After some moments' conversation, Stafforth hit on a plan. He walked across the room and leaned out of the open window. 'What a glorious night!' he exclaimed. 'Ah, Monseigneur! I understand your Highness's love for the silent woods at night; even here, in the town, the summer night is full of mysterious poetry! Graevenitz, if his Highness permit you, come and look at the beauty of the far-off stars. You also have a vein of poetry in your soldier-nature.' This being exactly what Friedrich Graevenitz entirely lacked, it flattered him extremely to be credited with the quality. He craved his Highness's permission to look at the glorious night scenery, and repairing to the window leaned out beside Stafforth. The Oberhofmarshall immediately pressed close against him and encircled his shoulders with one arm, holding the dupe firmly away from the interior of the room; meanwhile Stafforth's other arm was round his own back, with Wilhelmine's letter held out in that hand towards the Duke. He remained thus expatiating on the beauty of the night, till he felt the Duke withdraw the missive from him. Having assured himself by hearing a faint rustle of paper that Eberhard Ludwig had read the missive, he finished his oration, and removed his strong arm from Graevenitz's shoulder. Now it was the Duke who leaned out of the window. 'O Stafforth!' he cried, 'the night is too beautiful to sleep through! Gentlemen, I invite you to hunt with me to-morrow at break of day! We will meet at the edge of the Rothwald and follow the stag. Till dawn, then, farewell! I shall wander in the wood till then.' His Highness dismissed Stafforth and Graevenitz. As the door closed upon the two courtiers, Eberhard Ludwig snatched a crumpled paper from his breast. It was the Duchess Johanna Elizabetha's formal command to her guests to appear at her private concert of madrigals:-- 'Le Chambellan de Son Altesse MADAME LA DUCHESSE DE WIRTEMBERG a l'honneur d'inviter Madame de Stafforth ce Lundi 25 Juin a 8 heures du soir. Je regrette de ne pas pouvoir inviter des voyageurs etrangers.--J. E.' Signed and annotated, you will see, by her Highness's own hand. Beneath which, in strong, manlike characters, was written-- 'Ce soir a onzes heures.--PHILOMELE.' And it is a matter of history that his Highness Eberhard Ludwig of Wirtemberg did _not_ keep his tryst at dawn with Oberhofmarshall Stafforth and Friedrich Graevenitz in the Rothwald. CHAPTER VIII THE GHETTO