“Max is going the day after “The Electress of Brandenburg is to-morrow to meet the Electress of passing by here on her way to Brandenburg, and will accompany her Luisburg, where the Hanoverian to Luisburg.”—_The Princess to court is at a country Königsmarck_, Celle, August 6/16, house.”—Colt’s _Despatch_, Celle, 1692. August 12, 1692. “They tell me the Electress of “Just now we have the news that Brandenburg has postponed her the Electress of Brandenburg doth visit. She was to have arrived two not come so soon as she intended, days after I left. All the horses all things having been provided for were ordered for her equipage. The her.”—Colt’s _Despatch_, Celle, Duke had given up to her his August 12/22, 1692. apartments at Luisburg, and they also brought a band. All that for nothing!”—_The Princess to Königsmarck_, Wiesbaden, August 21/31, 1692. “My news from your part of the In his despatch, September 15, world [Hanover] tells me the Duke 1692, Colt mentions that the Duke is going to hunt at Epsdorff, where of Celle is at Epsdorff. your father already is.” —_Königsmarck to the Princess_, Denise, September 10/20, 1692. “I was hindered the day before “We have just heard the welcome yesterday from finishing my letter news that the French have failed in by the alarm that the French were their design on Charleroy.”—Colt’s going to attack Charleroy, but it _Despatch_, Göhre, October 7/17, came to nothing.”—_Königsmarck to 1692. the Princess_, Afflegen, October 6/16, 1692. “The journey to Berlin will not “The journey to Berlin is take place.”—_Königsmarck to the postponed.”—Colt’s _Despatch_, Princess_, Hanover, November, 1692. Hanover, November 18, 1692. These few coincidences, examples of many more, afford proofs of the genuineness of the correspondence, which a perusal of it as a whole cannot fail to strengthen. The very faults of the letters go to prove their authorship. But the strongest evidence of all, in my opinion, is to be found in the frequent, and unconscious, self-revelations of the personality of the writers. These revelations do not always show the lovers in the most favourable light, but at least they are very human. Love has been defined as _l’égoïsme à deux_. If that be true, it would be hard to find a stronger illustration of it than these letters afford. CHAPTER XII. THE DAWN OF PASSION. (1691.)