, who, with her daughter-
in-law, had come to Hanover (ostensibly for the
carnival, in reality to try to smooth things down
between the Dukes of Hanover and Wolfenbiittel),
also repeated certain rumours she had heard to the
Duchess of Celle, who in turn communicated them to
her daughter. The Princess was frightened, and
directed Knesebeck to tell KOnigsmarck of what had
passed, and to Impress on him the need of greater
caution In the fitture. Konigsmarck wrote :
"[Hanover, FebrtMry.]
" I am extremely surprised to learn from La
Confidente all that has happened. As I had heard
nothing from you, I was in despair ; but when your
letter came it was so loving that I will not hint at
what I feared most, I again picked up a little
courage. What worries me most Is that your mother
has been preaching at you ; for though she may be
on your side she Is sure to watch you closely, and
when she learns that you have been talking to me she
will become more suspicious, and I fear will tell every
thing to the Duke, Try to prevent that, or we are
lost for ever. I am grieved to be the cause of all this
trouble. But you are so sweet and charming, it Is not
my fault ; you must blame yourself for having made in

A STREET IN HANOVER.
(U^hcrc Kdnigsniarck is said to have lived.)

[To face p. 232,

Crossing tbe IRubicon 233
me such an unlucky choice. It is cruel to think that
while everybody can make love to you, and you can
speak to whom you will without any fault-finding, I am
the only one excluded. When I think how your
mother encourages Monsieur Welling,^ on the one hand,
and on the other forbids me to speak to you, I am so
enraged that I could stab her, and I wish her a
thousand times a day to the devil. If the earth were
to open and swallow her and the Dowager^ up, how
glad I should be ! I believe all the fiends plot together
to annoy me, but they will not succeed if only you
remain faithful. I can patiently endure all things so
long as you do not change, but I fear they will terrify
you so that in the end they will succeed in their
diabolical plans. How I hate them ! Were I lord of
the thunderbolts there would be many grey heads
battered about ; but as I am not, I can only implore you
to hate all those who are working against me, and
urging you to forget me. You will not refuse this
prayer if you have any love left for me. If you wish,
I will go away to some village near, for I cannot veil
my eyes so that the world does not see my adoration ;
but if you will suffer me even to look at you, you will
give me joy, — without that I cannot stay. Be merciful
and write to me. Forget not to assure me of your love,
for now Is the time ; if your heart begins to cool, the
plotters will succeed in their infamous designs.
' " Baron Welling is come hither to prepare matters." — Colt's
Despatch, Hanover, January, 1692.
' The Princess-Dowager of East Friesland. " The two Princesses of
East Frise [Friesland] arrived yesterday." — Colt's Despatch, Hanover
February 9, 1692.

234 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
" Now as to reproaches. You might have spoken to
me coming out of the Princess's ^ door, for your father
had already retired, and there would have been no
danger on account of the Prince, But terror prevented
you ; I know you so well. 1 have everything to fear ;
every one plots against me, men and demons, and even
old women, who are worse than demons."
The Princess was torn by conflicting emotions — her
infatuation on the one hand, and her dread of discovery
on the other. She had not yet capitulated wholly ;
but under the Impetuous assaults of her lover the out
works were falling one by one, the citadel would soon
be stormed. While she was hesitating, the carnival
broke up, and Sophie Dorothea returned with her
parents to Celle. The Duchess Sophia seems to have
gone too,^
The Duke ot Hanover had an object In sending
" all the women " out of the way, for he wished to
try his prisoners and bring Prince Max to his knees —
things he could do better when freed from feminine
Influence, He soon succeeded, for Prince Max renounced
all, and the prisoners were found guilty and sent back
to their prison to wait sentence. The Duke of
Hanover then went to join his brother at Celle, where
much company were assembled. Including the Duke
and Duchess of Saxe-Eisenach, KOnigsmarck was
there too, perhaps in the suite of the Duke of
Hanover, possibly on a visit to his brother-in-law,
' The Princess of East Friesland.
' "The Duke of Hanover hath sent all the women hither." — Colt's
Despatch, Celle, February 23, 1692.

Crossing tbe IRubicon 235
Count Lewenhaupt, to whom the Duke of Celle had
recently given the command of a regiment of Foot,^
Konigsmarck was, of course, invited to all the Court
festivities at CeUe, and had many opportunities of
meeting the Princess, But she was on her guard in
public, so much so that the Duchess of Celle could detect
nothing definite, though she seems to have sounded
KOnigsmarck, if we may judge from his next letter to
the Princess, In this letter appears the first hint of an
idea which gradually matured in the Princess's mind
side by side with the growth of her passion — namely,
that she and her lover should escape by flight from a
situation Intolerable to both. "[Celle, March,]
" La Confidente will tell you that I was more than
satisfied yesterday, though I had no other delight than
pressing your hand. Our restraint has Its charms,
for though the last few days I have seen you only
in places where even the language of the eyes Is
scarcely possible, I have had many happy moments.
What a delight, ma petite, for us to be able to com
municate with impunity in the presence of thousands
of people ! What a delight ! Speak to me a little
more in the same way, but only when there is no
risk, for I should be sore distressed to cause you more
trouble than I do already, , . . Keep In the same
mind as you were yesterday, and though the whole
• "The Duke of Celle hath at last given the new-raised regiment of
Foot to the Count Lewenhaupt, a Swede, brother-in-law to Count
KOnigsmarck, who commands a regiment of Hanover." — Colt's
Despatch, January 22, 1692.

236 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
world conspire against us, never mind so long as we
love one another. They will soon tire of preaching
at you, and then we shall enjoy perfect peace. I have
not yet seen Aurora, but I shaU know all from her,
I have had a long conversation with the Duchess of
Celle, I believe her to be the most deceitful of women.
She says the prettiest things to me, yet aU the time
she is doing her best to ruin me with you. I hope
to Heaven she will not succeed ! Do not believe aU
these women may tell you, for they will make every
effort to set you against me. But I should be wrong
to doubt you after the proposition you made to me —
that you are willing to leave all this -pomp and splendour
and retire with me to some corner of the world. After
that I have nothing to fear. I accept your offer with
joy. You have only to say the word and I am ready.
If the resiUt of your parents' persecution be to force
you to take such a step, I hope they will persecute
you a hundred times more, so that you may act
promptly. Why should we not fly to-night }
" Surely, Madame, my manner towards the Duchess
of Saxe-Eisenach ^ must have shown you that my
heart is all yours, and no other beauty can find place
there, not even that princess, I hope you have no
cause to complain of my behaviour to the other
ladies here. It is true I flattered His Highness's
mistress,^ in the hope she would tell me what she
was about, but she would not say anything. I stand
• " The Duke and Duchess of Saxe-Eisenach are come hither." —
Colt's Despatch, Celle, March 4, 1692.
' Countess Platen.

Crossing tbe IRubicon 237
well with Monseigneur,^ and he shows me more
courtesy than usual."
The Princess, during the next few days at Celle,
seems to have behaved with more circumspection.
In this she was only obeying the dictates of common
prudence. Nevertheless her precautions called forth
the following remonstrances : —
" I imagined that in possessing your love I should
be the happiest man in the world. I little thought
1 should have so few opportunities of speaking to
you. I tell you frankly this continual restraint falls
far short of perfect felicity, and my happiness will
never be complete until I enter upon it wholly.
Believe me, this is true. I was speaking to La
Confidente about it last night ; she will tell you my
wishes anon. I have to talk to you just like every
one else, and precautions have to be taken, though
they wound and vex us. Let us hope for better
times, for until then we are doomed to suffer.
Meanwhile forget nothing that will give me comfort,
and assure me of your tender love ; you cannot do
this better than In letting me see you as often as
possible. Did you really notice how the Duchess
of Saxe-Eisenach attacked me,'' I hope when I have
answered her two or three times as curtly as possible,
she wUl clearly understand that I want no intercourse
with her,"
"Your kind note assures me of your tender love,
> Duke of Celle,

238 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
and assurances must suffice for the present. But,
Madame, I am not the man to let myself be made
sport of, and if your promises do not agree with
your conduct they will not make the shghtest
impression on me. You have not treated me very
well the last two days, and 1 cannot quite believe your
notes ; but If you change your manners, I am quite
ready to accept your protestations, I am forced to
assume an extremely distant manner towards you,
and it makes me furious ; I wish you could alter it,
but you cannot. Pardon me once more. It is my
hot temper — I know it, but you are the cause,"
Konlgsmarck's " hot temper " seems to have led
him into a breach of good manners, for later we find
him writing :
" If you could see my despair you would forgive
me the fault I have just committed. I was piqued
and annoyed because you would not deign to look at
me once during the play, though I sat Immediately
opposite. I do not deserve your haughty airs ; the
sacrifice I have made for you of the Duchess of Saxe-
Eisenach^ at least deserved a glance. You can see
for yourself that I hardly look at her, and when she
speaks to me I answer her very briefly, so as to cut
short any further conversation. Her lady-in-waiting
says that the Duchess finds me much changed. But
a truce to all that ; It Is not worth speaking about,
' " The Courts of Hanover and Saxe-Eisenach go from hence after
to-morrow ; there has been much company here for several dayS;"—
Colt's Despatch, Celle, March 8, 1692.

Crossing tbe IRubicon 239
Give me pardon, Princess, I implore you, and arrange
for me to see you to-morrow, I could hardly get
a gUmpse of you, for the dancing made me very
hot, and, as I was unable to change my linen, 1
did not like to come near you. This Is a poor
excuse, and 1 can only throw myself upon your mercy.
La Confidente will intercede for me, I hovered
outside your apartments for half an hour to see if
La Confidente were coming out. I wanted to knock
at your back door, but I dared not. What torment
for me to miss the society of my adored one ! What
a night I shall spend ! Grand Dieu I what was I
thinking about ,'' What demon possessed me ? If you
will not forgive me you will drive me to despair,
I shall go away at once and weep over my sins In
the regiment, so let me know my fate. Farewell, my
dearest one. Shall I dare to call you so again .'' Verily
1 do not deserve that privilege. I am In torment.
When will you send me an answer,'' For the love
of Heaven, let me have one soon."
The Princess forgave him, probably on the morrow,
and how fully may be gathered from the following
rapturous epistle :
" I slept like a king, and I hope you did the same.
What joy ! what rapture ! what enchantment have I
not tasted in your sweet arms ! Ye gods ! what a night
I spent ! The memory of it blots out all my troubles,
and for the moment I count myself the happiest man
on earth. You see, it rests wholly with you to make
me happy, and jvhen I am sad you are the cause.

240 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
Adieu, dear heart. How long the day wiU seem to
me without seeing you ! Adieu."
And he wrote later the same day :
"Verily I am overwhelmed by the tokens of love you
have vouchsafed to me. I shall never be able to show
you my gratitude, but shall always be your debtor.
I love and I am loved. Is there any bliss approaching
mine? I count myself the happiest of mortals, and
even of the gods. Ah ! most beautiful one ! The
tenderness you have shown me compels me to love you,
and makes me despise the favours of good and the
caprices of bad fortune. Time will bring no change
in my love, I would abandon for you all ties — famUy,
relations, women, even wife and children had I any.
My passion intoxicates me. I can no longer think —
words fail, I commit myself to your keeping ; do with
me as you will, I can scarcely keep my heart within
bounds ; It strives perpetually to burst away and thank
you for Its captivity, for it loves to be the slave of
one who treats It so generously, I fear I shall lose
it altogether, but as I cannot live without a heart,
for pity's sake, Madame, give me yours In return,
for without one or the other I shall die. Do not put
off my seeing you this evening, I beseech you. You
have convinced me so deeply that you love me,
that I have never loved you so much before. You
have never appeared to me so altogether lovely.
With crossed hands and bended knees I thank you for
all you have vouchsafed unto me. Suffer me therefore

Crossing tbe IRubicon 241
to see you again to-day, and do not put me off, I
should die.
" The Prince went away to-day at eight o'clock.
He Is angry because you wished to remain with your
mother. All goes wonderfuUy well. Farewell,"
On the return of the Court to Hanover, Duke
Ernest Augustus concentrated his energies on obtaining
the long-deferred Electorate, and he made the electoral
bonnet a positive condition to his rejoining the Allies,
WiUiam of Orange was already at the Hague, busily
making arrangements for the forthcoming campaign
of 1692, He found that Denmark and Sweden
threatened to become actively hostile. Brandenburg
was sullen, and Saxony disaffected. He could there
fore ill afford to lose the services of the Duke of
Hanover, and had again to promise him his support
and Influence with the Emperor for the Electorate.
But Ernest Augustus wanted something more than
promises, " This Duke," writes Colt, " is certainly
resolved to make all things as sure as he can with the
Emperor before he lets his troops stir out of the
country." ^ The Duke of Celle, who was warmly
on the side of the Allies, generously waived his claim
as elder brother to the Electorate, seeing that his
younger brother could be gained on no other terms.
But still the Emperor hesitated. He knew that the
French agent was at Hanover, and intrigues were on
foot with Denmark and Sweden, and he stipulated that
' Colt's Despatch, Hanover, April 15, 1692.
VOL. I. 16

242 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
the Duke should first declare against France, As
neither side trusted the other, negotiations did not
advance very quickly.
In the meantime Konigsmarck went on one of his
frequent journeys to Hamburg, ostensibly to visit his
estate hard by, probably to combine pleasure with
his business, Hamburg was then a strongly fortified
town much frequented by the princes of northern
Germany. Some ten years previously the first theatre
in Germany for operas was opened at Hamburg, and
this helped to make it a favourite resort of the gay
world. Just at this time It gained a special importance,
as it was the meeting-place of many of the repre
sentatives of the great Alliance, Including several
German princes and the disaffected northern Powers
who came thither to intrigue concerning the coming
campaign. Konlgsmarck's visit might possibly have
had something of a diplomatic nature, but no hint
of this appears in his letters. His relations with the
Princess had continued in unbroken harmony, if we
may judge from the little note he sent her on the
eve of his leaving : "[Hanover: undated.]
" I should deem myselt all unworthy of your love
were I to go away without assuring you how deeply
I am sensible of your kindness. Yes, beautiful mouth,
you love me, I doubt no longer, and my bliss Is perfect,
I start with that belief only. . . . The letter inclosed
from Hamburg will show how things are going with
my sister. I will write you more fully. I kiss your
hands, I am all yours,"

Crossing tbe IRubicon 243
The ensuing letters which he wrote to the Princess
when on this journey explain themselves :
"Hamburg, March 22.
" I have reached here at last, after great trouble and
danger, for about a league from Hanover my carriage
broke down, and In crossing the Elbe I thought 1
should have been drowned. My servants had taken
lodgings at the Inn to which I usually come, and to
crown all, I found that the Princess d'Otfrise^ and
the Duchess of Saxe-Eisenach were lodged there, I
was greatly puzzled what to do, for they sent word for
me to come and dine with them ; but, my dear little
heart, I remembered my promise to you, and determined
to decamp. So I pretended that I had pressing and
urgent business which compeUed me to leave at once,
and, without seeing them, 1 marched off and changed
my quarters. But I did not leave the town, for I found
my brother-in-law and sister ^ here. 1 gave my sister
an exact account of all that had taken place since she
left, and she did the same to me. , . .
" To come to my story, they say I named you
personally.^ You know the rest. I need not justify
myself to you ; you know me too well. I am
now trying to find the author of this underhand
business. Should I unearth him, I will avenge myself
in a way that wiU make others careful not to invent any
' East Friesland. Colt sometimes calls her " Otfrise " too,
' Count and Countess Lewenhaupt.
' It is worthy of note that the same charge, boasting when he was
in his cups, of his intimacy with the Princess was made against
KSnigsmarck two years later (1694) at the Court of Dresden,

244 Tlbe Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
more lies. My brother-in-law also has a little matter
to settle. Some one said in his cups : ' Oh, truly,
when one has a sister-in-law who sleeps with a prince
one can soon have regiments.' -^ They say that the
author of this story Is Lieutenant-Colonel Grot, or
little Count Stelnbock, We shall demand an explana
tion sword in hand, and see what they will say, I
leave to-morrow for my estate. Farewell," •'£n Route.
" On dismounting here they gave me three of your
letters. Picture my joy ! I had begun to think that
you had quite forgotten me. M, de Bielke has
begged me to come to supper with him, but as some
ladies with whom I used to flirt will be there, I am
not going, for I want to have the satisfaction of
swearing to you that all the time I am away I
have not said sweet things to any woman whatso
ever, . . . Do not write to me any more. Two of
your letters have been sealed with another seal, and
that makes me fear, I will show them to you,"
" Monday evening at Reinbek.'
"As I again catch the post here I cannot let it
go without writing, and I think this letter wiU reach
you sooner than the one I sent this morning by my
servant. Let us unite against those who would break
us asunder ; they will tire when they see our constancy.
It Is distraction to have no news from you and
to be unable to hold you in my arms. I must
' This refers to Aurora von Konigsmarck and the recent appoint
ment of Count Lewenhaupt to a regiment of Celle,
» Reinbek is a village close to Hamburg.

Crossing tbe IRubicon 245
arm myself with patience, Utde by little, for I am
sore afraid that this summer I shall have to exercise
myself greatly In that virtue. The postillion is on
horseback. If I could be in his place I could see
you by dinner-time, but as It is I cannot until after
to-morrow, I am raging that old Time should lag
so much, I spend every evening in miserable Inns,
Since I left Hanover I have only slept on straw ;
but (think of my impertinence !), uncomfortable
though I was, every moment I wished you with me,
without thinking that you would be uncomfortable
too. If my desire had come to pass I should have
pitied you ; for you would often have been very badly
off for a bed, and roughly lodged. Farewell. I shall
die if I do not see you soon," ^
On his return KOnigsmarck renewed his court to
the Princess, with varying fortune as before.
Great military activity now prevailed at Hanover
and Celle. The Duke of Hanover, satisfied that the
Electorate was to come soon, at last declared for
the AlUes. The diplomacy of William of Orange
had triumphed all along the line. The Brunswick
princes were sending troops to Flanders, Saxony
had been bribed with a present of one hundred
thousand rix-doUars and the promise of the Garter,
Brandenburg had been conciliated ; and, last and most
difficult of all, Denmark and Sweden were appeased
for awhile. But these negotiations lost time ; and
while the AUies were haggling and WiUiam conciliating
' The letter concludes with many more expressions of devotion.

246 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
Louis again took the field. In vain WiUiam tried to
hasten his confederate princes ; they were late as usual
in sending troops. The French king started on his
campaign, and his progress resembled a triumphal
march. To gratify his love of display, Louis held a
grand review near Mons, the scene of his triumph the
previous year. The pageant over, he set forth to lay
siege to Namur. FuUy alive to the advantage gained
by the French, King William made every effort to
hurry up his laggard allies, with the result that the
troops of the several princes gradually took the field.
The troops of Celle and Hanover were to be
commanded by Prince George Louis, and preparations
at Hanover were pushed forward with aU speed,
KOnigsmarck was to go with his regiment ; but to
the astonishment of all he manifested no enthusiasm
to serve in the campaign, and lingered until the
eleventh hour. His letter to the Princess wiU
explain his conduct. Knowing how she was spied
upon, and doubtful of her strength and his, the
Princess was afraid to risk a parting in private. He
writes : " [Hanover, June.]
" The reluctance you have shown to speak to me
surprises me ; nay, more, it makes me tremble. But
I will still try to believe that you could not do
otherwise without giving ground for suspicion. Yet
one should risk something when It is a question of
" Good-bye " for six months.^ I think so, for instead
' The Hanoverian troops were away about six months — June to
late October.

Crossing tbe IRubicon 247
of going I linger here. See how much I love you !
I neglect my duty, which calls me away for the rest
of the year, though it is so urgent that I ought to
go at once. But, my dear one, how can I leave without
bidding you adieu.? My love does not suffer me —
1 would rather die. 1 will not reproach you ; I will
keep silence and watch you at the games, for Madame
la Princesse must play, apparently ! I will go ; but
it must be from your lovely eyes that I learn my fate.
If you do not Uke to say " Good-bye," let me see
it in your eyes, — they will give me light. Unless I
cruelly deceive myself, I shall find much love in them.
If I had sufficient self-control could I not have gone
away — could I not have had orders so pressing that
it would have been Impossible for me to return, or
perchance an Illness which would have excused me
from bidding you farewell ? Yet I am glad that you
give me the opportunity of showing you how much
stronger my love is than yours. I am truly your
slave, and wear your chains with joy."
And again :
" I cannot leave Hanover without writing to you,
yet to write renews my grief. The torments of hell
would not pain me more than distance and absence
from you. How happy I should be if I could be
as one of the least of your servants, to be near you,
to hear your voice ! I would willingly change my
condition for the common sentinel, for at least I
could stand under your windows and worship you
from there. Alas ! that cannot be ; and since 1 am

24S Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
destined to suffer, assure me of your love and
constancy. Adieu,"
At last Konigsmarck tore himself away, and left
Hanover for the camp, to march on the morrow to
Flanders, At this point the Princess's letters begin.

CHAPTER XIV
THE PRINCESS'S LETTERS
My letters ! all dead paper, mute and white !
Elizabeth Barrett Browning,
I can but do as wills the spirit in me,
Which is your spirit's servant. Ah ! my lord.
My one love every way, my poor heart's blood,
Breath of my lips, and eyesight of mine eyes ,
How did I live the life that loved you not? Swinburne.
THE Duke of Hanover, astute time-server that
he was, must have doubted at first whether he
had done wisely in again throwing in his lot with
King WiUiam, for victory everywhere attended the
arms of Louis, The French king made rapid progress
with the siege of Namur, and on the eighth day the
virgin fortress surrendered to his conquering army.
The citadel fell three weeks later. This victory
marked the summit ot the great monarch's glory,
Te Deums were sung in all the churches of France,
and his camp rang with shouts of triumph. But even
in this hour of victory there came to Louis a reminder
that he was not everywhere invincible ; for while he
lay before Namur, his priests chanting, his cannon
blaring, sounds of rejoicing reached him from the
camp of the Allies — rej'oiclngs over the naval victory
249

2SO Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
of La Hogue, wherein the English admiral, RusseU,
had utterly routed the French ships, and shattered
for ever James II, 's chances of reascending the throne
of England. The French king affected to treat this
reverse lightly, and a short time after retired to
Versailles, leaving Luxemburg, the first general of
France, In command of the army.
William hastened towards Namur in the hope of
bringing relief, but he was too late. Between him
and the already fallen fortress lay the troops of
Luxemburg, The grand army of the Allies then took
up their headquarters at Lambeque, and William was
sometimes there and sometimes at Brussels, About
six miles from Lambeque, at Steinkirk, Luxemburg
had encamped with the main body of the French
army. Thus the two armies remained throughout
July, almost within sight of one another ; but the
country between was full of hedges and ditches, and
neither would make the attack. The delay gave
William one advantage : it afforded time for the
laggard troops of his German allies to come up.
The Hanoverian troops, commanded by Prince
George Louis and accompanied by Prince Christian,
fifth son of the Duke,^ and with Konigsmarck in
command of a regiment of foot-guards, began their
march to Flanders the first week in June. On the
day they set out the Duke of Hanover, accompanied
by Prince George Louis and the English envoy Colt,
went to the camp and held a grand review.
' For whom the Duchess Sophia wished the command of an English
regiment, which he did not get.

Ube princess's Xetters 251
The Duke of Hanover ordered a general thanks
giving to celebrate the victory of La Hogue and so
testify his fidelity to the English king. To set the
seal upon it, Colt gave a magnificent entertainment,
a banquet and a ball. He writes :
" The Duke and Duchess with all their Courts have
done me the honour to sup with me, when they and
the greatest part of the city proclaimed their affection
and good will to His Majesty." And again : " My
share In the affair [the general rejoicings] you will
see at large in the paper apart [probably the bill]
which I hope will be approved of. I have on this
occasion given a greater diversion than ever they
saw in this place." ^
Sophie Dorothea was present at Colt's entertainment
and took part In the festivities. Her husband, who
went to Brockhausen after the review to take leave of
the Duke of Celle, came back to Hanover on purpose
to attend the celebrations, and a few days later he set
out for Flanders. The Princess then left Hanover
on a visit to her parents at Brockhausen ; she remained
there for some weeks. Prince Maximilian was also
staying with the Duke of CeUe, stUl in disgrace with
his father, and urging his uncle to use his influence
to save Moltke's life. His prayers were unavailing,
Moltke was executed at Hanover in the second week
of July, and the Court went to Luisburg — a country
palace of the Duke of Hanover, about twenty leagues
distant — to be out of the way.
All this time, from the day of their parting, the
' Colt's Despatches, Hanover, June 20, 1692.

252 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
Princess was in constant correspondence with Konigs
marck, who was marching with his regiment to
Flanders. He joined the grand army near Brussels
about the middle of July, and his letters to the Princess
were written from the camp and different halting-
places on the line of march, while she wrote to him
from Hanover and Brockhausen.
Whatever restraint Sophie Dorothea may have put
upon herself in public converse with her lover, no
trace of it appears in her letters. Believing that she
was writing to him alone, she pours forth her soul
in absolute abandonment. She gives herself to him so
completely, so unreservedly, and withal so intimately,
that one almost shrinks from laying bare this confession
of woman's love for man.
T^he Princess to Konigsmarck. "[Hanover, undated.]
" I Spent the stillness of the night without sleeping,
and all the day thinking of you, weeping over our
separation. Never did a day seem so long to me ; I
do not know how I shall ever get reconciled to your
absence. La Gouvernante ¦" has just given me your
letter ; I received It with rapture. Rest assured I
wUl do even more than I have promised, and lose
no opportunity of showing you my love. If I could
shut myself up while you are away and see no one,
I would do so gladly, for without you everything is
distasteful and wearisome. Nothing can make your
' This must have been another name for the Fraulein von Knesebeck,
La Confidente.

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FACSIMILE OF ONE OF THE PRINCESS's LETTERS TO KONIGSMARCK.
Photographed from the original manuscript in the University Library at Lund.
Note.— It is impossible to say whether this letter is in the Princess's handwriting, or
written at her dictation by Fraulein von Knesebeck. [To face p. 252.

Ube princess's Xetters 253
absence bearable to me ; I am faint with weeping, I
hope to prove by my life that no woman has ever
loved man as I love you, and no faithfulness will ever
equal mine. In spite of every trial and all that may
befall, nothing will sever me from you. Of a truth,
dear one, my love will only end with my life.
" I was so changed and depressed to-day that even
the Prince, my husband, pitied me, and said I was
IU and ought to take care of myself He is right, —
I am ill ; but my iUness comes only from loving you,
and I never wish to be cured. I have not seen
any one worth mentioning. I went to visit the
Duchess [Sophia] for a little while, but returned home
as soon as possible, to have the joy of talking about
you.^ La Gazelle's husband ^ came to wish me good
bye ; I saw him in my chamber, and he kissed my hand,
" It is now eight o'clock, and I must go and pay my
court. How dull I shall seem ! — how stupid ! I shall
withdraw immediately after supper, so that I may have
the pleasure of reading your letters again, the only
pleasure I have while you are away. Farewell, my
worshipped one. Only death will sever me from you ;
all human powers will never succeed. Remember all
your promises, and be as constant as I will be faithful,"
" [Hanover], Jtme 12, Sunday.
" I have no news of you ; I am restless, in despair,
full of sad forebodings, I cannot believe that you
' I.e. with La Confidente.
' La Gazelle may have been Countess von Lewenhaupt (so called
because of her gazelle-like eyes), whose husband was about to march
with the Duke of Celle's troops to Flanders.

254 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
would willingly neglect me, you have so deeply
convinced me of your faithfulness ; but I love you
too fondly to be free from the anxiety inseparable
from such love, I am not getting reconciled to your
absence ; It Is Intolerable, and nothing can equal my
grief at being so far from my adored one, I deluded
myself with the hope that 1 might have seen you
after the review ; 1 could have done so in all liberty,
as the Prince was away. That false hope made me
keep vigil two nights at the window, and every one
who passed I fancied was you. La Confidente kept
telling me differently, but I would hear no reason,
" I must give you an account of my day, I retired
after dinner. In the evening there was music, and I
played a little, — that is all. You must be pleased with
my conduct. . . . Do not forget your oaths, nor let
absence lessen the love you swore to me, for I love
you to madness, and the mere thought that you may
forget is enough to upset my reason. Above all, be
faithful to me, or I shall die. The Duchess to-day
spoke much of your beauty and the regularity ol
your features, Alas ! I fear me others wUl discover
this comeliness too ; it will cost me many tears,
" I must end this. It is three o'clock, and I must
go to bed. Never doubt my fideUty ; it is inviolable.
I will live and die yours only."
Konigsmarck to the Princess. "[The Camp, undated.]
" You must let me complain, ma cherie, of the mean
farewell you gave me. My love deserved something

Ube princess's Xetters 255
far different ; but If you had a heart of Ice you could
not have given me a colder parting, I found the
company very lively at the camp, every one sword
in hand, prancing to the music of trumpets and
kettledrums ; but it all diverted me so little that I
wished myself twenty leagues away. My dejection
was so apparent that Monsieur Bielke ^ asked me
what was the matter, and why I would not drink a
glass of wine with him. I told him that I knew he
was vexed about Aurora, and I was annoyed too, but
I hoped he would not blame me in any way, as I
knew nothing about it. He embraced me, and said
he was sure I did not, but the pain she had caused
him the last two days surpassed everything ; and
much more — too long to write — I will keep it for
word of mouth, I will only add that he swore awful
oaths that he would never speak to her again. The
clinking of glasses, the noise of trumpets and kettle
drums,^ mingled with the softer sound of flutes and
the hoarse cries of men drinking, made the drollest
harmony in the world ; but the revelry gave me
opportunity to hide myself in a corner and dream
at wiU, Whilst the others kissed, embraced, danced,
stripped, and jumped on the tables, I thought only
of my sad plight, and I found it so miserable that,
' "Count Bielke (a Swedish envoy), the most dangerous man in
these parts . . , , full of French designs."— Vide Colt's Despatches,
June, 1692.
' " According to that old Teutonic fashion with which Shakespeare
has made his countrymen familiar, as often as any of the great princes
proposed a health, the kettledrums and trumpets sounded."— Macaulay's
History of England, vol. iv., p. 7.

2s6 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
in spite of all the festivity, tears sprang to my eyes
and I was obliged to steal away to go to bed. Three
hours of absence from you have grieved me so much
that I am no longer master of my heart, I am so
overcome with all these emotions that I have been
beside myself all the evening." "[While on the March, undated.]
" In this unpleasant abode nothing could be so
dear to me as your dear letter. I read It again and
again ; I know it by heart, word for word. It is
charming and tender, and heals all jealous pains. Be
as good as your word, or you will never see your
lover alive again.
" I knew the Prince was not returning to Hanover
after the review, and therefore determined to take
the post to see you, but I was watched so closely by
a spy of Countess Platen that I dared not risk it.
The post-horses were ordered and ready, but I could
not get rid of the man, who is named Mesbuck. You
may Imagine my rage, for 1 dreamed of the happiness
of surprising you ; but my plan miscarried. I have
not had a happy moment except those your delightful
letter gave me, I am an hour from Detmold, The
Count sent a coach with six horses to meet me, and
a message to say I would find very pleasant company
at his house ; but I excused myself on the ground that
I was too tired. I did not tell him that love fatigued
me. My major went to the party In my stead, and
on his return told me all about the company, with
whom he was greatly delighted. He praised the ladies

Ube princess's Xetters 257
to the skies. Meanwhile I had gone to bed to think
over my sorrows, I found them piteous, and trembled
to see myself near the brink of an abyss. But why
should I worry you ? I have told you so many times
that I fear your inconstancy, and you have so often
reassured me, that I am a fool to doubt ; yet I always
fear. Water falling drop by drop pierces the most
stony heart, and I am sure you will listen to me.
You will give me your heart. You must ward off
evil at the beginning,
"In bidding farewell to us all. Marshal Podevils^
spoke to me with much friendliness and sincerity (it
was between us alone), and he said something which
startled me greatly. He said he believed me to be
a man capable of much dissimulation, and he feared
I had dissembled with him, I was taken aback, and
made him many protestations. He answered that he
wished to believe me, and promised his friendship ;
' Field-Marshal Heinrich von Podevils is spoken of in this corre
spondence as le bon ami, the good friend of Konigsmarck and Sophie
Dorothea ; and indeed he was so. Marshal Podevils was born in
161 5 in Pomerania, and took service very early in the Thirty Years
War. His military talent was first discovered by the famous Duke
Bemard of Saxe- Weimar. At the death of the Duke, Podevils entered
the French Army, and advanced rapidly in honour, and, because of his
good services, he was naturalised in France. But Podevils was a
Huguenot, and, in consequence of the Edict of Nantes, he left the
French Army, and took service under Duke John Frederick of Hanover
as Colonel-in-Chief of the Hanoverian Army. When Duke Ernest
Augustus succeeded to the Duchy of Hanover, he appointed Podevils
successively General, Field-Marshal, President of the Council of War,
and Governor of the Royal Palaces of Hanover. Podevils died at
Hamburg in 1696, full of years and of honour. The fact that such a
man was the true friend of K6nigsmarck, and thought highly of him,
speaks much in Konigsmarck's favour.
VOL. I. 17

2s8 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
but. In bidding good-bye, he again took me aside
and said : " My dear friend, may God guard thee,
but take this advice from me : do not let thy love
ever hinder thee from thinking of thy fortune." I
replied that contentment had more charms for me
than ambition ; but he turned away and answered
nothing. He left me full of cruel suspicions. Try
to find out what it is all about, I implore you,
Aurora's letters predict nothing good. Misfortune
everywhere ; but so long as one holds the loved one,
what matters the price .'' "
The Princess to Konigsmarck. " [ Hanover], Monday, 13.
" I have this moment received your letter — at last,
I hungered for It ; I was sick with sadness. Nothing
now gives me joy but the token that you remember
me : I am sensitive to that — aU else Is indifferent.
Grand Dieu t what happiness It would have been if
you could have come back ! I think I should have
died of very joy. But, alas ! it was not to be, . , , ^
This is not the only grief Countess Platen wiU cause
me ; I believe all my troubles will come through her.
What our good friend Marshal Podevils said to you
doesn't make me anxious ; it concerns me, it is true, but
he is an open and honest man, and we have nothing to
fear from that quarter, I am indeed grateful that you
refused the invitation to join the company at Detmold.
It is charming that you should think of me ; I pray
you continue to do so, and be sure I am not unworthy.
' Some lines are missing here.

Ube princess's Xetters 259
My one thought is how to please you, and I shall
succeed. I am in despair that Aurora has not. . . , " ^
Konigsmarck to the Princess.
" In the Country of Teglenburg, l/une] 8.
" I should feel that I had committed a mortal sin were
I to miss a place where the post passes without assuring
you of my very humble obedience, though I can tell
you of nothing but my love, and how little life has for
me when I am away from your sweet self. The farther
I am from you, the more I adore you. I fret night and
day without finding any comfort. Sometimes I wish
the French would be beaten, for then there would be
a ray of hope that I should see you again, because the
King^ would not require me ; sometimes I wish myself
dead, since I have to live without seeing you. In this
way am I agitated day and night, without any hope of
relief. What will become of me, dear one, should my
love drive me to madness .'' Comfort me in my sad
estate, and reassure me that I shall see you again —
the most gracious lady in the universe, the most con
stant, and the most faithful. But I desire a constancy
without any reproaches or any coquetry.
" I dined at Monsieur Busche's ^ yesterday ; the
' The letter is tom off here. Doubtless the Princess is beginning to
allude to Aurora's intrigue with Count Bielke, mentioned in Konlgs
marck's letter.
' King William HI. of England, commanding the allied armies.
' This Busche must not be confounded with Busche who married
Catherine Meissenberg (sister of Countess Platen), sometime the
mistress of Prince George Louis. That Busche died in 1688, and, as
we have seen, his widow subsequently married General Weyke. The
Busche above mentioned was a kinsman. He was subsequently

26o Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
company was not very choice — only some flighty
people, so lively that they disgusted me in my sad
mood. Madame, his wife, dined with us. She is the
best woman In the world. I don't know if you are
well acquainted with her ; she Is extremely thin, her age
is fifty, but she Is very witty, and her conversation
pleased me the more because it ran mainly on morality
and devotion. I certainly go in for the latter. I
pray always that my passion may not become fatal
to me, and God may keep you constant and make
you an example to all your sex, I commend you to
the Divine protection to keep you straight, so that
I may never be tortured by thinking you behave
badly, I hope to receive some of your letters from
Wesel," The Princess to Konigsmarck. " [Hanover], Monday, 20.
" At my awakening they gave me your letter. I
found it charming, loving, and aU I woidd have it to
be. Continue to feel as you write, for if you change
I will not Uve. When I think each step you take
removes you farther from me, I despair. Thousands
of times I have thought of following you. What would
I not sacrifice to be always with you ! Alas ! I should
be too happy ; there is no such perfect joy in this
president of the court which divorced the Princess Sophie Dorothea
from the Electoral Prince.
A little later we find Colt also writing : " They have sent Monsieur
Busche, one of their privy councillors, to the Elector of Brandenburg,
to press him to a speedy compliance with his former promise." —
Colt's Despatches, Hanover, June 26, 1692.

XTbe princess's Xetters 261
world. I avoid all men, and speak only to women :
pray do not thank me for this, for I am pleased to do
it, I never leave my chamber. I start to-morrow,^
and go this evening to bid farewell to the Duchess.
Prince Ernest Is going to visit the Electress of
Brandenburg, and perhaps they will return together.
" If I were to tell you all I feel and how vast is
my love, I should never end ; it Is beyond all I can
find words to tell, and I should count myself happy
indeed were your love to equal mine. I wiU not
preach to you to be faithful to me, It would be un
availing ; but I shall die if you are not. I have told
you thousands of times that all the peace of my life
depends on your fideUty, You may find others more
lovable, but never one so loving ; your slightest wish
will be always law to me. But why should you
change? You are loved to Idolatry — your heart is
sound. Farewell, cher enfant. You will be for ever
loved." The next day the Princess left Hanover for
Brockhausen on a visit to her parents. Colt mentions
in his despatch of June 17 the fact that the Duke of
Celle was staying at Brockhausen, thus corroborating
the Princess's letters, which are written from there
after the 20th. "Brockhausen, [undated],
" The only joy left me now Is assuring you of my
unalterable devotion : my love grows daily, 1 am
glad to be In this quiet place, for it gives me more
' For Brockhausen.

262 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
time to think of you : my mind Is full of you only.
My father and mother often speak to me, but I don't
hear them, for my heart and my thoughts are far away
— with you. I have not had a moment's happiness
since you left ; and when I think it wiU be four or
five months before we can meet again, I fall into
a melancholy I cannot hide. Sad forebodings crowd
in upon me ; I fear they will separate us for ever,
or put obstacles in the way of our happiness. I
see myself on the edge of a precipice (as indeed I
am). If you saw my sad state you would pity me,
" You may be easy about my conduct ; nothing on
that account need ruffle your quiet or trouble your
rest. To-day, for instance, scarcely was I dressed
than I had to dine. Afterwards I went to see my
mother for a little while, and then she sent me home.^
Max ^ escorted me. I left him in the ante-chamber ;
I did not stop a moment. He is more stupid than
ever ; he was quite confused. My father came to
see me and showed me many attentions. I played
with Chauvet.^ We supped, and then I retired, without
' The Duke of Celle's hunting-box at Brockhausen was very small,
and, as the accommodation was insufficient, the Princess and her suite
were lodged in a house hard by.
2 Prince Max was staying with the Duke of Celle for a time, who
was trying to talk him to reason {vide Colt's despatches). The
Princess's estimate of Prince Max's character agreed in the main with
that of Colt, who, speaking of his share in the Moltke plot, says : " Nor
indeed was his [Prince Max's] own capacity very fit for it, though he
is a very worthy gentleman, and much improved since he hath been
at home these two years, having before lost his time by being too
much delighted with the pleasures of Venice, where he had been in
service five years."
' Marshal Jeremiah Chauvet was one of the Frenchmen whom

Ube princess's Xetters 263
staying to talk to any one. Good-night ; I must
to bed. Alas ! what sad nights since you left me 1
When I think of the joys we shared together and
my loneliness now, a great pang goes through me.
Be true, dear one, — all the happiness of my life hangs
on it. I live only for you." " Brockhausen, -^^f-Si
' July 5.
" I had hoped to have had news of you from
Wesel, and am much cast down because none came,
I attribute it to the carelessness of your servants at
Hanover, for I scarcely think you would neglect me :
at least, let me flatter myself to that extent ; it is the
only consolation I have left. When I think you love
me I forget all the disasters which threaten — but I
shall worry you with my fears. My father and mother
overwhelm me with kindness, and, most reassuring,
they have not mentioned your name since I came
here. I am rather surprised at this, but I hope they
are satisfied with what I told them before.
" I heard yesterday of the death of La Court's ^
brother. It was a shock, for I thought of you.
Like you, he was young, he was well, yet now he
is dead. You cannot imagine my sad reflections : I
fear for you more than ever. If you truly love me,
be careful of yourself for my sake ; for if anything
happened to you, what would become of me .? I
the Duchess E16onore brought in her train to the Court of Celle. He
was not of noble birth, but the son of a blacksmith in Lorraine. In
1670 the Duke of Celle advanced him to the rank of colonel, and he
became successively major-general, general, and field-marshal,
' Probably some Court lady at Hanover,

264 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
would not stay a moment in this world ; life would
be impossible. As it is, since you went away, I lead
only a lingering life ; but I look forward to seeing you
again, and that hope brings consolation. What would
be left if I lost It .'' But I will not fret myself with
these sad thoughts; all my prayers and desires are
for your safety. Day and night, night and day, the
good God Is troubled with the prayers I offer Him
for you. If you but knew how Intense Is my love
you would pity me ; it increases every moment,
absence does not lessen it. Without change or swerving
I love you, and everything that touches you, so tenderly,
so perfectly, so delicately, that imagination fails to tell.
" I take a positive delight in avoiding persons.
My parents and Bernstorff are pleased. They think
I shun every one because I wish to be with them ;
they little know it is because of you — that 1 may
show you my devotion and my love. They talk of
going to Wiesbaden, My mother wishes it, as her
health Is very indifferent, and my father thinks of
going too, and they want me to go with them. Let
me know if you approve. If you do not, they will
find it difficult to make me go; but as long as I
please you the rest counts for nothing."
Konigsmarck to the Princess. " DuLMEN, Jtme —
' •' 24.
•' This is the first place since my last letter where I
have found a post, and I take good care not to let it go
without writing these lines to assure you of my love and
tenderness. The only thing which makes me uneasy

Ube princess's Xetters 265
is a tale I have heard from the Baron von Brandenburg,
whom you have seen at Hanover, I am also very
miserable at not being able to get your letters untU I
reach Wesel, You had some by every post from me.
Is it fair, for you are more certain about me than I
am of you ? Now let me tell you the story of the
Baron von Brandenburg.^ ... I am this moment
sending a courier to Wesel to fetch your letters. It
is six leagues from here. I hope I may receive them
to-morrow morning," "Borguem on the i6th [June].
" My courier has brought me a packet of letters
without any from you ; it is incredible. The post
goes by again to-morrow, and If I get none It will
nearly kill me. I hope my correspondent has sent
them to Antwerp. I have written to the Widow
Goodsblut ; but if it turn out that she has none
either, I shall die of grief. Have you forgotten the
man who worships you in the space of a fortnight .''
1 shall wait eight days, and then, if I hear nothing,
I shall know you love me no longer, and I will hasten
to the grand army (as soon as I know from Antwerp)
and seek a glorious death. Then you can boast that
your unfaithfulness has killed me. But first tell the
world the promises you vowed to me, and let that
theatre judge if I were wrong in seeking death. Can
it be that God has made such a charming woman
with so little fidelity ? I am like a man on whom
' Here follows a long story about the said Baron, who loved a
Prussian lady of high rank and great beauty, who proved unfaithful
to him.

266 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
sentence of death has been passed and who is waiting
for the hour of his execution, I hardly feel as If I
were alive. My mind Is so troubled that I can
scarcely finish this page. Farewell, perhaps for ever !
" I am three leagues from Wesel, The post goes
by again without any letter from you. Cruel one !
is It possible that you have such a traitor's heart,
and forget me so soon ? "
The Princess to Konigsmarck. " Brockhausen, {?f^£_2Z;July 7.
" I do not deserve your reproaches ; I shaU never
deserve them. 1 cannot imagine why you accuse
me of negligence, for even if you do not receive
my letters you ought to know me weU enough not
to lay the blame on me. The fault Is not mine,
I assure you. Is it possible you mean aU you say ?
You occupy my heart solely and entirely ; all the
rest is of so little account that I do not give it a
thought, I have written with all possible regularity ;
if I could have written oftener 1 would have done
so gladly, for my only pleasure is to make you
remember me and assure you of my love and faith
fulness. But this place [Brockhausen] Is so far from
every means of communication that It greatly delays
the joy of receiving your letters, and the same reason, I
fear, may lead to your receiving mine very irregularly ;
besides, the floods are so great that the couriers cannot
pass, and so they are obliged to remain here all the
week. I spend the whole day with my mother, who
talks to me of the danger of abandoning one's self

Ube princess's Xetters 267
to one's penchant. I say ' Amen ' to It all, and so
get on well with her, and all of them.
" I have a thousand fears about you. Chauvet told
me yesterday that according to all appearances there
might be a battle to-day. You know how I love
you. Imagine, then, my state of mind when I think
that the only being I care for In the world, for whom
only I live, is exposed to thousands of dangers. If
you love me, take care of yourself ; I should die
if any accident were to happen to you. I am leading
the saddest life imaginable. The more change I have
the more I find that cure Is useless, for everywhere
I carry my love and my sorrow. The burden is no
easier for me in this peaceful place. I see no end
to my worries, and the time I have to get through
without you seems an eternity. But what joy when
I sec you again ! It will be impossible for me to
moderate my transports ; I fear everybody will see
how much I love you. It matters little, for you are
worthy, and I never can love you enough."
Konigsmarck to the Princess. " Venlo, July ~, 1692,
" It is true, then, that you have forgotten me, and
the pleasures of the comedy, the music, and, what Is
worse, the foreigners,^ are the cause of your forget-
' They were probably special envoys, who had come to Hanover
on business connected with the campaign against the Turks in the
Morea, the intrigues conceming the Electorate, and other matters.
Colt mentions that a Baron Eck came to the Court of Hanover in
June from the Elector of Saxony, and also a Baron Hasfelt " on his
way to France,''

268 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
fulness? I know it from Monsieur le Prince,^ with
whom I dined to-day. I suppose this is the way
to love ; but I, alas ! cannot. I have neglected
everything since I left you ; I have even forgotten
to shave, and I went all unkempt to the Court
quarter of the camp. Everybody stared. Even the
Prince asked me what was the matter, for he found
me so haggard and worn. I pretended that I had the
coUc ; he little knew the truth. Until now I only
feared that you had forgotten me ; but since I know that
the Pledmontese Count and the Austrian have arrived,
I no longer doubt your inconstancy. Cruel one! I
know my rivals. Yes, I know them, and that Is
sufficient. But you have to deal with a man who
loves you to distraction, and you made me believe
you loved me in the same way, 1 have neglected
fortune, happiness, everything for you, and you
treat me like this ! It is abominable. I wUl avenge
myself and die. Yes, I wUl avenge myself in such
a way that the whole world will ring with my
wrongs. You wished to remain in your chamber
to bewail my departure. Your chamber became
the opera house, your weeping came from laughing
overmuch, and your consolation, instead of reading
my letters, as you told me, was in hearing sweet things
from others. It Is too much, I can bear no more.
You drive me to extremities. I will join the Elector
of Bavaria's service, and then seek those who have
stolen from me your ungrateful heart."
' Prince George Louis, who had now joined the troops.

Ube princess's Xetters 269

"Venlo, —

" I am sighing and trembling while I write this to
you. I have no idea how I stand with you, for I
have received only one of your letters. I am cursing
my bad luck, but, alas ! that does not give me comfort
in my misery,^ . . . No, by Heaven ! I wiU not lose
you ! I will move heaven and earth before I give
you up. Were you to change yourself into Jupiter
I would not fear the thunderbolt, but would try to
avenge myself on my rivals, I could not get leave
to go to the grand army, so I must wait untU our
troops march. It is annoying ; but I bear aU with
patience, " My sister would like to know if the Court is going
in the autumn to some baths, as she would greatly like
to go and pay her respects to Madame la Princesse,
La Confidente says nothing about the unfaithfulness of
her good mistress, but that Is only natural, for if I
cannot trust you, neither can I trust the people about
you. But you know well that God will punish you ;
there is nothing so certain as that. Take heed there
fore and beware," The Princess to Konigsmarck. '• Brockhausen, ^!"!' ^°-
July 10.
" Two of your letters reached me to-day, but instead
of finding them full of love, I found reproaches which
I do not deserve nor shall ever deserve, I cannot
tell you my surprise at the tone of your letters. I
' Here follow pages of reproaches and upbraidings.

270 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
have done absolutely nothing since you left. I shall
never do anything all my life except what will be
agreeable to you, for my one desire Is to make
manifest the love I bear you. My constancy Is
without flaw, and I am far from being the coquette
you so unjustly call me. I could not help bursting
into tears when I read aU the hard things you wrote.
What right or cause have I given you to have
such a bad opinion of me ? Is it because I love
you to adoration, because I neglect all the friends
I have In the world, because I have not heeded the
lectures and preachments of my parents, nor thought
of all the misfortunes that may come upon me through
this ? I cannot express to you my grief. You hint
at my pleasing people who may supplant you In my
affections ; they assuredly do not deserve the honour
you do them, and I am ashamed to have to excuse
myself on their account, I spoke very little to the
Pledmontese Count, and not a word to the Austrian.
I wrote to you very precisely about everything I have
done and everything I am prepared to do for you. I
have sworn aU the vows you wished, to convince you
thoroughly of my good faith. Nothing will make me
change, I love you far above what I can tell you,
even when you give me cause to repent. Yet you
will attach yourself to the Elector of Bavaria, you wUl
forsake me, and all for a suspicion that has not the
least appearance of reason ! Is this loving ? Do you
love me still, or are you only seeking a pretext to leave
me ? If you stUl have doubts it wiU be very easy
for me to clear them away, for I have taken no step

Ube princess's Xetters 271
nor done anything whereof my conscience is afraid.
I will gladly swear thousands of dreadful oaths to you
on my innocence. I shaU have no peace until I know
how I stand with you. If the tenderest love and the
most inviolable faithfulness will satisfy you, you may
be satisfied, for no love was ever so sincere as the
love I bear for you."
Konigsmarck to the Princess.
" Four Leagues from Venlo, ^ IS-
"The lieutenant who went to the Court quarter
of the camp brought me a large bundle of letters. I
was in highest joy, thinking surely I should find some
from you ; but I was deceived, for I found nothing
except letters from Prince Ernest and from Marshal
Podevils. Every one is writing but you. I have
reproached you so much that I will say no more
except that you have been dancing at Colt's fete.^ I
wUl, however, wait for your letters from Antwerp,
which I hope will clear up everything. But you
cannot excuse your behaviour at Hanover, especially
when the foreigners were there ; and whatever the
Duke might have wished you to do, you ought not
to have consented. This will be the very last letter
I shall write to you If I hear nothing from you."
The Princess to Konigsmarck.
" Brockhausen, [undated] ( ?July 2).
" I suffer agony, and can no longer bear the pain
your unjust suspicions cause me. You told me
' Colt's fete was given on Sunday, June 18.

272 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
yourself to write only once to Wesel, and all my
other letters have gone to Antwerp. You ought,
however, to have received some of them. I know not
to whom to attribute this carelessness, but you are
greatly In the wrong if you believe that I have for
gotten you. Time will prove my Innocence and your
injustice. I am hurt to the quick, for since your
departure my only thought has been how best to
show you my fidelity. I am grieved that you are
displeased because I went to Monsieur Colt's fete, but
I could not avoid going, they pressed me so much.
The foreigners did not detain me at Hanover ; they
left a few days before I came to Brockhausen ; I have
already told you I did not talk to them. I am incapable
of deceiving you, even In thought ; I love you too
passionately. Yet you believe I betray you. You wUl
not write to me. You plunge me In despair. How
do I know ? What if some one has held back my
letters to make us quarrel ? I have thousands of evU
forebodings and many fears, but you cap them all
and overwhelm me with grief by believing me guilty.
Ought it even to enter your mind that I should fail in
the love I bear you ? I would rather fail to myself,
for you are a thousand times dearer to me,
" Unfortunately the floods still detain us herc.^
I am grieved because of my letters. We may be here
for a week, perhaps," " Brockhausen, /«/k 7.
" We start to-morrow for CeUe, where I hope to
' "The extraordinary floods have kept the Duke from CeUe."— Colt's
Despatches, July 4, 1692.

Ube princess's Xetters 273
find some letters from you ; I am in sore need of
them to deliver me from this anxiety, I have not a
moment of peace. I am trembling for fear we are
betrayed ; but what I fear most of all is your violent
temper, which will not let you reflect in the least, nor
give a thought without at once beUeving me guilty.
This suspense is driving me to despair. To-morrow
I shall know what to expect. If I find nothing I
am lost. Good-bye,"

VOL. I. 18

CHAPTER XV
DOUBTS AND FEARS
Ah, Love, but a day.
And the world has changed !
The sun's away
And the bird estranged. Browning, Janus Ltit Wife.
THE floods having abated, the Court of CeUe
left Brockhausen and returned to CeUe, The
Princess accompanied her parents and continued to
stay with them. She feared at one time she might
have to join the Hanoverian Court at Luisburg ; but
instead she remained at Celle, and made preparations
for a long visit to Wiesbaden with her mother. On
arriving at Celle she writes to KSnigsmarck :
" Celle, July 9.
" I was burning with impatience to get here,^ for
I hoped to find your letters, Alas ! there were none,
and I spent a night of tears. Again I hoped to
receive one this morning. My hope was vain, and
for the last eight days, ever since you wrote me
that cruel letter, I fear that we are betrayed. I am
1 " The Duke, since his return hither .... ." — Colt's Despatches,
Celle, July 11, 1692. 274

2>oubts anb ffears 275
trembUng on the edge of a precipice, but my own
danger is the least of my anxieties, I scarcely think
of the misfortunes, inevitable and unavoidable, whl,ch
surely await me if discovered : you, only, occupy my
thoughts. More than death or disgrace I fear that
you may leave me ; if you do, there is no more
happiness for me. You are all my life, and if I
lose you, nothing in the world will console me, I
shall not have a moment of peace until my fears are
set at rest,
" I received a letter from your sister ^ this morning
saying that you had written her a violent letter about
me, and she had a good mind to send It on, I wish
she had ; at least, I should have seen what you thought
of me. She tells me also that if my parents go to the
baths at Aix, she will go there with her sister,^ At
present they speak only of Ems or Wiesbaden, but
it amounts to the same thing, I have already asked
whether you approve of my going on that journey,
Le Satyre ^ is here. He tells me that a little while
before the discreet Prince's departure, some woman
asked His Highness whether he did not wish to fight you
because you got on so weU with me, whereas he seemed
to be on bad terms with me for a long time past.
It is not difficult to guess who asked this question ! *
I have a continual palpitation of the heart, which I
attribute to my anxiety the last few days. You make
me suffer, but I suffer gladly for your dear sake,"
' Aurora von Kdnigsmarck. ' Some Hanoverian courtier.
' Countess von Lewenhaupt. * (?) The Countess Platen.

276 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
" Celle, /»/)/ pi
" I shall know my fate to-morrow ; I am waiting
for it with such anxiety that I cannot sleep. I feel
sure that if you had received my letters you would not
have missed two posts without a line, unless Indeed
you take pleasure in bringing me to despair. Every
thing tends to confirm my fears that we are betrayed.
If Countess Platen begins to meddle you may imagine
what there is to dread, but I tremble most at your
own violence. You say you will enlist in some other
service, and I shall see you no more. The thing may
already be done for aught I know. I am terribly
depressed ; it may be a foreboding of misfortunes to
come. All I can say Is, that if it costs you so little
to give me up, you have a very feeble love after all.
When the heart is deeply touched one does not give
up the loved one so easily ; at least, one takes the
trouble to examine thoroughly the charges against her.
But I cannot expect you to have the patience to do
that ; I know your ways too well. At the first hint
you will break away altogether : perhaps, later, thoughts
and reflections will follow ; but It wiU be too late
then, and I shall have the grief of loving you to adora
tion, and knowing all the while that you have never truly
loved me. The thought Is so maddening that it nearly
turns my brain. FareweU, You wiU be the cause of
all my misery In the same way as you have been the
sotirce of all my happiness ; but I love you — Mon
Dieu t how I love you ! "

THE PRINCESS SOPHIE DOROTHEA.
From a Painting at Ahlden, now removed.

[To face p. 276.

Doubts anb jfears 277
Konigsmarck to the Princess. " Near Dist, July —
" At last I have been so happy as to receive two
of your letters, and as one is dated Monday, the 13th,
and the other the i6th, I don't think there are any
miissing. But you tell me in one that you spoke
in the preceding letter of the foreigners at Hanover,
I have not seen that yet. The last came from Antwerp,
on which was all my hope. I received them in a
packet — two letters, as I notify above ; but what
makes me uneasy Is that they have been sealed with
a wafer and not with your usual seal. I beg you tell
me the reason, for It makes me most anxious. A
funny thing has happened. I wrote to Prince Ernest
joking about many ladies of our Court ; I also spoke
about Madame la Princesse, but in such terms as
respect commands, I sent the letters to the com
missary, to forward to Hanover, A certain adjutant
happened to see the man carrying the letters, looked
at the top of them, and as he found one addressed
to ' Monsieur le Prince ' he looked no farther, but
took the whole bundle to our general, ^ who, without
looking at the superscription, opened It, but seeing
it was written in terms of great friendship, he only
read, he says, the beginning, and sent it back to me,
sealed by Lenner, who swore to me that the Prince
did not read it all through. The harm would not
have been very great, except that I spoke of La Platen
' Prince George Louis, commanding the Hanoverian troops.

278 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
and Schwartzen and La Schulenburg^ a little lightly.
Your story about those two made me laugh as much
as my sadness would allow,^ but I cannot forget the
stay you made at Hanover when the foreigners were
there. At any other time I should have forgiven
you, but as It is I know not what to say,
" The day before yesterday I had a long conversation
with my colonel's wife in the Capuchins' garden, where
I was taking a solitary walk. She came up with her
husband and several officers, and took upon herself
to chaff me about my beard. Then she went on to
say she pitied me because I was so unlucky, and
another man was more successful. I pressed her to
tell me whom she thought I loved. She would not
tell me positively, but she let me know enough to be
sure she meant you. I urged her to tell me the name of
the happy man ; I did not want to know the name of
the lady, only the cavalier, but she refused. I begged
of her to tell me where she got her information. She
said nothing definite, but enough to make me guess
she got It from Madohr, You cannot think what an
Impression it has made on my mind. I tell you frankly
that unless you cure me of my new and just suspicions
I shall never return to you. It wIU be hard for me ; 1
shall not be able to survive it. But It is better to die
than to live without being loved. , , . In finishing my
letter I took up yours again to look for a little comfort,
I found some ; but as you only give me an account of
1 Ermengarda Melusina von Schulenburg, afterwards Duchess of
Kendal, mistress of the Prince of Hanover.
' This must refer to something in a missing letter.

2)oubts anb jfears 279
the 13th, and as the Prince went on the 6th,' I want to
know what you were doing the other days. Apparently
the foreigners were at Hanover, for the Duchess took
you to the comedy on the 13th, a sure sign that the
foreigners were there, otherwise the comedy would not
have been played. On the 1 5th the Uttle man ^ went.
You kept your room, but not on the i6th, 17th, i8th,
and 1 9th. What was the day of the fete ? ^ There
were three days you might have kept Indoors, for the
Prince's departure was a good pretext ; but the desire
to be seen by the foreigners made you forget all
your promises. You cared nothing about the Prince's
departure nor for mine ; both must have been very
welcome to you. . . . You tell me In your letter,
' let us love one another for ever.' Did you really
think about what you were writing ? At that very time
I believe your mind was full of pleasing Monsieur le
Rittermelster.* No doubt he told you that he had come
from the depths of Turkey to admire your beauty,
of which he had heard the Turks speak when he
was a prisoner amongst them. He charmed you,
for that sort of flattery is sure to please a woman,
and you doubtless believed he was telling you the
truth ; but he only came to Hanover to pick up a
few hundred ducats to set up his ruined equipage
again before Grossvardeln. I tell you that I cannot
' /.«. to Brockhausen after the review, which was held on June 6,
and, as we have seen, he did not return to Hanover for some days.
' "The little man" — the Prince, who set forth for Flanders on the
15th (25th).
' Colt's party and the public rejoicings to celebrate the victory of
La Hogue. * A nickname for one of the " foreigners."

280 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
speak of the man without my blood boiling. I may
suspect you wrongly, but appearances are against you,
I have suffered torments for weeks from not having
received your letters. Your departure from Hanover
did not take place when you said ; I knew from the
first that the foreigners were there. You go to the
comedy, the festival, and the music, notwithstanding
that you had a good pretext to remain In your rooms ;
and, above all, I know that you talked with that count.
That is the foundation for my suspicions."
The Princess to Konigsmarck. " Celle, July ^23-
" This morning I have received a letter from you —
at last. I cannot describe my misery and suspense
the last twelve days ; now nothing can equal my
joy. Though you reproach me so bitterly, and though
you suspect me, it is so easy to justify myself that
I am not in the least anxious. My anxiety is lost
In the fact that you are unchanged ; and I find
charm and tenderness In all you say. I Implore
you remain in this mood, and rest assured that I
would rather die a thousand deaths than do any
thing to displease you, I appreciate your sensitive
tenderness, I can assure you that all the actions
of my Ufe will bear witness to the love I have for
you. I am surprised that you still write about the
foreigners. 1 wrote to you every day everything
I did — I forgot no detail ; but you mix up my narra
tive so much that I must endeavour to make clear
all the points which puzzle you, and again relate

2)oubts anb jfears 281
everything. The Prince went to Brockhausen after
the review. He returned to Hanover the Friday
following. On Saturday he and the Duke paid me
a visit according to custom, and the same day the
Count who vexes you so much put In an appearance.
It is true I played in the evening, but I only spoke
to him at the dinner-table, and that very little. The
next day was Sunday. After dinner there was music.
I appeared rather late. I played cards, as usual, and
I spoke a few words to the Count as he was looking
on at the game. On Monday the Prince and the
Duke went back.^ The Duke was to have come
for the comedy, but the Duchess came alone to it,
and afterwards she went back. I am ready to make
any vow you like that I had not the least flirtation
with the Count, nor had I the wish or thought to
talk to him. The day he took his leave I was passing
through the ante-chamber of the Duchess's apart
ments, but I did not pause a moment ; I went home
directly. He went away the next day (Tuesday). On
Wednesday I did not leave my chamber, as the Prince
left. I did not appear either on Thursday or Friday.
I saw no one for four days except my women. On
the Saturday, when the Prince and the Duke came, I
had to show myself ; and on Sunday was the festival
of which I have told you so much already that I have
no more to say. On Monday I took leave of the
Duchess. On Tuesday I went home.^ I am glad
' Perhaps to Herrenhausen.
' I.e. went to her parents at Brockhausen. It is noteworthy that
Hanover is not " horae " to her.

282 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
my memory is better than yours, for, were it to fail,
you are just the man to pick a quarrel about nothing.
I should have a rough time of it ; but carping as
you are, I defy you to find fault with my conduct,
for it is irreproachable, and my love passes words.
You must surely see from all I have just told you
that it was not for the Count's beaux yeux I lingered
[at Hanover]. I am ashamed to be compeUed to
justify myself concerning him. Neither he nor any
man in the world could make me take any step
displeasing to you. I know, alas ! your sensitiveness
on these matters. Your suspicions and accusations
of coquetry drive me to despair. I have renoimced
such arts for ever, and in giving myself to you, I
think only how best to please you : aU my wishes are
bounded there.
" It is hard to excuse you for your injustice, except
on the ground of the silly things your colonel's wife
told you. Have I made any Impression on your
mind? You remember, I told you a thousand times
that my enemies would spare no effort to part us, and
begged you urgently not to listen to their tales.
However, ask the woman to give you the name of the
cavalier, so that I may see how far her audacity goes.
Were I at Hanover people might tell me the same
things about you, but I should not so readily believe
them, for I trust you, and your promises. Believe me,
my heart is safe in your keeping. When you think
of your merits and of my love you ought to have
no uneasiness ; I belong so truly to you that death
alone can part us. The last twelve days I have

Doubts anb jfears 283
known, alas ! the extent of my tenderness too well to
beUeve any one ever loved so strongly as I love you,
I had no doubt that I was betrayed, and the Countess
Platen had meddled ; but though I was In danger of
being lost for ever, I vow I never even thought
about it, for you alone made me anxious. I feared
to lose you ; I trembled lest on the Impulse of the
moment you would enlist In the service of the
Elector of Bavaria, and I should see you no more !
But I am far different to-day : my joy is now so
great that I cannot hide it. Why am I so far from
you? What joy to be with you, to prove by my
caresses how I love and worship you. In God's
name, believe me, and put away anything which
might make you doubt. Above all, do not heed
the silly tales you may hear. We have any number
of people to fear ; therefore let us be on our guard.
Be unto me as I am to you. If you remember, you
once said you would give up war and live for me
alone, but I fear you have already forgotten it. If
my blood were wanted to ransom you from danger I
would give it gladly, for I cannot exist without
seeing you, I lead a lingering life. I have not
really lived a moment since you left ; only your dear
letters give me a gleam of gladness, I think of
all the joys we had together, and then on my
weariness and loneliness to-day. What a difference !
When wiU that delightful time return ?
" The siege of Namur ' makes me tremble. Take
' Namur was besieged throughout the first weeks of June. The
citadel fell about June 21,

284 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
care of yourself, and remember that my life is Unked
with yours. Ah ! my dear one, why am I not with
you in the battle ? I would gladly die by your side.
Once more, good-bye. My love is inexhaustible ;
I belong to you a thousand times more than to
myself" " [Celle], >/j/i|
" I expected to have a letter from you on my
awakening, but Instead of the deUght of news from
you I had only the tedium of a letter from my
husband. I know not if you are to blame for this
negligence. If all you wrote In your last letter be
true I ought not to be uneasy, but I can never be
sure. If, unluckily, some malicious person has told
you some silly story I must not, of course, expect
to hear for a long time. If you knew the grief
I suffer when the post goes by without bringing a
letter from your dear hand, you would be more punctual
in writing, for my only joy Is in seeing these tokens
of your remembrance, I wrote to you yesterday, and
indeed every day. Not a day goes by that I do not
write, and as long as I am here I shall send four times
a week. It is a great pleasure to me, and I take good
care not to fail. I am getting on admirably with my
parents ; I duly pay my court to them, and they have
never shown me more kindness, I shall be here a long
time ; I am glad of It, and I believe you wUl be
glad too, for at this Court there is no one. I prefer
solitude now to all the pleasures In the world. I
am inconsolable because I have not received a letter

Doubts anb jfears 285
from you. Patience until Wednesday ! The suspense is
enough to kill me. Write so that I may receive your
letters regularly, for I cannot go on living in this way.
You say that you have made a vow no man has ever
made before. I am dying to know what It is ; but I
am sure, whatever it may be. It does not equal the resolu
tion I have made — to henceforth avoid all men, to show
nothing but distant politeness to everybody, to make
every effort to please you, to scorn aU misfortunes
that may befaU, and to link my life with yours. This
is my resolve ; are you satisfied with It ?
" I got into bed when I had finished this and was
reading your dear letters, I thought myself safe
because I had given out that I was asleep ; but to
my surprise my mother came to wish me good-night
a second time. All La Confidente could do was to
hide the letters under the quilt. I scarcely dared
move for fear the paper might rustle ; but at last
my mother went away, to my great reUef, for I was
terribly afraid. I dislike all these surprises, but it is
Impossible to avoid them." "Celle, /«/j/i|
"I cannot employ my time better than in writing
to you ; it gives me such delight that I could spend
whole days at it, though nothing happens here except
the same smooth, uneventful round. But my love is
Inexhaustible, and of itself would give me enough to
entertain you ; though to tell you the truth I am sad
at having received no news of you. I fear you have
found some more agreeable occupation than thinking

286 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
of me. I do all I can to drive away such thoughts,
but I love you too fervendy to be easy, and you
are altogether too fascinating for women to leave you
alone. They will do their best to estrange you from
me. Resist their allurements, I implore you, and
come back to me as tender as when we parted. The
memory of aU that has taken place between us
forms my only joy now ; Indeed, I wish for no other
whUe you are absent.
"They say the Electress of Brandenburg is at
Luisburg,' If so I shaU be unable to avoid going
there, I am much vexed about It, for I shall have
to be always with her, when my only pleasure is to
be alone, thinking of you. I am dying to see you
with your beard. I would give my blood to be two
hours with you. But, dear God ! I must not think of
it ; that is what distresses me. Never leave me again,
but let us look forward to that happy future when
we shall be parted no more, I would rather brave
everything than live without you. Oh, my love, my
love ! all the misfortunes of the world, all the blame,
aU the shame, are not half so dreadful to contemplate
as separation from you ! " "Celle, July ^
"I do not know what construction to put upon
your silence ; I cannot imagine the reason. To-day
I have received another letter from the Prince : I am
' "Moltke was executed on Monday, and the Court has gone to
Luisburg to be out of the way," — Colt's Despatches, Hanover, July i8,
1692. The Electress changed her mind.

Doubts anb jfears 287
piqued to notice that he is more regular in writing
than you. What has become of your eagerness?
Does the Brussels air inspire you with coldness ?
Has a new passion entirely effaced me from your
memory? I cannot reassure myself. You have no
good excuse for your neglect, for while you are with
the army you can write at any moment, but you do
not. Had you not received any of my letters, and
had I not received any of yours, I might think that
knavish tricks are being played ; but as that is not so,
I cannot delude myself any longer. I have written to
you so regularly that you must surely see my only
pleasure lies in assuring you of my love and fidelity.
You reply so irregularly that I fear I weary you ;
pray don't force yourself to write to me unless you
can do so with a good heart. No doubt you have
pleasanter occupations, and I would not be so unkind
as to take you away from them. I wish your
inclination to govern aU your actions, but I cannot
suit myself to everything you do for the mere sake
of decorum. I confess I am piqued, very much so,
at your Indifference. I try to excuse you as much
as possible, but I cannot find any solution of the riddle.
I have never been wounded so sensibly before. But,
beUeve me, however much I have reason to be dis
satisfied, however much I may become indifferent to
you, I will not fail in anything I have promised.
Pray let me know if you consent to my going to
Wiesbaden. The journey is almost decided. My
mother wishes it extremely, and she is writing to
morrow to the Prince to ask his permission for me to

288 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
go. I entreat you, write as soon as you possibly can.
What you wish shaU be done. FareweU.
" I wanted to finish thus, but I have not the strength.
I take up my pen again to beg you to come back to
me. Without you I cannot live ; I will expose myself
to everything rather than lose you. See how low
you bring me ! I am forced to believe you guilty,
however much I wish to think you innocent. Yet
I write thus." ..Celle, I^t^
¦' August I.
"It is very hard to be angry when one loves so
tenderly. All my anger is gone, and I delude myself
with the hope that it is your servants' neglect, and not
yours, that prevents me from receiving your letters.
If I do not get any to-morrow I think I shall go mad ;
It will be the third post. If you knew my anxiety
you would pity me. I fear no end of things, but most
of all that you have forgotten me and some new
passion engages you wholly : that thought torments
me always. I tremble lest you be unfaithful. Who
could be trusted if you deceive me ? If you do so I
shall renounce the whole world, and retire to some
lonely spot where I can weep over my loss, I want
to know if you approve of the journey I have already
asked you about. My mother yesterday wrote so
urgently to the Prince that he will be unable to refuse
his permission. If he gives me leave, and you refuse
it I shall be greatly perplexed. There is, however,
no reason why you should withhold permission, for
there will be no one at Wiesbaden, and those who

Doubts anb jfears 289
escort us on the journey are of no consequence : these
are the two essential points for you to consider, if
you love me still, I assure you I have not thought of
enjoying myself there, nor of seeing many people. In
my present mood society is the last thing I desire :
solitude suits me better than pleasure. My impatience
to see you surpasses all that I can express ; and if I do
not find you the same on your return, what wiU become
of me ? You alone have brought joy into my life ;
you know that I have counted all else as naught, and
aU my desires are limited to pleasing you, to have you
all mine. If I do not succeed, life will have nothing
left for me ; you alone make me love it — you will
make me hate it. Farewell." ..Celle, ^^^^^
' August 4.
" This is the third post, and still no letter ! Surely
so tender a lover as you always seemed to be cannot
have wholly forgotten me — or are we betrayed ? It
positively must be one thing or the other. The suspense
is so acute that I have not a moment's peace. But
my great fear Is that you have changed. I think of
nothing else, nor of all that may happen to me. Is
it possible that you have forgotten your vows of
eternal fidelity ? I strive to drive away my sad
thoughts, but I am in such abject melancholy that
I fear it is a foreboding ot misfortune. If you
love me no longer I shall never be comforted. But
what Is the use of telling you that ? You know it,
and perhaps the knowledge has not prevented you
from becoming unfaithful. Why do you force me
VOL. I. 19

290 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
by your silence to believe the worst ? I have not
deserved this coldness, for none ever loved so tenderly
before. If I receive no letter from you by the
next post I shall no longer be able to doubt.
What pleasure can you find in grieving me thus ?
What have I done to be treated in this way ? Is It
because I love you to madness and am faithful to
you with a faithfulness that nothing will ever equal ?
I have not the strength to say more, for I am writing
perchance to an ungrateful being, and the thought
is death. Farewell, If no letters come by the first
post I shall risk sending a note by Lenner, for if
there should be treachery I fear that you have received
none of mine, I send you this by the postmaster here,"
Fraulein von Knesebeck to Kdnigsmarck.
"Mon Dieu t what does it mean ? Why do the letters
miscarry so ? I would give much to know the reason.
Her Highness fears that you have become unfaithful,
and though I keep teUing her the contrary, she does
not believe me, AU my fear runs on treachery.
It must be the fault of your servants ; you would
do well to write and ask them the reason. It
appears they forward you all your letters. If the
others fare as badly as these it wIU comfort me, but
if you receive them more regularly what can It mean ?
Why should these letters be so long on the road?
Beware, sir. Do not neglect to find out, for the more
I think of it the more anxious I become. 1 think
you wrote in one of your letters that you were uneasy
about the seal which I put inside the letter, and I

Doubts anb jfears 291
wrote afterwards that I sealed it with that. All this
makes me fear that the letters have been opened, and
that they have taken away something. You have also
written to Her Highness asking what she did after
His Highness left. She told you everything, day by
day ; it cannot have been taken out of the letters.
In truth, I know not what to think. I am half
Inclined to go and see about it myself, and end this
anxiety. In the last letter, I wrote to you to send
me an answer direct here ; I do hope you addressed
the letter to me In my own name. If you have not
done so let me know, so that I may see to it.
"L, S."'
Konigsmarck to the Princess. " Waver, August ^^
24.
" At last I have reached the pinnacle of bliss. I
received five of your letters at once, but I see by
the last that two are still missing. That distresses
me, for I do not know how to recover them, and I
would not like to lose any of your dear letters, they
comfort me too much. You cannot imagine what
joy it gives me to find you are Innocent, I humbly
beg your pardon for having unjustly suspected you, I
am greatly grieved about it, and I hope you will not
be disgusted with me altogether, for it is because I love
you so much that these fancies come to me. Do not
punish me i's I deserve ; I have been punished enough
already by the anguish these wicked suspicions have
' La Sentinelle — one of the pseudonyms of the Fraulein von
Knesebeck.

292 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
caused me. I promise you to have no more of them.
What can I do to show you my gratitude for the
quiet life you are leading ? If my eternal love suffices,
it is yours ; if you desire a life sans peur et sans
reproche, it is yours also. Night and day, day and
night, I only think of how to please you. My love
for you passes passion ; I will be faithful unto death.
What ! I suspected you of Inconstancy. Ah ! base
am I ! You have shed tears for love of me. Oh !
dear heart, do not pain those lovely eyes ; I am not
worthy. What distresses me most is to find that you
are more reasonable than I, for you tell me you have
not received my letters, and you attribute this to the
neglect of my servants at Hanover. You are right, for
this is the eighth I have written to you, though I had
not received any from you. I was inclined at first to
think It was your fault, without considering that a
hundred accidents might have hindered. This Is
my defect — my weakness ; but, dearest, remember it
springs from loving you so much. 1 am very glad
you are going to Wiesbaden. I am so satisfied with
your conduct that you might go to Paris without
causing me any anxiety. I am glad you are on
such good terms with your parents ; this time you
should take advantage of it, for there are moments
we can never recover, ... I am delighted to hear that
you find Prince Max sillier than ever ; I hope he will
never again salute you. The portrait I have with
me is dearly cherished ; you need not fear any one
seeing it, for I guard it so carefuUy that I defy the
cleverest man in the world to guess where it is. My

Doubts anb Shears 293
pretty heart, you say in one of your letters that
perhaps at this very moment I am dividing my heart
with others. Yet see how I am all yours ! We have
been for six days only four leagues from Brussels
without my having thought of setting my foot therein.
Yesterday there was a great feast in Brussels called the
' Feast of the Miracle,' and Monseigneur I'Electeur '
and all the great ones and generals of the army went
in post-chaises to celebrate it ; many fair ladies were
there, too, I knew of it soon enough to have gone ;
but I swear, my dearest, I never thought of going.
My soldiers went, and they could not praise it enough,
particularly the fair sex, I would not go to Brussels
at all if I were not obliged to have a certain bracelet
made for me, of which you know, and a copy in
miniature of a portrait I shall wear for ever next
my heart. My Lord Portland ^ showed me much
friendliness, and assured me that the King held me
in esteem. All that does not make me wish to
better my fortune. No, Beloved, so long as I
can count you mine, I wish nothing more ; all the
favours of kings are useless to me. The King's
interview with our Prince was very dull, for both
are men of few words. Yesterday the Prince went
' Probably the Elector of Bavaria,
' Hans William Bentinck, first Earl of Portland and ancestor of
the present Duke, accompanied William of Orange to England as
confidential adviser, who created him Earl of Portland in 1689. He
vvas in command of a regiment of Dutch Guards at tbe battle of the
Boyne, and probably held the same commission in Flanders. Colt
mentions in his despatches that Lord Portland was with King William
at Brussels and during the campaign.

294 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
to see His Majesty in his camp, I did not go in his
suite ; but to-morrow I attend him to the Elector's,
and I will give you an account of that. Prince
Frederick Augustus of Saxony is the dupe of all ;
he is cheated In his horses, and money is won
from him at cards ; he has already lost one thousand
pistoles. He has no one to advise him, and is
being ruined, 1 heard to-day that Prince Christian
is to marry the widow of the Duke d'Arenburg." "On the ISth.
" I went yesterday to the grand army. We waited
on the Elector of Bavaria, and then we joined the
King, who was walking in the camp. There was a
great concourse of people of quality, but no very
distinguished-looking men. The brave Elector was
most gracious to me, and his manner most kind
and courteous. We shall soon join the grand army,
and then I shall be able to tell you more news. The
Prince [of Hanover] Is much put about to know
how to command his troops ; It Is obvious that he
is unequal to the task of managing them.
" You ask me to reassure you of my love. I will
never forsake you ; so long as a drop of blood remains
in my veins, so long as I draw breath, my heart is
wholly yours. You are all my wealth, my treasure ;
I would sacrifice the world to kiss your divine mouth.
I hate war and everything which takes me from your
side. One favour only I ask of the gods — that
I may be with you always, in life and in death. I
beg of you to tell me If my portrait Is as much

Doubts anb jfears 295
pleasure to you as yours Is to me ; I want to see
it In writing. Your picture is my only consolation
when I am low In spirits, when I think of my
sorrow and how far I am from you. It reminds
me, too, of the happy moments I spent with my
dear one ; it makes me exclaim, ' Ah ! moments
of rapture,' and I thank you again for the very
memory of them. Angel ! I am thine only, body
and soul ; my heart is filled with thy charms, mine
eyes are bUnded with the brightness of thy beauty,"
" [On the 16/A.]
"What joy, what rapture, what delight to be loved
by you ! I have just received two more of your letters.
No, my divinity, I wUl not exact any oaths from
you ; I know you well, and will trust you and believe
everything you tell me. Your devotion shows me that
I am the happiest man in the world, 1 feel, so happy ;
my only sorrow Is that we are separated. The days
seem weeks to me, the weeks like months, and the
months centuries ; and when I think that I have still
two months of campaigning to go through before I see
you, I despair, and pray a thousand times a day that I
may be wounded in the fight, and so have a pretext
for returning to Hanover — and to you, I am so
despondent that I am wasting away ; and what grieves
me most is the thought that when you see me again
you will find me as ugly as sin. The Elector told
me so only to-day, and all my friends find mc so
pale and careworn they scarcely recognise me. Every
day they a§k me if I am ill ; but my complaint only

296 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
comes from loving you. Cruel little one ! You think
I am so hasty that I would commit some foUy on
the strength of a mere suspicion ; but, dearest, when
a man loves as I love, he can never abandon the
woman he adores. I loved you through it all, so
think no more about it."
The Princess to Konigsmarck. .'Celle, ^^Sl^- August 7.
" I, too, ask your pardon for aU my unjust
suspicions ; I would not for worlds have been in the
right. I am at a loss for words to express my
joy at finding you stUl so tender ; but. Indeed, there
is a little laziness in you, and it is very good of me
to forgive you so easily for the three posts you let
pass without writing. Tell me what hindered you ;
I should like to know. Find me a good excuse, for,
really, your neglect rankles in my heart. I am greatly
vexed that two of my letters are lost, for if they reflect
at all what I am thinking, it will not be difficult
to guess that they are written by me. You do not
understand what I meant to say about the portrait. I
did not mean to speak of mine, for I am sure you will
have greater care for all that concerns me than I have
myself. It was about yours I was uneasy. You say
you are going to have a copy made of it ; for whom
do you intend that copy ? I thank you for giving
me leave to go to Wiesbaden ; you can do so without
any risk, for I so belong to you that you have nothing
to fear. All the same, without your consent I woidd
have died rather than have gone, for my only desire is

Doubts anb years 297
to please you. The Duke and Duchess [of Hanover]
have written to me the kindest, most affectionate, and
poUtest of letters concerning the journey. I do not
know if I shaU be able to receive your letters as
quickly as if I were remaining here ; I hope so, for
they are my only joy and comfort — the least delay
grieves me greatly.
" It was so thoughtful of you not to go to Brussels.
However, do not restrain yourself ; I have no wish
to be exigeante so long as you cherish me in your
memory. I am too happy, too pleased ; but keep your
heart whole for me, and do not allow any one to divide
it. I am delighted that you are, for once In your life,
satisfied with me ; were you reasonable you woidd
always be so, for aU 1 do goes to prove my love
and devotion. I do not know what you are doing,
perhaps very often thinking of me. I dream of
you often, and with Infinite pleasure, thinking I am
with you ; then I awake and am inconsolable to
find it was only a dream. I cannot delude myself
into thinking the vision may soon become a reality, for
the Prince writes to me that they are going to raise
the siege of Namur, What terrors that news has for
me ! Grand Dieu ! I think of you exposed to danger.
How can I keep calm when aU that I love, all the
delight of my life, is in deadly perU ? I offer endless
prayers for you, keeping a good heart whUe say
ing them, trying to believe they wiU be granted.
FareweU."

CHAPTER XVI
THE BATTLE OF STEINKIRK
I have loved you ; yea, when I rode in war
Your face went floated in among men's helms.
Your voice went through the shriek of slipping swords.
Swinburne, Chastelard.
" T OFFER endless prayers for you," writes the
X Princess to her lover. He had need of them,
for even while the ink was wet KOnigsmarck was fight
ing in one of the fiercest battles of the century. The
battle of Steinkirk took place on August 3, 1692,
William surprised Luxemburg, and began the attack
early In the morning while It was yet dark, and at first
it seemed that he would succeed. The French general
was off his guard, but with consummate skill he
checked the advance of the Allies and called up
reinforcements. All day long the battle raged without
either side gaining advantage ; the fight was so close
and desperate that the muzzles of the muskets crossed.
In the forefront of the battle were the British troops,
commanded by Count Solmes, an incapable Dutch
general. Though faced by overwhelming numbers,
they would not yield an inch, and five fine British
regiments were cut to pieces, Mackay's division of
298

Ube JSattle of Steinftirft 299
Highlanders was simply mown down with sword and
bayonet. No wonder that afterwards there arose a
great cry in England that English soldiers should
henceforth be commanded by English generals. Had
it not been for La Hogue, Steinkirk would have cost
William of Orange his English crown.
At last, night drawing on, the army of the Allies
retired towards Lambeque, leaving the French in
possession of the field. The French lost seven thou
sand men kiUed and wounded, the Allies not many
more ; but the victory was with France, The French
rejoicing at this barren victory was only equalled by
the disgust of the Allies at their defeat. In the camp
at Lambeque all was disunion and discontent ; the
sudden withdrawal of Prince Frederick Augustus of
Saxony (though Konigsmarck puts It down to gambling
debts) was due as much to political as personal reasons.
The Hanoverian contingent was held in reserve as a
possible reinforcement, and took no part in the battle,
a forced inaction which must have been very galling
to their general. Prince George Louis, Konigsmarck
obtained leave to go to the fight as a volunteer,
and attached himself to the Prince of Wiirtemburg,
" following him everywhere in the battle," The
troops sent by the Duke of Celle were in the thick of
the fray and suffered great loss.
The disastrous news reached Celle within two days.
The little Court was plunged Into mourning, and the
Princess was In agonies of grief and anxiety lest
Kflnigsmarck should be numbered among the slain.
In the general lamentation her emotion passed un-

300 Ube Xove of an TUncrowneb diueen
noticed, or was put down to natural uneasiness about
her husband, Colt, who was then at Celle, writes :
" The disappointment is great here, when by the news
they had received last post they were almost confident
of a victory, or at least some considerable advantage ;
but now, by the relation they have had by a courier,
they are told that their troops have suffered very
much, and many of their officers killed and wounded.
Many persons are in great trouble at the loss of their
friends," '
The Princess soon received tidings of her lover's
safety, and with a good heart proceeded to complete
her arrangements for the trip to Wiesbaden with her
mother. They were Interrupted by the unwelcome
news that the Electress of Brandenburg was coming
to pay the Duke and Duchess of Hanover a visit at
Luisburg, and Sophie Dorothea feared that she would
have to go there to assist in the festivities, " I dread
that more than death," she writes, thus showing how
great was her unhappiness at the Hanoverian Court,
But her fears were groundless,
Konigsmarck's letters continue to be written from
the camp at different places, and are alternately full
of passionate love and violent reproaches. They are
more varied than those of the Princess (which are,
indeed, so full of her love as to leave room for little
beside), and give us curious glimpses of contemporary
manners, KSnigsmarck was in high favour with
King William, the Elector of Bavaria, and many of the
princes and generals of the campaign. Undoubtedly
' Colt's Despatches, Celle, August, 1692.

Ube JSattle of Stefnfttrft 301
his prospects were brilliant if he had cared to profit
by them ; but, like the Princess, he was ready to
sacrifice everything to his passion. The period
covered by this brief introduction is August and
September, and the correspondence opens with the
reception of the news of the battle of Steinkirk at
Celle, The Princess to Konigsmarck.
" I learned on my awakening that a fearful battle has
taken place and you were in it. Imagine my agitation.
It was noticed by every one, for I could not hide my
feelings, I am in inconceivable anxiety. I cannot sleep,
and shall not until I know you are out of danger.
My plight is pitiful : It seems to me that every gun is
pointed at you ; you must be running terrible risks.
Grand Dieu I if any hurt were to happen to you, what
would become of me? I could not conceal my grief
nor be mistress of my emotion ; I should start at once
for the camp, hasten to give you all necessary care and
attention, and never leave you more. My sufferings
are intense. I know you have been going through
great danger, but know not how you fare, I shudder,
tremble, and am overwhelmed with woe. Do not
expose me to such fears in the future — leave me no
more. If it be true that you love me, spend the rest
of your life with me ; let us build up a happiness in
each other which none can shatter, I have not the
heart to write more ; I am so beside myself that I
hardly know what I am writing. You have caused

302 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
me many tears since you went away ; I fear me they
will only cease to flow when you come back, for you
will be exposed to danger all through the campaign.
I hate King William, who Is the cause of it aU ; he
breaks my heart by thus risking all I have In the
world. Good-bye. Take care of yourself. Remember
my life is fused with yours ; I would not live a
moment were you to die," "[Celle], ¦^'^^ 3°.
"- -• August 9,
"I am the most unfortunate and unhappy of
women. No sooner is my mind at rest about your
constancy than I am plunged Into terrible fear for
your life. I have not closed my eyes all night, I am
so downcast and melancholy that every one pities me :
Indeed, I am to be pitied, for the man who gives my
life all Its happiness is in danger every moment ;
perhaps I shall never see him again. It will kill me ;
I cannot endure this suffering, I shall surely not
survive you, 1 Implore you, In the name of the love
1 bear you, expose me not again to such anxiety, but
leave me never more. I am weary of suffering so
much. It is only right that you should give yourself
wholly to me, for I have given myself all to you. My
heart Is breaking, I shall have no peace until I know
that you are safe,"
Konigsmarck to the Princess.
"From the Camp near Wavern,
" Here I am again. I have escaped once more.
Our troops did not come in for any fighting, but

•-^

Ube Battle of Steinftirf? 303
I did, for I volunteered, and was in the most terrible
fire. The Prince of Wiirtemburg got me leave (I
followed him everywhere In the battle) ; but as 1
was only a volunteer 1 could not distinguish myself,
and that grieves me, for I ran just the same risk
as if I had been ordered to the front. The Duke
of CeUe has lost a great many men,' I will not tell
you any more about the battle, for you will know
enough from other sources. But, dearest, I will tell
you that I received, while marching, your letter of
the I Sth, and after reading it, I put it next my heart
and kept it there until I was out of the fight, and
I believe it was your dear letter that saved my life,
1 am grateful indeed for the talisman, and adore you
more than ever, since you have rendered me such a
service. Until now, dear one, they have not sought to
tempt me from you, nor have I even seen a woman ; if
I had she would have made no Impression upon me.
" 1 must tell you of the precautions I took about
your letters on the eve of the battle. 1 sealed them
aU, with the portrait, in a packet, and gave them to
Daniell, an officer of my regiment, with strict orders
to burn them at once if 1 were killed. But joy !
1 can still read them, and my eyes will have the
pleasure of looking into yours,
" 1 have heard from Prince Ernest that the Electress
[of Brandenburg] is going to Luisburg, and therefore
I imagine you wiU go also ; but pray keep to your
strict rule of conduct, for you will be sure to find
' " This Duke here is really very much troubled for the loss of his
troops in the late action." — Colt's Despatch, Celle, August 5, 1692.

304 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
there some of your old admirers, who wiU try to
win your good graces. The Electress will notice
it, and to annoy us both she will try to entangle
you in a flirtation with Le Barbouilleur ; ' but you
have been so good that I am sure you will continue
in the same path." "At the Camp of Halle, [undated].
" I have only now received your twelfth letter ;
it was given me with three others. You cannot fairly
accuse me of having been negligent, and it grieves me
that you should imagine the ladies of Brussels might
hinder me from paying you due attention. Here are
more grievances ; but I forgive you, for of course you
were unaware that I had not set foot there, and were
it not for the bracelet, I assure I should not think
of going at aU, Play prevented me from writing the
day before yesterday ; and there 1 am In fault rather,
the more so as yesterday I could not write because of
the enemy giving an alarm ; otherwise, my dear one,
I should never have missed writing. Your letters
were a great comfort to me ; they came very a propros,
for I got them when I came back from the King's
tent, where I had lost a thousand pistoles, and, as that
is a considerable sum, it was vexing me not a little,
but your dear letters made me forget my trouble. StiU
I found in one of them something which teUs me
that if I were the man to break my vows you would
easily be consoled. You are certainly very complaisant
' Le Barbouilleur, the dauber, scribbler, babbler. He must have
been some one holding high office at the Court of Hanover, but the
key to this is lost.

Ube Battle of Stelnftirft 305
when you say : 'I fear that I weary you. Pray don't
force yourself to write to me unless you can do so
with a good heart. No doubt you have pleasanter
occupations, and I would not be so unkind as to take
you away from them,' If I were such a traitor as to
change you ought to be grieved, and not beg me to
divert myself, and not to restrain myself. But surely
you did not mean it. It was anger that made you
write thus. It is strange that you should not have
received any of my letters. This is the fifth I
have written to you from this camp, and I have
not missed a post except the two before mentioned.
I woidd scold you much were I not in the same plight
as yourself ; yet / have never prayed you to write to
me no more. That shocks me much In your letter,
and twenty times at least I have thrown down my pen
as I thought of the wrong you do me. But I cannot
better pass my time than In writing to you, though
it be always in a strain of complaint, I have received
a letter to-day from my agent at Antwerp, but without
inclosing any from you ; that adds to my sadness,
for my only comfort is in reading your letters, I
have little enough of it, for the whole of your letters
I have received since I left Hanover could be read
in half an hour. I often find comfort in sitting
before your portrait, and if it could speak to you on
my return it would tell of the passion with which 1
gaze on it for hours together, how often it brings
tears to my eyes, how often I sigh, * Ah ! mon
Dieu I ' and, ' Oh ! what joy for me to die ! ' I
swear, my charming pet, that all day long I speak to
VOL, I. 20

3o6 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
no one ; I only think of you, and often in the night
your vision rises before my eyes. ... If you remain
true to me you will no doubt make me turn into
a sober citizen of Hanover, for, after aU, one only
seeks to be happy, and how could I be happier than
in possessing you wholly and solely. There is a
rumour here that we shall attack Mons ; if that be
so, keep the ' Festa,' If you are true to me, pray
for me, besiege Heaven with prayers and vows ; but
if you are not true, then do not pray for me, for I
would rather find my grave there — though, however
untrue you might be, I would give much to see
you again,
" In a previous letter 1 told you that there were
very few distinguished-looking men In the train of
the King or the Elector ; but if I had seen the Duke
of Richmond,' son of the Duchess of Portsmouth,
sooner, 1 should not have said so, for he is the most
charming youth. He unites to perfect manners an
air of great distinction ; he is well made, and has a
handsome face and fine eyes, I only hope he may
not become my rival ; he is such a good-looking boy
that if I were not sure of your constancy my chances
would be very poor,
" You ask If any woman has tempted me to forget
you. I vow that since I left Hanover I have not
gone astray. My health is poor, but before I see
¦ Charles Lennox, illegitimate son of King Charles IL by Louise de
Querouallle, Duchess of Portsmouth, was created Duke of Richmond
in 1675, and is ancestor of the present Duke. He was born in 1672,
and would therefore be in his twenty -first year at this time.

Ube Battle of SteinMrft 307
you again I hope to be In such perfect condition
that you may command me as you will, I go on
my knees before your portrait and exclaim, ' I
pray your pardon for my wicked suspicions. I see
that I greatly wronged you, and am waiting for
my sentence ; It could not be hard enough for me
to deserve.'
" The Prince allowed me to leave my regiment and
go to the battle, with an order to come back soon ;
but as I was in the thick of It I did not return in
a hurry. When all was over he said to me, ' You
were away a very long time,' but he said it very
nicely. I went to dine with him yesterday, and found
him as usual." The Princess to Konigsmarck. " [Celle], August ^
" What joy to know that you are out of danger !
One must love as I love to feel as I feel. I passed
two days and nights in mortal anguish ; no one ever
suffered so much. And now two of your letters
come at the same time, 1 am overjoyed with them,
for you assure me that you are pleased with me and
I need fear nothing on the score of your constancy.
But I love you so dearly that I needs must scold
you for having exposed yourself to unnecessary danger.
What have I done that you should treat me so lightly ?
Ought you not guard yourself for me ? I should be
grieved were you to risk your honour, but I cannot
forgive you for doing rash things Uke a fooUsh boy ;
1 entreat and implore you do not commit any more of

3o8 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
such follies. What would become of me were I to
lose you ? Do you never think that my life Is
bound up with yours, and I would not live a moment
if you were to be killed ? I hope the campaign
will soon end, for if they are going to attempt
anything fresh I shall die of terror lest some hurt
befall you, I don't know what the Elector [of
Bavaria] could have been about with his eyes to
have thought you ' as ugly as sin,' Had he seen
you with mine he would have found you the most
charming and the handsomest of men. No one can
dispute the palm with you, and however many
wonderful things you may tell me about the Duke of
Richmond, I am sure he must pale in comparison with
you. You would have no reason to fear him were
he to ' become your rival,' for he would only pave
the way for your triumph. Neither he nor any man
in the world could please me after you. I could pay
you any number of compliments of this sort, but I
fear to offend your modesty, so I will stop.
" The Electress of Brandenburg wiU not come for
some time, and I shall be gone before she arrives.
Our escort on the journey are not dangerous. You
may rest easy : they are only my mother's two pages
and Verfuy. When we meet you will find me more
faithful and loving than ever ; be the same, I implore
you. Let me thank you for taking such precautions
concerning my letters and portrait ; but they were
unnecessary, for had you fallen, my grief would have
discovered everything. I should not have had the
strength to restrain myself ; and, indeed, it would have

Ube Battle of Stefnftfrft 309
been immaterial to me whether I was lost or not, for
without you Ufe would be intolerable, and imprison
ment within four walls pleasanter than to go on living
in the world.' Thank God, I am now free from such
sad thoughts, and I make many prayers not to come
again to such straits.
" All the Court to-night complimented me on my
cheerfulness. The fools thought the Prince was the
cause of it ; but, to tell the truth, I have not once
thought about him. I cannot tell you the delight I
feel because, at last, you are pleased with me. Let
It be so always ; and the more you know me the
more you will love me. The love I bear you wUl
last till death, and all the powers of the universe
will never part us. If you could peep into my heart
at this moment and behold the confusion you cause
there, you would be satisfied. You are fascinating,
loving, faithful — what can woman wish for more ?
My happiness is beyond compare, and I have only
one wish left in the world — to see you soon. Would
you were with me at this very moment ! When once
I hold you again I will never let you go. Good
night. It is late, I am fain to end, though I have
so many more things to say that my words will never
tarry. Be all mine, I implore you. As for me, I live
only for you, I am grieved that you are not in
good health. I thank you for the care you take of
yourself, and, though I am surprised at it, I am
grateful, as I ought to be. Goodbye.
" I cannot end. I take so much delight in writing
' In view of subsequent events this is almost prophetic.

3IO Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
to you that I could spend the whole night at it.
La Confidente Is going to sleep ; I must send her
to bed. Love me as I love you. I am too happy for
words." "[Celle], August ^
" My mother, who has just left me, tells me it is quite
true there will be another battle. If I had not been
in bed she would have noticed the shock her news
gave me ; 1 have not got over it yet. Again 1 am
in mortal terror, and can only write of my sorrow to
day. It Is agonising to think of your being perpetually
exposed to danger. Am I destined to sorrow all my
life ? Shall 1 never be able to taste quietly the joys of
loving and being loved ? I long for news of you on
the morrow, I shall spend a sleepless night,
" My father and mother have just Interrupted me. I
was writing this letter, and It was all 1 could do to hide
It ; It would have astonished them if they had seen it.
They are very considerate and kind, but are always
preaching to me to behave properly to the Prince.
My father will not hear any jokes or ridicule at his
expense, and therefore 1 do not speak to him as
much as I should otherwise do. If you only knew how
weary 1 am, you would never have the cruelty to leave
me again. But I must not think of this ; I must
make up my mind to divide your heart with your
love of glory. You have aU mine. There is no
room in it for any one or anything — the desire to
please you fills It entirely, I love you far more than
you love me. Farewell, It is my desire to become

Ube Battle of Stefnftirft 3"
an example of the tenderest love, the most perfect
constancy, that ever existed since the world began,
" L' Envoi. — I have just received your letter. I
deserve to be scolded. It Is true ; but how can I guard
my words when I fear losing you, when 1 love you to
madness ? I would rather die over and over again than
cease to be loved by you. You are right in thinking
it was anger made me write the words that wounded
you : I cannot be reasonable when 1 love so passionately,
I wIU write to you fully to-morrow, I have no time
to say more now, as my father is coming to take me
to a ' bull-bait,' ' the same as they have in England.
It Is not necessary for me to assure you again that
I shall never change. If there be any vows left I
would sign them with my heart's blood,"
Konigsmarck to the Princess. "Halle, August.
" I again ask your pardon for all I wrote in haste.
' Bull-baiting was a popular pastime in England during the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries, patronised by royalty and persons of rank.
Queen Elizabeth gave one in honour of the French ambassadors in
1559, and the Queen and the ambassadors greatly enjoyed " the sport,"
which Hentzer thus describes : " There is a place built in the form of
a theatre, which serves for baiting of bulls and bears ; they are fastened
behind, and then worried by great English bull-dogs, but not without
risque to the dogs from the horns of the one and the teeth of the other,
and it sometimes happens they are killed on the spot. Fresh ones are
immediately supplied in the places of those that are wounded or
tired." This barbarous pastime was also practised as late as the
reign of Queen Anne, and was very popular, too, in market towns and
rural villages. But these bull-baitings drew such a mob of low and
dissipated persons together that they were at last abolished in the
interests of the public peace.

312 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
I missed the post twice (not three times, as you say)
for good and sufficient reasons. Still, I ought to have
left all to acquit myself of my duty to you. My
dear, I own my fault, so I hope you will forgive
me ; I wIU not neglect writing another time, , , ,
You make fun of me when you say that I took away
a copy of my likeness, I swear that I never did such
a thing, I went yesterday to Brussels to have the
bracelet and the portrait made, but for nothing else.
Prince Christian and several other of my friends
wanted me to go to the Assembly, I refused, and
went for a walk, I saw La Relngrave, La Delvasslne,'
and other ladies, but they were so dull and un
attractive that I mounted my horse and rode back
to the camp. Indeed, my dearest, I find those
ladles hideous now, though they pass for the hand
somest in Brussels, What are they compared to
you ? Two years ago 1 thought them passable, but
now 1 am astonished at my bad taste. They are
as pale-faced and sickly as if they had had the
fever ; pallor is very fashionable in Brussels.
" How sweet is that part of your letter in which
you say that if an accident had befallen me you would
have hastened to my side and have never left me
more ! Why wasn't 1 riddled with bullets ? Why
couldn't those cowardly Frenchmen catch me? We
are going to undertake something again soon, and
then I will face the fire, and with -intrepid courage
brave the enemy, I wUl seek the most perilous
places, and if 1 get wounded I shall hope to see
' Two beauties of Brussels,

Ube Battle of Stefnfttrft 313
you, hold you In my arms, and teU you how dearly
I love you.
" I hear that your father is going to Luisburg ; If
so, you will probably be one of the party. Pray
tell me your plans, for I know not where to write,
nor when to see you. They say our troops will
be quartered at Louvain or Dist ; In that case I
shall be nearer you. If your mother were still away
at Wiesbaden, I might hope to see you without its
being known ; but what I fear most Is that the
Court of Celle will be at Epsdorff. In that event
I shaU lose patience, for you will be there a long
time, and what shall I do at Hanover without you?
I must teU you an ugly story about the Duke of
Richmond ; he was giving a party to Duke Frederick
of Saxony and some women,' , . , I have altered my
good opinion of him, Duke Frederick has promised
me to come to the next carnival at Hanover,
and you can easily guess why I press him. Is it
to make me happy or unhappy ? I say no more.
Monsieur Kielmansegge is very anxious to go back
to Hanover, and if His Highness asks It of the
Duke they will allow him. I give you this piece
of news as I am sure It will please you, , , . The
Electress of Brandenburg is sending me compli
ments through Prince Ernest, 1 don't know what
she means ; perhaps she wishes to become your rival.
How we should laugh at her ! Farewell, dear
heart." ' This anecdote is unfit for publication.

314 TCbe Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
The Princess to Konigsmarck. " [Celle], August -^
" / could not have carelessly allowed three posts
to go by without sending any news to you, and
when one loves to madness It Is hard to be calm,
I crave your pardon for all I wrote that has dis
pleased you ; you are right to attribute It to anger.
Had you forgotten me, whatever I may have said,
I could not have borne it quietly, for I claim you
as all mine, I would stand up for you against the
world. Pardon me, then ; for what 1 wrote only
came from excess of love.
" I am not astonished at Duke Frederick's indiscre
tion ; it is so common to all men that I think you are
the only one exempt from it. I should like to know
whether you are not a little angry about La
Marionette's complacency ; it takes a good deal off
the price of the favours she granted you, I felt a
malicious joy with regard to that adventure. Put it
against my account, I should much like to know
what she says about Ferdi,' The Prince has answered
my mother about my going with her to Wiesbaden ;
he leaves everything to the Duke, and says neither
yea nor nay. He tells me the same thing, so
we shaU start in two days from now, I have already
told you the Duke is quite agreeable. My father
stays here,^ and Max is going to visit the Electress
' Ferdi — i.e. Ferdinand, a favourite of the Electress of Brandenburg,
probably a nobleman at the Court of Berlin.
' " This Court will the next week remove from hence : the Duke to
follow his hunting, and the Duchess goes to Wiesbaden, near
Mayence, for her health," — Colt's Despatch, Celle, August S, 1692.

Ube Battle of Stetnftirft 315
of Brandenburg ; she will not come just yet.
Since you don't wish me to go anywhere except
to Wiesbaden, I will avoid Frankfort, and will try
all I can to prevent my mother from going. She has
determined to take me herself, or send me there to
see the fair ; but I will give it up, for I wish all my
actions to mark my love and show my desire to
please you, I will write to your sister' and tell her
of our journey, I have not done so before because it
was not settled, but I fear it will be too late for her
to join us. You were not wise to wish her to keep
watch over me. If I wished to deceive you, neither
she nor anybody could prevent me. But let your
mind be at rest ; I would rather die a hundred deaths
than suffer the thought to cross my mind.
" I could not finish my letter this afternoon. I had
to make some calls with my mother, and on coming
home 1 learned that the Electress of Brandenburg
wUl be at Luisburg next week ; she has already sent
a list of her suite, so no doubt she Is coming. I am
vexed about it, for I was looking forward to going to
Wiesbaden — more for the purpose, I assure you, of
shunning the world than of seeking it, I am uncertain
what will happen now, I may be compelled to go
to Luisburg, and I dread that more than death. The
Electress will be sure to spy on me, cross-question
me, and watch all my actions, and she will find me
so different from what I used to be that she will guess
' The Countess Aurora, who was then at Hanover. Many of the
letters passed through her hands, though they were sometimes sent
direct.

3i6 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
the reason. Never mind, this is the least of my
cares. Prince Max Is going the day after to-morrow
to meet her, and will accompany her to Luisburg,'
If I do not receive any letters commanding me to
stay, I shall start on Tuesday."
Kdnigsmarck to the Princess.
"Halle, ^"»3^-
August 9.
" Tell me how long you will be away and if the
arrival of the Electress of Brandenburg wiU prevent
you from carrying out your plans. FareweU, dear
heart. I know a prisoner who longs to burst his
bonds and seek your arms, but there must stiU be
weeks of patience. How I am to be pitied ! I
have received a present from the French army — one
hundred bottles of the best champagne ; I wIU not
drink a glass except to your toast," "Halle, [undated],
" So far from forgetting you, I otdy think of you,
and I study all possible means of seeing you again. To
that end I arranged with Monsieur de Gorltz, if the
battle had been victorious to us, to have borne the good
news to our Court, and so perhaps to have had the
joy of seeing and embracing you ; but, my dear angel.
Fortune did not favour my plan. All these accidents
about the letters make me wretched. I am grieved at
your anxiety on that account, but you accuse me
unjustly, and, in turn, I claim you will ask my pardon
as I did yours."
1 " The Electress of Brandenburg is passing by here on her way to
Luisburg, where the Hanoverian Court is at a country house." — Colt's
Despatch, Celle, August 12, 1692.

Ube Battle of Steinftfrft 317
The Princess to Konigsmarck. g
"[Celle], August ^
" I should have died with joy if you had come as
you thought of doing ; and, though you did not
come, I am grateful to you for having had the thought.
I am so absorbed in my love that I am becoming
insensible to everything else ; nothing can please me
but to see you again and spend my life with you :
as long as that cannot be, I shaU always be wretched.
I have already asked your pardon for the wrong I
did you ; I do it again, since you wish me. I am
deUghted to be wrong, and I only wish I had always
been so mistaken, I, too, know a prison waiting for
my prisoner with great impatience. If 1 told you
aU my troubles, all my sorrows, I should make you
weep. My trip will last six or seven weeks. I hope
we shall both return [to Hanover] about the same
time. I must not see you the first time in public :
my emotion would betray me. They still say there
will be a second battle ; it makes me tremble. I have
not slept for many nights, and am rather unwell, I
think it comes from loving you overmuch, but that
is such a sweet sickness I do not wish to be cured.
I will write to you as often as I possibly can, but
do not blame me if you do not get my letters.
" I leave to-morrow. The Duchess Sophia has just
written to my mother to say the Electress is coming,
but as she wishes me a pleasant journey I no longer
fear having to remain."

CHAPTER XVlI
THE VISIT TO WIESBADEN
Why now do par^s of torment clutch thy heart.
Which with thy love should make thee overjoyed?
Dante Gabriel Rossetti,
THE Electress of Brandenburg did not go to
Luisburg after all. Elaborate preparations had
been made for her reception, for Duke Ernest Augustus
was anxious to gain his powerful son-in-law's support
for the coveted Electorate, and so wished to treat his
daughter with special honour. But the Elector of
Brandenburg hung back, and at the eleventh hour
the Electress changed her plans, to the great chagrin
of her parents. By this time Princess Sophie Dorothea
was well on her way to Wiesbaden, where she stayed
with her mother for some weeks. Before returning to
Hanover she visited the Frankfort fair, Frankfort was
even then a place of considerable Importance, and the
annual fair was a carnival to which all the great world
flocked from far and wide. It was very natural for
the Princess to wish to see it when she was so near,
and she hardly merited Konigsmarck's reproaches for
going. She writes to her lover en route to Wiesbaden :
318

Ube Dtsit to TKaiesbaben 319
" Einbec,' August —
"I am writing haphazard; but I cannot exist any
longer without assuring you that I love you, and
absence only increases my passion. I am not telling
you everything that has happened every day, for I
fear my letter might be lost, and then all the different
places I should have to name would disclose every
thing, I will send you a list when I arrive, if
anything worth mentioning takes place. I think of
you from morning to night ; it is my only occupation
and pleasure. I am so delighted to think I am getting
nearer the time when we shall meet again. I have
no end of dreams concerning that meeting ; they
are pleasant, though impossible. I am told you are
losing money at play. I am grieved, but one cannot
be lucky in everything ; your gains in love must
console you for your losses at cards, I hope you will
return [to Hanover] about the same time as I do,"
" [Wiesbaden], August —
" I reached here last night after twelve days' journey,
which seemed as many centuries, because I could not
hope to have news of you while we were travelling.
I am hungering for your letters, and hoping that I
shall have some to-morrow. Nothing took place on
the journey worth mentioning, nor did I see a face
worth remembering. I did nothing but eat, drink, and
sleep, and I played cards sometimes with my mother.
It Is hardly worth while to send you an account of
what I did every day, and, besides, as I said before,
' Einbec, a little town on the road.

320 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
1 should have to name the different places I passed
through, and that might reveal everything. The
prudent Confidente advises me to do nothing of the
kind ; but if you do not trust me, I will send it, in
spite of all. We are quite alone ; the house Is like a
convent, and there is no one here but ourselves, so
you can be at rest. But if tout le monde were here
you would have nothing to fear : I am yours only.
I wrote you once on the journey ; I am sorry I could
not do so oftener. About a league from Wiesbaden a
courier came to me with a letter from La Marionette,'
I am sending you a copy of it, and of another which
she Inclosed from her brother, who is with the army.
I am much surprised at their contents, I don't
know what object the little woman has in worrying
me, for I have never thought of her nor her brother.
Perhaps she wishes me to come to harm, so that
she may have you all to herself ; but she mustn't
think she has to deal with a fool who gives herself
away to the first man who comes along, as she does.
My love for you is the joy and happiness of my
life, the only love 1 have ever felt for any one ; it
will die with me,
"The Prince writes to me that another battle will
' La Marionette was a German princess, probably a princess of
Hesse. The mention of her brother being " with the army " refers
not to the campaign in Flanders, but to the fact that on the Upper
Rhine, and along the frontier which separates France from Piedmont,
there was a desultory war being carried on in connexion with the
Palatinate. The letters mentioned are two, one from La Marionette
commending her brother to the Princess and expressing a hope of
meeting at the Frankfort fair, and the letter inclosed from her brother,
containing extravagant expressions of his admiration of Sophie Dorothea.

Ube Wtstt to TKatesbaben 321
shortly take place. Think of the sorrow his news
causes me, for my life Is bound up with yours. I
hope God will answer the prayers I make for you ;
I say them with a pure heart : you make me quite
devout. You are right in saying that It is misery to
live absent from the loved one. I experience that
truth every day, but I hope to be rewarded for all
my trouble and sorrow when once I hold you in my
arms. You will be very clever If you escape me again.
I am thinking of the moment when I shall see you,
and the thought fills me with transports of joy. I
believe 1 shall die of rapture — pray God it may be
so. My love Is above everything : / worship you.
" They tell me the Electress of Brandenburg has
postponed her visit,' She was to have arrived two
days after I left. All the horses were ordered for her
equipage ; the Duke had given up to her his apart
ments at Luisburg, and they also brought music, — all
that for nothing ! They say her husband wished her
to put off her visit untU another time, but I feel
sure she wiU not come ; the postponement is only a
pretext. It will make the Duke and Duchess very
angry ; In fact, it is mocking them, but it matters
very little to me."
Kdnigsmarck to the Princess.
"From the Camp of Ninove, August ^
" For five days I have not received any letter from
you ; but, I know you are traveUing, and that explains
' " Just now we have the news that the Electress of Brandenburg doth
not come so soon as she intended, all things having been provided for
her." — Colt's Despatch, Celle, August 12, 1692.
VOL, I. 21

322 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
it, I hope to have news from Wiesbaden, for you can
make no excuse about the post there, I am grateful
for your anxiety about me when in the battie ; it
shows you have some fragment of love left for me
still. But perhaps it would have been better for me to
have been shot while fighting, for, though I am sure
of myself, I cannot be sure of you, 1 know not if
all they tell me about you is true. Your journey is
much against my wishes, and I have taken a resolution
which will astonish you greatly. On your love depends
all my happiness ; but, alas ! it is like building on sand.
But I cannot change my nature, and, however much
I may try, I cannot root out my love for you. If ever
there was a woman worthy to be loved, that one is
surely you. 1 have one thing In common with many
men — ' 1 love a charming being, who Is loved by many.'
That is from a song, and I give It you for what It Is
worth ; it does not come out of my brain, — that, alas !
Is too much worried with cares, jealousies, sorrows,
and anxiety to be able to invent anything witty or
clever. Farewell, I crave your forgiveness if I
suspect you without cause,"
The Princess to Kdnigsmarck. "Wiesbaden, "^"Sust 23.
Septemier 3.
" I should like to know why you are angry and
who has been telling you tales about me, I am
greatly wounded by your want of confidence. If
you trusted my love, and believed me incapable of
treachery, you could not so easily credit all these
silly tales.

Ube Dtstt to TKatesbaben 323
" It puzzles me to tell you any news ; we continue
to be quite alone. You wiU see from my note yesterday
that I have seen a few siUy faces — happily only for
a little while, for they left again the same day. I
really enjoy being alone ; it is as pleasant to me now
as it might have been unpleasant formerly. It is you
who have worked this change, and I can assure you
it is not your least glorious achievement : in truth,
people bore me and are in my way ; solitude Is
far more to my taste. I am no longer equal to
conversation ; you fill my thoughts too much to
leave my mind free.
" I have had a letter from the Duchess, who tells
me the Prince is aware of everything said of him ;
she also tells me about the Cabinet, and that the Prince
has written begging that all who invented the slander
should be punished. ' I don't think he is over-pleased,
but it is Immaterial to me.
" I hope, to-morrow, to have another of your
letters. I shall not be able to sleep all night, for
I am not satisfied with your last. I have just read
it over again. You attribute my anxiety for you to
come safely out of the battle to some ' fragment ' of
my love. So far from being a fragment, it is the
result of the most ardent devotion ever felt by woman.
In all you say there is a coldness that freezes me
to the heart, I am pierced to the soul. But I take
' This may have some reference to Moltke's plot, in connexion with
which Duchess Sophia was examined by the Cabinet, Vide Colt's
Despatch, August 29, 1692 : " The Duchess of Hanover hath been
examined in several articles before the Duke and his Council,"

324 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
some comfort In the thought that If you were whoUy
Indifferent to me you would not be so sensitive, I
would rather you were so hard, mortifying though It
be, than that you should be indifferent, I am going to
bed now, but I cannot get you out of my head ; waking
or sleeping, you are always in my thoughts. Good
night. You are the most perfect man in the world,
but you are never satisfied, — that is your only defect.
Cure yourself of it, and be all mine."
Kdnigsmarck to the Princess.
" From the Camp at Denise, August —
" I am glad you say that if any hurt befall me you
will not abandon me. I almost wish I could see you
again without my legs if it would give me the joy
of holding you always in my arms. But you need not
fret yourself ; they are losing all hope of doing anything
in this campaign, and it must soon end. Therefore,
resume again your merry looks and lively airs ; tears
and sadness do not agree with fairs and baths. It is
true 1 am not so exact In writing as you. I will not
dispute the point ; I know you cannot always write,
for sometimes you are prevented by other distractions.
Alas ! if you were to find real pleasure in loving and
being loved you would be the most satisfied of women.
1 should have believed you had you said your heart
was without passion, save the passion for journeys ; but
1 must be pleased, provided the journeys do not let
other passions enter in. This is what I have to fear.
Ah ! if you only mean what you say when you write.

Ube msit to TKatesbaben 32s
' It is my desire to become an example of the tenderest
love, the most perfect constancy that ever existed since
the world began ' !
" I assure you what Duke Frederick Augustus told
me about La Marionette made little impression, for
before that I was disgusted with her ; her ways
show the sort of woman she is. I have not yet
even mentioned you to him. He cut himself with a
sword and made a large wound in his head, trying to
cut the head of one Montrany. I call upon him every
day. He is most uncomfortable and dirty in his bed ;
all t^e bandages are swathed round his head, and, with
that terrible mouth of his, he looks a very disagreeable
object. But he is a good sort of prince, 1 wish he
would become Elector, 1 should have a very good
time. My sister Aurora is already at Hanover ; I
think both my sisters will soon join you, , , , The
Electress of Brandenburg will not go, after all, to
Luisburg, and the Court will soon be at Hanover, You
heard about Ferdinand's affair some little time ago.
Not only did he lose all his money, but he owed two
thousand pistoles. The Huguenots who had won it
from him could not get It, so they went to the Prince
of Anhalt and demanded that they might be paid.
The Prince sent orders to the Illustrious lover to pay
his debts before leaving Berlin. But Ferdinand, In
a rage, went and told the Electress, and she was so
annoyed at the affront offered to her fancy man that
she sent word to the Prince of Anhalt that she was
astounded at the liberty he had taken, and she would
complain to the Elector, and so on. The Prince

326 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
begged her pardon. I believe Ferdinand's mistresses
will find some means of satisfying his creditors and of
getting him out of the scrape. But the funniest part
of the story Is to come. The Electress determined to
take Ferdinand with her to Luisburg, but his acknow
ledged mistress begged her to leave him behind and
she would pay the debts. The Electress replied with
determination that she kept Ferdinand for her pleasure,
and when she tired of him the other could do as
she pleased, but until then she would keep him weU.
There is a happy man ! As for his mistress, she
may comfort herself, for the lover remains [at Berlin]
and the Electress remains.
" I am waiting with extreme Impatience for your
news. If, haply, you have arrived, I hope my prayers
will protect you from misfortune, and that you will
compass your journey In perfect health. Since there
seems so little chance of getting anything substantial
from your parents, I do not see why you should be
afraid of them, or why you flatter them, for every
thing that is to come to you after their death will
come to you without that, so you can easily spare
yourself the trouble. But you are very timid — so
much the worse for you ! They would be silly if
they gave you anything when they see you are
contented with fine words, 1 have won a thousand
pistoles, but I may lose them again. The King has
asked me to play with him in the Elector's tent,
where he Is breakfasting ; but I don't know If my rage
will let me go, for I am in the very devil of a rage.
1 am yours until the tomb."

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WILLIAM OF ORANGE.
(King Williaiu III. of England.)
[To face p. 326.
Ube Dtstt to TKatesbaben 327
The Princess to Kdnigsmarck.
"Wiesbaden, fj"'* '*¦
September 3.
" Yesterday I received two of your letters, one
very different from the other. One filled me with
ecstasy. If I had held you In my arms I could have
devoured you with kisses then and there. 1 will
begin by answering all the nice and charming things
you say, and then I will scold you for so easily
believing all the lies they wrote to yoiL. about me,
I deserve more than a little of the love you show
me, for nothing equals my devotion,
" I have long ago forgiven your carelessness, though
I did not get your letter until I had been three times
to the post without finding any, not twice, as you
say ; but when your letter came it gave me such
joy that I forgot all my sorrow and anxiety of a
fortnight. One kind word from you is enough to
bring me back from that other world of grief
and pain,
" Since you went away I have found existence
so wearisome that I have longed for death to put an
end to the sorrows and troubles which, as you know,
are many and threaten to overwhelm me, I hope
you will not be foolish enough, or brave enough, to
get wounded for the sake of seeing me the sooner.
I would rather wait a long time than any hurt
should befall you, though, believe me, I am so eager
to embrace you that I am ill with longing. What
you ask kept me awake all night. What would I
not give for the thing to be possible on your part !

328 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
On my part it is easy, but I will say no more about
it. We can never tell what the future has in store
for us ; but this I know — if anything should happen
to you I should not survive It. If you had chosen
a place to hide me from all the world you could
hardly have found a likelier spot than this. It is
away from aU society, in utter solitude. At any other
time I should have found it tiresome, for there Is
not a soul to speak to, and the people with us are
anything but lively ; but as I know your wishes it
is a positive pleasure to be cloistered like this. It
would have vexed me to find any man here : you
would certainly have jumped to the conclusion that
I came to seek him. I hardly know myself, and
cannot understand how any woman can have changed
as I have done. As I have told you a thousand
times, I think of you only, and count everything
else as nothing,
" I hope I may not go to Epsdorff ; the Prince's
return may prevent me, I shall do all I can to get
out of it, for 1 would not delay a moment the joy
I would buy with my blood — to see you once more
and to seal with my lips my vows of love. You are
admirable about your Duke Frederick Augustus. A
fine test you would put me to ! 1 shaU be sorry if
you place me under an obligation not to look at
him, though it is scarcely worth while, for surely you
need not fear. You know full well that you are far
above them all. You see, I am giving you back aU
the sweet things you tell me about La Relngrave
and Madame Delvasslne.

Ube MBit to TKatesbaben 329
" But I am too long In justifying myself concerning
your accusations in your other letter. Please explain,
for I do not understand. You speak as if 1 had
done something foolish, or, if I were too far away,
I nevertheless wished to do it. If you did not
receive my letters for a week It was not my fault, 1
wrote to you secretly from Celle by the post which
was to leave after ,me, and I wrote to you on the
journey. It is true I only wrote once, but It was
impossible for me to do so oftener. You must have
had the spleen very badly to wish you had been
shot in the battle. 1 am anxious to hear what new
fabrications they have told you about me ; I cannot
Imagine what they can be. I am wholly Innocent.
I went over everything in my mind last night to
see if any one could have given a crooked turn to any
of my actions ; but they have been all so straight
that they could not have been maUgned. The tale
bearers must have simply invented lies on purpose to
make you quarrel with me, Alas ! 1 see too well that
they wish to estrange us, and you are simple enough to
fall into the trap. It is very hard that, however much
I may strive to prove my love and devotion, you
blindly believe all these foolish tales. I should be mad
if I were to give you the least cause to complain about
me, for I would rather die than do it. There is
madness indeed in the passion I have for you. I cannot
understand how any one can love as I love ; you will
never feel or experience it unless you ' build on sand,'
as you say you do when you trust me. Only be to
me as I am to you ; 1 ask no other happiness."

330 tCbe Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
Kdnigsmarck to the Princess.
"Denise, September 3.
" 1 have received the letter you wrote from Einbec.
I see in It, with much joy, that you have not forgotten
me yet, I greatly wish, on your return, you may be
able to say the same things to me ; but alas ! what
have I not to fear ? You always speak of my not
exposing myself to danger, but you are exposed to
the eyes of many handsome cavaliers. Who knows
but that among the crowd at the fair you will see
some one who may wound you. The sharper the
attack the greater the danger. Mon Dieu t if you
are wounded what shall I do ? Where shall I turn ?
Why are you so lovely ?
" I have just returned from a walk with the King.
The Duke of Richmond was there, like a thrush, com
mitting all kinds of extravagances. Duke Frederick
Augustus has decamped without saying anything to any
one. He owes more than fifteen thousand pistoles ;
I hold eight thousand against him. He leaves behind
him many people who speak badly of him, but I have
a great regard for him personally, though his conduct
is devilish bad. As to having too much wit, he has
none at all ; he has not even won the approval of the
ladies in Brussels, You were right when you with
held him yours. The Elector [of Bavaria] went the
day before, yesterday to Ghent, which he likes better
than Brussels, He finds the ladies prettier there, but
as I have not seen them at either place I do not know
whether he is right."

Ube Dtstt to TKatesbaben 331
The Princess to Kdnigsmarck.
" [Wiesbaden, Tuesday, 30.] '
" . . . . Perhaps I am mistaken, but 1 detect
a vein of irony in your letter which is far from
pleasant. I have no wish to see any cavalier, for
you would surely think I came here because of him ;
but I need not have any uneasiness on that score
at Wiesbaden, for there is not a decently dressed
man about the place. You will have nothing to
reproach me with about this journey, thank God ; for
I dread your criticisms. You are the most troublesome
creature when you set about them. What matter even
if there be a man within a hundred leagues of me ?
Why should you, the handsomest and most fascinating
of all men, fear him? 1 cannot forgive your mis
trust. You do not believe my promises or you would
not perpetually worry me about my demeanour. If
you could see the hole I am in even you would be
satisfied. " Here Is my day : I played cards with my mother
all the afternoon. I rested a long time on my bed.
1 went for a walk with my women. I supped, and I
am going to bed. I hope you will be satisfied."
Kdnigsmarck to the Princess. " [Undated.]
" You depict the place where you are as so dreadfully
dull that I have not the heart to forbid my pet from
being cheered a little. The Frankfort fair wiU give
' The beginning of this letter is missing.

332 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
you some amusement, I am sorry not to be one of
your party. What about your mother ? When will
she take the road ? and will she return with you to
Hanover, or is she going to stay on at Wiesbaden ?
Those who wrote to me from Hanover only sent me
the news of the place ; they didn't mention you,
therefore don't be angry, there are no tale-bearers, and
if there were I should not believe them,"

The Princess to Kdnigsmarck." [Wiesbaden], September -^
" I am delighted to hear from you that the campaign
will soon end ; but It will not end as soon as I wish,
for I am awaiting your return with an impatience
which only equals my love.
"We are still alone here, and If any teU you the
contrary they are very badly informed. I am going
to the fair, and La Marionette has arranged for me
to meet her there. My mother made me write and
ask her to be at Frankfort the same time as our
selves. I Implore you, do not get ill ; nothing wiU
take place there to make you so. I am grateful
to you for giving me leave to do as I please ; you
know well that you risk nothing in granting me
freedom, for I am incapable of abusing it, I know
to the tip of my Uttle finger everything 'I ought to
do to please you, and I never fail in doing It, But
can I be so sure of you ? Shall I see you again as
tender as before ? 1 flatter myself, yes ; but if it
be otherwise I will not live a moment. I know no

Ube Dtstt to TKatesbaben 333
happiness in the world save the one of being loved
by you ; I ask for no other, for you are the source
of all my joy," Kdnigsmarck to the Princess. " Denise, September —
" When you have read my previous letter you will
see I have had very little correspondence at Hanover
with any one concerning you. The fear our affair
may be discovered makes me go with a bridle in
my mouth, and I have few acquaintances to whom
I would confide such a secret, I think the Duchess
of Hanover answered the Prince very well ; she Is
careful to support the Cabinet, She is just like the
Countess Platen ; I fear some day she will have the
same power. ... 1 have been looking forward to
seeing you again soon, but the news from Hanover
teUs me that the Duke is going to hunt at Epsdorff,
where your father is now.' The Prince is going there
too, and, as the Duchess of Hanover is going to
visit the Electress of Brandenburg, you are sure to
be one of the hunting party.
" The Electress of Brandenburg has been in a great
rage with Montalbany. She joked him at supper
because people said he had such thin, lean legs. Next
morning he waited on the Electress In her chamber,
and she laughed at him again about the same thing.
He lost his temper, and, kicking his leg up on the
' Colt mentions that the Duke of Celle was at Epsdorff {vide
Despatch, September 15, 1692); and he was also there on October 7.
On the loth he went to Gohre.

334 TCbe Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
toilet table, said to her, ' Voila, Madame, all those
who have told you such things have Ued.' The
page-In-waiting, seeing his impertinence had carried
him too far, tried to make him retire ; but Montalbany
was In such a rage that he gave him a fillip which
made the blood flow out of his mouth and eyes.
The Electress flew into a furious passion, forbade
Montalbany ever to see her again, and ordered him
from her presence. But she did not long keep to that
resolution, for one of his friends begged and prayed
for him so hard that she made it up again. They
say here it was Ferdinand, and the scandal does
much harm to that lady. Prince Ernest writes nothing
of It to me.
" In one of my letters the news from Hanover teUs
me that my two sisters have gone to Wiesbaden.
I fear they will find you no longer there, which
will be a disappointment to them, as they looked
forward to paying their court to you at Wiesbaden,
since there is so little chance of their doing it else
where, except at Celle. It is annoying, for they
would like to show their devotion, but have not the
opportunity of doing so. . . . What shall I do if you
go to Epsdorff? I shall not see you until the carnival ;
and 1 must see you, whatever It may cost me. Try
to think how I can do so, and let me know of a
plan. I should like to know, too, if you wish me to
wear my own hair this winter, or whether you would
rather see me in a wig. Your wishes will be my law
in this as in other things ; In the merest trifle I shall
always study your sweet will,"

Ube Dtstt to TKatesbaben 335
'The Princess to Kdmgsmarck. " [Wiesbaden], September —
" How happy I am to have a lover like you ! The
more I read your letters the more 1 am delighted
with them. No one ever had such noble qualities ;
no one could imagine a more gracious lover, 1 am so
grateful to you for giving me leave to go to the fair.
" Last night I received La Marionette's answer.
She will be at Frankfort the same day as ourselves.
What would I not give for you to be with us ! I
should die of joy. Nothing can equal the Impatience
1 feel to see you again ; but I must be patient, though
it is very hard when one loves to distraction. 1 do
not know yet whether there will be any one else at
Frankfort. I shall write to you as soon as I get
there and give you an account of everything I do ;
but be sure that if all the delights and charms of the
earth were at the fair you would fill my mind wholly,
and 1 shall do nothing that does not show my love
for you — a love beyond all that I can express. I
defy the whole world to equal me in tenderness and
faithfulness ; and you deserve it wholly, for you are
a king among men.
" La Confidente has been far from well the last
few days, and I am anxious about her ; but I hope
the change will soon set her right, for this air is
bad, and I am dying with impatience to leave it.
Here are so many sick people that 1 fear I may
become one of them myself. I should be so dis
tressed if you were to find me ugly on your return

336 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
that I would make up on purpose to please you.
They say I am getting stouter. I am going to bed
now, but I feel very lonely in it, for, since you
left, how many prayers, what eagerness, what desire,
to see you again ! Good-night, my dear one. If 1
hold thee once again thou wilt never escape me
more," Kdnigsmarck to the Princess. "Denise, September ^
" Since you have asked me to explain all I have
against you I will make a clean breast of it ; ' four
things, of which the last is the worst. The first Is
that you did not mention that you saw Spar at
Celle, The second, It gave you great pleasure to
meet Guldenlon at Wiesbaden, The third, although
you assured me you did not care about going to the
fair, you seize any pretext for going. You pretend
it is because your mother wishes it ! The fourth is
the new rival [the Prince of Hesse], He is near
you, in his own country. His sister (La Marionette)
pleads for him. You are going to the fair, and he
will be there with his maquerelle ; and If he goes to
Hanover, his old sister, who is the most cunning of
women and well versed in intrigue, will be there too,
on the pretext of a visit, to take him to your chamber,
even though you were abed. I will not suffer such
things ; I would rather go to the Indies. It would
not be pleasant for me to find a lover in your
• Evidently in answer to the Princess's letter of ugust 24.
Septemier 3.

\ Ube Dtstt to TKatesbaben 337
chamber, whUe I, who worship you, must not enter.
But I forget, he is a prince, and for that reason
privileged by his rank. All the same, I yield him
nothing, ... I fear this letter would be offensive if I
believed all I wrote ; but no, dear angel, I know
your virtue and your constancy, and so I warn you
to be careful. Two women are with you, one of
whom has already done her best to make you hate
me — your mother. My dear Leonnlsse (1 give you
that name, for It is that of an incomparable woman.
If you are anxious to know whom, read the Due de
Bourbon's romance, Prince de Tarente), what should I
do without you ? I have met with a lot of bad
luck in life, but at least I have had the joy of
worshipping you, and from the first day I saw you
my heart was touched, though I was only a mere
boy and unable to declare my passion,' But even
then 1 loved you, and I love you now. As my love
for you was born with me, so to speak, so it will also
die with me. Oh, Leonnlsse ! if you only knew how
1 worship you, you would freely excuse all the follies
passion makes me commit and aU the suspicions that
take shape in my brain. The Elector [of Bavaria]
swears at me about my gloomy temper, which he
says I brought from Hanover, That is true ; but I
am the only one who knows the cause of my com
plaint, and the remedy, 1 am in a most piteous
state night and day, 1 open my eyes only to weep,
and my mouth opens only to sigh. You ask me to
tell you the vow that I have taken. It is to love
1 Another reference to their early friendship at Celle.
VOL. I. 22

338 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
you as long as a drop of blood remains in my veins,
and though you may change to me, I shall never
change to you.
" I have seen your first lover, the one you were on
the point of marrying.' What a face ! They tell me
his wife is at Ghent, and the ladies of the place will not
pay their respects to her, she gives herself such airs.
She sees nobody ; but you would have enjoyed yourself
like a queen. Think how pleased I should have been,
for you would only be two hours from me, and your
husband in the army !
" Duke Frederick Augustus has left the army with
very few honours ; he owes money right and left. He
left Brussels under a cloud, for he gave a powder
to the first jeweller who dunned him which sent the
poor man nearly mad. The rogue knew he was
going to bolt, but he concealed his intentions and
still made promises. The other day I dined with him
at the Comte d'Egmonts, when he made me many
hypocritical promises. That is the way young men
go on nowadays ; I give them a good sound talking
to. The season is getting so cold that every one is
beginning to speak about winter quarters,"
Kdnigsmarck to Fraulein von Knesebeck.
" You are right to think the visit to Frankfort
would displease me, especially as I begged and prayed
her not to go. However, all can be repaired If she
only stops one day there. It is not fair. Did she
' (?) The Prince of Wolfenbuttel.

Ube Dtstt to TKatesbaben 339
not say she hoped 1 would not go often to Brussels ?
That was suflRcIent, 1 only set foot there for four
hours for a game of tennis ; I did not even go to
Ghent. The wealthy marriage they proposed for me
I rejected from the first.' I also refused to undertake
the journey of which you know,^ though It was the
only thing to save my property. Count Oxanstern^
assured me that If I had gone the King [of Sweden]
would have made me an offer of a regiment with the
titie of general, and Marshal Hasbert also said that
if I had attached myself to the service of the King I
should at present be a general. Consider, dear friend,
what I have sacrificed and what she is doing, and then
say who is in the wrong. This Is between ourselves,
for I do not wish her to know about this at all, so
pray don't mention it."
Kdnigsmarck to the Princess. " Gavern, October —
14.
" I am extremely sorry to hear that La Confidente
is unwell. I trust, however, that the gaiety of the fair
wUl soon put her to rights. I am glad to see you
are going to leave that unhealthy place (Wiesbaden)
without being attacked by any complaint or Illness.
' This marriage has been alluded to before — in 1691.
* The mission to Sweden ; he went no further than Hamburg.
' A Swedish noble of high rank, sometime envoy at Hanover.
This letter is very characteristic, and undoubtedly shows that Konigs
marck had made sacrifices of his worldly prospects to be near the
object of his devotion. But it was hardly generous of him to remind
the Princess of it, even indirectly, for she had made a much greater
sacrifice for him.

340 Ube Xove of an Tancrowneb diueen
You need not be so very anxious on my behalf about
your looks, for I could not find you more beautiful
than I do already, and If you wish to " make up " for
me, I shall not see you for some time, and your visit
[to the fair] wiU have fatigued you. Had you
done so after your trip I might have flattered my
self It was for me ; but in any case your care wUl
not be thrown away. The fine world of Frankfort
will have the benefit, and you wUl have the satis
faction of finding yourself hated by the ladies of
the city, for you will surpass them all in beauty
and take away their lovers. You have made so many
conquests In so many different countries that I do
not doubt for a moment that you will enjoy the same
triumphs in Frankfort, and include that town in the
list of your trophies. You seek the banks of the Rhine
and the Maine for people to admire you and rave
about you ; but why do you not cast a glance towards
this unfortunate country ? Here are kings, dukes,
electors, and princes ready to woo, and who of them
could resist your charms ?
" We arrived here after a march of thirty-six hours
without a rest ; some of our men fell from their horses,
and others have the fever. Several wanted to entertain
the Prince at Ghent : Gorltz wanted to give him
a dinner at his wife's, Ovenair wanted to give him a
livelier one with loose women. They tossed dice
for it, and Ovenair won. The Prince told me 1
could make one of the party. Monsieur Gorltz goes
to the Hague, the Prince starts on the 15th, and
Monsieur de Konigsmarck goes to Brussels to cure

Ube Dtstt to TKatesbaben

341

himself if he can. Here in a few words Is news
you will not much relish ; but, to finish with a bonne
bouche, 1 vow to you with much submission that no
one on earth could be your more humble servant
than 1,"

END OF VOL. I.

Printed by Hasell, IVatson, tS* Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.

YALE UNIVERSITY

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