I, for my part, value letters as the most vital part of biography. ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING. ----- Footnote 55: This chapter is an interpolation dealing with the history and authenticity of the correspondence and does not affect the narrative. ----- The original manuscripts of the remarkable correspondence between Sophie Dorothea and Königsmarck, a correspondence unparalleled in the annals of passion, except, perhaps, by the love-letters of Mirabeau to the Marquise de Monnier, are still preserved in the University Library of Lund, in Sweden. The history of the letters previous to their finding a resting-place at Lund can be traced back through many generations. It will be noted that the correspondence begins in July, 1691, and ends in December, 1693, thus covering a period of two and a half years. The first few letters of Königsmarck show that he was not quite sure of his footing with the Princess, and the _liaison_ between them was yet in the bud. Within a few months we find his passion not only avowed without disguise, but reciprocated by the Princess with equal ardour. Except for a break in the first part of 1693, the letters follow the period of their love story until the last six months, January to June, 1694. During the greater part of this latter time Königsmarck was at Dresden, and a few days after he returned to Hanover he was assassinated (July 1, 1694). It is known that many letters passed between the Princess and Königsmarck during this last six months, and a bundle of letters were seized by the Hanoverian Government in Königsmarck’s lodgings a few days after his murder. These last letters and probably many others are therefore missing from this correspondence, which otherwise forms a fairly complete record of the Princess’s love story. The pertinent question is, how came the many hereafter published to be preserved?[56] ----- Footnote 56: Those published in this book are all from the collection at Lund. But many more (doubtless those seized by the Hanoverian Government) are stated to exist, unpublished, at Berlin and Gmünden. -----