clock on the evening of 15th May 1706, the main street of
Stuttgart was crowded with a stream of coaches and foot-passengers. The
cries of the running footmen: 'Make way there for his Highness the Duke
of Zollern!' 'Room for the high and nobly born Freifrau von Geyling!'
'Let pass the coach of the gracious Countess Gemmingen!' 'Ho, there! for
the Witgenstein's coach!' mixed with the comments of the rabble of
sightseers, and the retorts of the substantial burghers who were piloting
their wives and daughters through the mob. All these wayfarers were bound
for the great dancing-hall in the Lusthaus, whither they were bidden by
Serenissimus, the magnificent Duke Eberhard Ludwig of Wirtemberg, who had
commanded a brilliant ball as commencement of a series of festivities.
There was to be a grand hunt in the Red Wood, and finally court
theatricals in his Highness's own playhouse. The beautiful castle gardens
were illuminated with a myriad coloured lamps in the trees; the
rose-garden had become an enchanted bower, with little lanterns twinkling
in each rose-bush, and the fountain in the centre was so lit up with
varied lights that the spray assumed a thousand hues. Hidden bands of
musicians played in the garden, and, in fact, it was said that Stuttgart
would never have witnessed such a brilliant festival. The Duke had
travelled in many lands--to France, where the court had been so gay and
fine before its King Louis XIV. became a death-fearing, trembling bigot,
dragging out the last years of a dissipated life in terrified prayers.
Poor Roi Soleil, become the creature of his mistress, Madame la Marquise
de Maintenon! Still, though Eberhard Ludwig had not been in time to
witness this first splendour, he had been able to learn in France of how
fine feasts should be ordered. He had been in England too, though he
could not have seen much there in the dull days of William of Nassau, or
of good, ponderous Queen Anne; yet all travel teaches, and evidently the
Duke had learnt its pleasant lesson well.

Wilhelmine sat in Monsieur de Stafforth's fine coach with Madame de
Stafforth--a gentle, silent lady, whom Stafforth had chosen for her noble
birth and yielding ways. She was perfectly unimportant; Stafforth never
considered her, and the only person who was known to notice her was her
Highness Johanna Elizabetha, who was, indeed, something akin to her in
nature. Madame de Stafforth sat meekly on the back seat of her husband's
splendid coach