[[A.D. 1693.]] The Duke of Zell had been duly informed that his daughter was obstinate, disrespectful to the elector, undutiful as a wife and mother. Inquiry among her enemies {041}only served to confirm the report, and, to his eternal shame be it said, the father turned against his child. Not so the mother: she knew the disposition of Sophia Dorothea too well to credit the dreadful charges brought against her, and longed to take her back home and shield her from all harm. The young woman was permitted at last to make a visit to Zell, where she would gladly have remained, but although George Louis had almost strangled her to death in a fit of temper, just before she left Hanover, her father insisted that she should return, and in order to insure obedience, attacked her in her most tender point. He told her that unless she went back at once to her husband, she should be deprived of her children; then she no longer asked to remain. [[A.D. 1694.]] Philip von Konigsmark had been on a visit to Dresden, but returned to Hanover shortly after Sophia Dorothea got back there. He was surprised one day at receiving a note signed by her, requesting him to come to her room. He obeyed without suspecting that the note had been forged by Madame von Platen. The lady-of-honor admitted him, as much surprised as was her mistress, the visit being made at rather an unseemly hour. Sophia Dorothea remarked upon it, whereupon Philip produced the note which the lady at once declared she had not written. Of course he should immediately have taken his departure, but Sophia Dorothea began to talk about her domestic troubles and the unkind treatment to which she had been subjected even at Zell, whereupon Philip advised her to run away, and so these two talked on, in the presence of the lady-of-honor, for a couple of hours. Meanwhile, Madame von Platen was by no means idle. She had her own reasons for hating Philip von Konigsmark, which need not be recounted, but that she really did hate him intensely, her conduct proves only too clearly. She {042}had watched him until she was sure of his whereabouts, then rushed to the old elector with a tale that she embellished and adorned, until she got permission to have Philip arrested and locked up. To nothing else would the old man consent, for he really believed no harm of his daughter-in-law, but thinking that he would not lose this opportunity of teaching the young gallant a lesson that he would not soon forget, he gave Madame von Platen a written warrant for his arrest, playfully adding as he did so: "I know that although you seem to be so angry with Kônigsmark, he is too handsome a man to receive ill-treatment at your hands."