ut deserved being hanged in England, for the
murder of Tom Thynne of Longleat. He had a little brother in London with
him at this time,--as great a beauty, as great a dandy, as great a villain
as his elder. This lad, Philip of Koenigsmarck, also was implicated in the
affair; and perhaps it is a pity he ever brought his pretty neck out of
it. He went over to Hanover, and was soon appointed colonel of a regiment
of H. E. Highness's dragoons. In early life he had been page in the Court
of Celle; and it was said that he and the pretty Princess Sophia Dorothea,
who by this time was married to her cousin George the Electoral prince,
had been in love with each other as children. Their loves were now to be
renewed, not innocently, and to come to a fearful end.

A biography of the wife of George I, by Dr. Doran, has lately appeared,
and I confess I am astounded at the verdict which that writer has
delivered, and at his acquittal of this most unfortunate lady. That she
had a cold selfish libertine of a husband no one can doubt; but that the
bad husband had a bad wife is equally clear. She was married to her cousin
for money or convenience, as all princesses were married. She was most
beautiful, lively, witty, accomplished: his brutality outraged her: his
silence and coldness chilled her: his cruelty insulted her. No wonder she
did not love him. How could love be a part of the compact in such a
marriage as that? With this unlucky heart to dispose of, the poor creature
bestowed it on Philip of Koenigsmarck, than whom a greater scamp does not
walk the history of the seventeenth century. A hundred and eighty years
after the fellow was thrust into his unknown grave, a Swedish professor
lights upon a box of letters in the University Library at Upsala, written
by Philip and Dorothea to each other, and telling their miserable story.

The bewitching Koenigsmarck had conquered two female hearts in Hanover.
Besides the Electoral prince's lovely young wife Sophia Dorothea, Philip
had inspired a passion in a hideous old Court lady, the Countess of
Platen. The princess seems to have pursued him with the fidelity of many
years. Heaps of letters followed him on his campaigns, and were answered
by the daring adventurer. The princess wanted to fly with him; to quit her
odious husband at any rate. She besought her parents to receive her back;
had a notion of taking refuge in France and going over to the Catholic
religion; had absolutely packed her j