From this time George Louis’s amour with Ermengarda Melusina assumed a recognised phase. She was sumptuously lodged, and he visited her daily, and spent most of his time with her. In this he was only imitating his father, and, when all was said and done, Schulenburg was much less offensive than Platen. Unlike her mother-in-law, Sophie Dorothea writhed and raged under her husband’s infidelity, but she could obtain no redress. The Duchess Sophia, true to her policy, declined to interfere, and to appeal to Ernest Augustus was useless; in her despair she turned to Celle, and made complaint to her parents. From her mother, who was helpless, she got both love and sympathy; from her father she received neither. A change had come over the spirit of George William’s dream, for Bernstorff had plied him with many tales to the detriment of his wife and daughter. So he bade Sophie Dorothea to keep her place, imitate the example of her estimable mother-in-law, and ignore such trifles, and he further exhorted her to be more amenable to her husband, and not to give way to temper. Thus repulsed in the quarter where she looked for help, the unhappy Princess knew not where to turn; she was friendless and alone, unguided and unaided, ready to seize at any means of avenging her wounded pride. At this juncture her evil genius came upon the scene in the person of Philip Christopher, Count Königsmarck. CHAPTER VIII. ENTER KÖNIGSMARCK. (1688-1689.) ... he seem’d the goodliest man That ever among ladies ate in hall. TENNYSON. Count Philip Christopher Königsmarck had led an adventurous life since the day when, a handsome youth, he parted from the Princess at Celle, ten years before. He had grown to man’s estate, travelled far and wide, and distinguished himself for audacity in many adventures and gallantry in many courts. He came to Hanover with the reputation of being a brilliant, dashing young nobleman, a reputation which his wealth and personal beauty did much to heighten. Count Philip Christopher Königsmarck, who was born in 1665,[27] was the second son of a Swedish nobleman, the famous General Count Königsmarck, who was killed at the siege of Bonne in 1673, leaving behind him two sons and two daughters. Of the elder son more anon. One of the daughters, Amalie Wilhelmina, had married Count Carl Gustav Lewenhaupt; the other, Marie Aurora, was still unwed, and was distinguished throughout Europe for her grace and beauty. ----- Footnote 27: The vexed question of the date of Königsmarck’s birth is settled by Count Adam Lewenhaupt in an article in _Historisk Tidskrift_, Stockholme, 1898, in which he quotes from documents deposited in the Record Office, Stockholme. -----