d a
great reputation for virtue, ability, and integrity. To him, after a
short courtship. Dorothea was married on the 12th of December, 1610, at
Crossen; and reached Brieg--the small capital of her future
dominions--on the first of January in the following year.

Such is the dry sum of a charming Court biography, which first appeared
in a periodical published in 1829, in Silesia, and which has been twice
republished in a separate form--once (in 1838) at Brieg, under the title
of "Passages from the Life of Dorothea Sibylla, Duchess of Liegnitz and
Brieg." It purports to consist of extracts from the journal of a certain
tanner and furrier of Brieg, named Valentinus Gierth, an occasional
guest at the ducal castle, and ardent admirer of the duchess. As a
simple, and--if internal evidence be worth any thing--truthful picture
of German-Court life during the early part of the seventeenth century,
it is not to be gainsayed; although suspicions of its authenticity have
been cast upon it, similar to those which damaged the charms of the
"Diary of Lady Willoughby," by eventually proving it to be a fiction.

Dorothea is described as a pattern of goodness, common sense, virtue,
and piety. In domestic management, she was pre-eminent. For her own
immediate attendants, she appointed fourteen maids of honor; and the
first families of the land looked upon it as an inestimable privilege to
place their daughters at the ducal court; which was a high school of
all noble virtues and accomplishments, "whereof the duchess herself was
the chief teacher and most perfect model."

Nothing could be more primitive than the duchess's intercourse with the
townspeople. Occasionally she walked in the streets of Brieg accompanied
by her maids of honor, and chatted with such of the townspeople as were
sitting on the benches outside their doors. The little children looked
forward with the greatest delight to these town walks of the duchess;
for the ladies-in-waiting invariably carried about with them in their
pockets all sorts of sweetmeats, which the duchess distributed among the
little claimants. For this reason, the little children stood peeping
round the corners of the streets, when it got wind that the duchess was
about to walk out; more especially when it was surmised that the duke
would not be with her. So soon, therefore, as Dorothea Sibylla left the
castle gate, the little urchins would run through the town, like
wildfire, crying out, "The darlin