Circe-Hecate; that in fact she has long been an intolerable
nightmare to him, could he but have known it.
And his Royal Highness the Crown-Prince all this while? Well, yes;
his Royal Highness has got a Court Tailor at Ludwigsburg; and, in all
privacy (seen well by Rochow), has had the Augsburg red cloth cut into
a fine upper wrappage, over coat or roquelaure for himself; intending to
use the same before long. Thus they severally, the Father and the Son;
these are their known acts at Ludwigsburg, That the Father persuaded
Eberhard Ludwig of the Gravenitz enormity, and that the Son got his red
top-coat ready. On Thursday, 3d of August (late in the afternoon, as I
perceive), they, well entertained, depart towards Mannheim, Kur-Pfalz
(Elector Palatine) old Karl Philip of the Pfalz's place; hope to be
there on the morrow some time, if all go well. Gloomy much enlightened
Eberhard takes leave of them, with abstruse but grateful feelings; will
stand by the Kaiser, and dismiss that Gravenitz nightmare by the first
opportunity.
As accordingly he did. Next Summer, going on a visit northward,
specially to Berlin, [There for some three weeks, "till 9th June, 1731,
with a suite of above fifty persons" (Fassmann, pp. 421, 422).] he left
order that the Gravenitz was to be got out of his sight, safe stowed
away, before his return. Which by the proper officers, military certain
of them, was accomplished,--by fixed bayonets at last, and not without
futile demur on the part of the Gravenitz. Poor Eberhard Ludwig, "he
published in the pulpits, That he was now minded to lead a better
life,"--had time now been left him. Same year, 1731, November being
come, gloomy Eberhard Ludwig lost, not unexpectedly, his one Son,--the
one Grandson was gone long since. The serene steadfast Duchess now had
her Duke again, what was left of him: but he was fallen into the sere
and yellow leaf; in two years more, he died childless; [31st October,
1733: Michaelis, iii. 441.] and his Cousin, Karl Alexander, an Austrian
Feldmarschall of repute, succeeded in Wurtemberg. With whom we may
transiently meet, in time coming; with whom, and perhaps less pleasantly
with certain of his children; for they continue to this day,--with the
old abstruse element still too traceable in them.
Old Karl Philip, Kurfurst of the Pfalz, towards whom Friedrich Wilhelm
is now driving, with intent to be there to-morrow evening, is not quite
a stranger to readers here; and to Friedr
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