The letters number over two hundred, and form two bulky packets. With the exception of a few fragments of German poetry which Königsmarck quotes here and there, they are all in French, that being the language then generally used at courts, and especially by the Princess, on account of her French mother and education. To Königsmarck—a Swedish noble by birth—French was more familiar than German, though his knowledge of either was far from perfect. The letters are arranged in little or no chronological order, and run in batches; thus we have first a batch of the Princess’s letters, then a batch of Königsmarck’s, then another of the Princess’s, and finally another batch from Königsmarck. Quite two-thirds are written by Königsmarck and the rest by the Princess—if we except two or three brief notes, or rather postscripts from Knesebeck. If the lovers’ letters differ in outward appearance, they differ even more in style and diction. Königsmarck’s are very badly written, ill-spelt, and often ungrammatical, which may be explained by the fact that he was writing in a foreign language which, though he could speak it fluently, he had not thoroughly mastered. Often, by accident or design, he falls back on phonetic spelling of French words, which at first renders them almost impossible to decipher, and it is only by reading them aloud that one can grasp their meaning. For instance:— _Saite_ = Cette _Can_ = Quand _Sansaire_ = Sincere _Cas_ = Qua _Astor_ = À cette heure