Success did not come in a night. It took Eléonore ten years before she obtained the object of her desire—ten years of constant effort; for her arch-enemy and rival, the Duchess Sophia, was ever on the alert to check her moves and foil her plans. One great advantage Eléonore had at this time, she was sure of her husband’s love; and as George William was as easy-going as his wife was energetic, and as contented as she was ambitious, she soon managed to gain a mastery over him—the mastery of a strong mind over a weak one. Her next duty was to cultivate the arts of popularity and win the good-will of her husband’s subjects, no easy matter, for the prejudice against “the Frenchwoman” and morganatic wife was strong in the little German principality. But her tact and affability soon won her golden opinions in Celle. From the first she seemed to take the townsfolk into her confidence; she drove about the town with her infant daughter, radiant with bows and smiles, and soon the inhabitants began to regard the little one as their own child, and to be as jealous of her rights as they were of their own. This devotion of the honest townsfolk of Celle to Sophie Dorothea never wavered, but lasted all through her life. Not content with sowing the seeds of her child’s popularity in her infancy, Eléonore used other means to endear herself to her husband’s subjects. At her instigation Duke George William proceeded to restore the old schloss on a scale of considerable magnificence, taking care always to employ local workmen. The little theatre[12] in the castle, so long unused, was opened again for plays and musical performances, and to these entertainments gentle and simple were bidden, and seated according to their rank. Thus, after many years, a lady was once more _châtelaine_ at the schloss of Celle, and again there might be said to be a court there. ----- Footnote 12: