And traces of all this linger in Wuerttemberg.[1] They still deem the Countess Graevenitz a subject to be mentioned with bated breath--a thing too evil, too terrible, for polite conversation. The very guides at Ludwigsburg slur over her name, and if they go so far as to mention her, they say: 'Ja, das war aber eine schlimme Dame,' and turn the talk to something else. But her memory lives magnificently in the great palace built for her, in her little 'Chateau Joyeux' of La Favorite, and in the many beautiful properties which belonged to this extravagant Land-despoiler. She came to Wuerttemberg when the country was at a low financial ebb. Louis XIV. had preyed upon the land for years. Robber raids they called these wars which he waged for trumped-up pretexts. After these invasions came the war of the Spanish succession, and Wuerttemberg lying on the high-road from France to Austria, the belligerent armies swept over the Swabian land on their way to battle. The Duke of Wuerttemberg, loyal to his Suzerain the Emperor at Vienna, joined in the fray and fought bravely at the side of Marlborough and Eugene of Savoy against the French terror. When Blenheim had been fought and won, the war-tide swept northwards to the Netherlands, leaving Southern Germany for the nonce at rest, and Eberhard Ludwig of Wuerttemberg repaired to Stuttgart to attend to his Duchy's government. Now began the love-story of his life, the long-drawn episode which made his name a target for the gossip and scandal of early eighteenth-century Germany; the episode which changed the simple, stiff family life of the Wuerttemberg ducal circle to a brilliant, festive court, which travellers tell us in their memoirs vied in magnificence with the glories of Versailles itself. M. H. STUTTGART, 1905. CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. THE INTRIGUE, 1 II. THE AVE MARIA, 13 III. THE FIRST STEP, 27 IV. THE JOURNEY, 50 V. THE PLAY-ACTING, 68 VI. LOVE'S SPRINGTIDE, 82 VII. THE FULFILMENT, 90 VIII. THE GHETTO, 103 IX. 'SHE COMES TO STAY THIS TIME,' 116 X. THE ATTACK IN THE GROTTO, 129 XI. THE MOCK MARRIAGE, 153 XII. THE MOCK COURT, 167 XIII. THE DUCHESS'S BLACK ROOMS, 181 XIV. THE SECOND MARRIAGE, 196 XV. THE RETURN, 212 XVI. LUDWIGSBURG, 224 XVII. THE BURNING IN EFFIGY, 242 XVIII. THE SINNER'S PALACE, 261 XIX. THE GREAT TRIUMPH AND THE SHADOW, 279 XX. SATIETY, 302 XXI. THE DOWNFALL, 325 XXII. REST, 350 A GERMAN POMPADOUR CHAPTER I THE INTRIGUE 'Es ist eine Hofkabale.'--SCHILLER.