Ever wider became the separation of classes. Etiquette only permitted the princes to have intercourse with the citizens in particular cases, and under prescribed forms. It therefore occurred sometimes that a good paternal ruler disguised himself as a private man, withdrew into a chamber apart, put on his old dressing-gown, and took a pipe in his mouth, in order to be enabled to have direct intercourse with his citizens, and thus learn their wishes from themselves. During such hours his princely dignity was, to a certain degree, suspended, but instantly he quitted the room he was again within courtly interdict. Yet it was just at this period that numerous mesalliances took place. Among many of the higher nobility, wild nature broke through the restraint of court usage, and more than once a city maiden had the doubtful advantage of becoming the persecuted wife of a Prince of old family. Seldom did the wife obtain from the Emperor the rights of equal birth; the marriages were generally morganatic, and the children refused the succession. Among the German princes, the course of whose life was changed by a union of this kind, was Anthony Ulrich, Duke of Saxe Meiningen; born in 1687, the youngest of three brothers, he became, according to the custom of his house, joint ruler of the country, that is to say, the elder brother exercised the rights of sovereignty, but the younger ones received a portion of the revenues of the country. In his youth, this prince had travelled; in the war of succession he had served through some campaigns as an Imperial officer; and at the peace of Rastatt, he quitted the army with the rank of Major-general. A fiery youth, courteous and accomplished, affable as becomes young princes, not without an interest in intellectual pursuits, he had, following the prevailing fashion, zealously collected objects of art and natural curiosities; with a lively disposition and chivalrous demeanour, he was the favourite of the country which he only nominally ruled. Whatever entered into his head, he carried on wilfully and recklessly, with an iron perseverance which might have led him to great things. Then it became his lot to fall in love with Philippine Cesar, the daughter of a Hessian captain, lady of the bedchamber to his sister, the Abbess of Gandersheim; he took her to Holland and married her. For many years he did not avow his marriage. His life became unsettled; he kept his wife concealed in Amsterdam, and strictly commanded his servants to keep secret his place of residence; he received letters from home in roundabout ways, and was always moving to and fro in the land of his fathers. But when his wife became more precious to him, and sons were born, the stubbornness of his nature was brought forth, he revealed his marriage, and required of his family the recognition of it, and the right of succession for his children.