had been pronounced previously between her and her husband. She was called
henceforth the "Princess of Ahlden", and her silent husband no more
uttered her name.

Four years after the Koenigsmarck catastrophe, Ernest Augustus, the first
Elector of Hanover, died, and George Louis, his son, reigned in his stead.
Sixteen years he reigned in Hanover, after which he became, as we know,
King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith. The
wicked old Countess Platen died in the year 1706. She had lost her sight,
but nevertheless the legend says that she constantly saw Koenigsmarck's
ghost by her wicked old bed. And so there was an end of her.

In the year 1700, the little Duke of Gloucester, the last of poor Queen
Anne's children, died, and the folks of Hanover straightway became of
prodigious importance in England. The Electress Sophia was declared the
next in succession to the English throne. George Louis was created Duke of
Cambridge; grand deputations were sent over from our country to
Deutschland; but Queen Anne, whose weak heart hankered after her relatives
at St. Germains, never could be got to allow her cousin, the Elector Duke
of Cambridge, to come and pay his respects to her Majesty, and take his
seat in her House of Peers. Had the queen lasted a month longer; had the
English Tories been as bold and resolute as they were clever and crafty;
had the prince whom the nation loved and pitied been equal to his fortune,
George Louis had never talked German in St. James's Chapel Royal.

When the crown did come to George Louis he was in no hurry about putting
it on. He waited at home for awhile; took an affecting farewell of his
dear Hanover and Herrenhausen; and set out in the most leisurely manner to
ascend "the throne of his ancestors", as he called it in his first speech
to Parliament. He brought with him a compact body of Germans, whose
society he loved, and whom he kept round the royal person. He had his
faithful German chamberlains; his German secretaries; his negroes,
captives of his bow and spear in Turkish wars; his two ugly, elderly
German favourites, Mesdames of Kielmansegge and Schulenberg, whom he
created respectively Countess of Darlington and Duchess of Kendal. The
duchess was tall, and lean of stature, and hence was irreverently
nicknamed the Maypole. The countess was a large-sized noblewoman, and this
elevated personage was denominated the Elephant. Both of these ladies
loved Hanover and it