She looked at him for a full moment as one deaf, who, knowing some one has spoken some word, hears not and wonders pitifully. The notary had turned away and busied himself with writings and documents on the table. Already his thoughts were rehearsing a wonderful oration he would speak, a masterpiece of pleading. What a great man he was, to be sure! Of course, he would move to Stuttgart. His ambition soared--surely a very great lawyer. A rustle of silken garments in the room behind him, and two hands fell on his shoulders: hands of iron they seemed. 'Say that again; you do not know what you have said.' It was a strange voice which spoke: a voice so hoarse, so toneless, that the fat little man trembled, recalling in a flash the stories of witches' transformation into ravening wolves or terrible demons. He wriggled round. The Graevenitz stood over him, her hands upon his shoulders, her eyes like two flames scanning his face. 'Say what, Excellency? I do not know----' The trivial fact of the Duke's death and of this woman's agony had been lost for him in his dream of his own judicial splendour. 'What did you say of his Highness? Tell me, or I will kill you,' she returned in the same fearful voice. 'I said what all the world knows: that the Duke Eberhard Ludwig died from lung trouble, on the 31st of October--a week ago,'--he answered angrily, struggling to remove those gripping hands from his shoulders. 'It is a lie! Another lie to torture me. Go, you lying, cruel devil--the Duke shall punish you.' She was mad for the moment; sense, dignity, all was swept away in her terrified fury. She pushed the man from the room, her murderous hands gripping and bruising his shoulders with demoniacal force. 'Go, liar!' she cried, as she thrust the little man through the door. She stood silent and motionless. 'He said that all the world knew,' she whispered hoarsely. She flung herself face downwards on the stone floor of the prison-room, moaning and biting her hands like one possessed of a devil. * * * * * Duke Karl Alexander, successor to Eberhard Ludwig, was a gallant gentleman, hero of a hundred battles. He was received in Wirtemberg with popular enthusiasm, in spite of the damning fact that he was a Roman Catholic. He reassured his people by swearing to uphold the Evangelical Church. This being so, he began his reign with the entire approbation of the Wirtembergers, and in the press of business and rejoicings the trial of the Graevenitz seemed forgotten. Still, the mass of carefully prepared accusations remained, and the gentlemen of the law but bided their time.