Prince Augustus of Wolfenbüttel, the accepted lover of Sophia--Superstition of the Duke of Zell--Intrigues of Madame von Platen--A rival lover--Prince George Louis: makes an offer of marriage to Princess Anne--Policy of the Prince of Orange --Prince George in England: festivities on account of his visit --Execution of Lord Stafford--Illness of Prince Rupert--The Bill of Exclusion, and the Duke of York at Holyrood--Probable succession of the House of Brunswick--Prince George recalled --Successful intrigues of Sophia, wife of Ernest--A group for an artist--Ill-fated marriage of Sophia--Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia--‘Goody Palsgrave’--The Electress Sophia, and her intellectual skirmishes. While all was loose and lively at the court of the bishop, the daily routine of simple pleasures and duties alone marked the course of events at the modest court of the Duke of Zell. The monotony of the latter locality was, however, agreeably interrupted by the arrival there of his Serene Highness Prince Augustus William of Wolfenbüttel. He had just been edified by what he had witnessed during his brief sojourn in the episcopal circle of Osnaburgh, where he had seen two ladies exercising a double influence, Madame von Platen ruling her husband and his master, while her sister Caroline von Busche was equally obeyed by _her_ consort and his Highness George Louis, the bishop’s son. Prince Augustus of Wolfenbüttel was the brother of that early suitor of the little Sophia Dorothea who had met a soldier’s death at the siege of Philipsburg. He was, like his brother, not so rich in gold pieces as in good qualities, and was more wealthy in virtues than in acres. He was a bachelor prince, with a strong inclination to lay down his bachelorship at the feet of a lady who would, by addition of her dowry, increase the greatness and material comforts of both. Not that Augustus of Wolfenbüttel was mercenary; he was simply prudent. A little princely state in Germany costs a great deal to maintain, and when the errant prince went forth in search of a lady with a dower, his last thought was to offer himself to one who had no heart or could have no place in his own. If there was some system, a little method, and an air of business about the passion and principle of the puissant Prince Augustus, something thereof must be laid to the charge of the times, and a little to the princely matter-of-fact good sense: he is a wise and merciful man who, before he comes to conclusions with a lady on the chapter of matrimony, first weighs prospects, and establishes, as far as in him lies, a security of sunshine.