rn to court, I warn your Highness.' He turned
abruptly and left the Duchess's apartment.

If the Duke, with the blindness of the enamoured, really had imagined
peace to reign in his palace prior to his sojourn at Urach, on his return
even love and anxiety could not hide the excitement and unrest which the
departure of the favourite had caused in the castle of Stuttgart. Madame
de Ruth, flinging etiquette to the winds, had met his Highness in the
courtyard when he rode in from Urach, and had greeted him with the news
of Wilhelmine's flight. The good lady was genuinely distressed, and had
made unceasing search in the town, but naturally no one had thought of
seeking in the Judengasse behind the Leonards Kirche. Wilhelmine seemed
to have vanished off the face of the earth, and there were not wanting
murmurers among the Duchess's servitors who averred that witches had ever
been able to vanish at will, and that probably 'the Graevenitzin' would
return in the form of a black cat or a serpent, and suddenly change into
a woman again when it suited her. They were all in a flutter of
superstitious excitement; and Maria the maid, who loved Wilhelmine, went
about with reddened eyes, and was much questioned below stairs.

The Duke, on hearing the news from Madame de Ruth, had repaired
immediately to the Duchess, but, as we have seen, he had extracted no
information from the lady, she having none to give. When his Highness
left the Duchess's apartment he stormed up to Madame de Ruth's
dwelling-room, and after some deliberation summoned Forstner and charged
him with the unpleasant duty of leading a search party which was supplied
with a ducal warrant to enter all houses of every grade in Stuttgart.
Forstner, of course, urged patience; the missing one would return or
communicate, he said; but the Duke greeted the word patience with such an
outburst of anger that the 'Bony One' retired discomfited and gave orders
for the search with apparent zeal.

Evening fell on the sun-baked streets of Stuttgart, and a faint breeze
wafted a recollection of field and wood through the open windows of the
castle. Eberhard Ludwig paced up and down, near the fountain in the
castle gardens, where he had been with Wilhelmine on the moonlit night of
the theatricals three months ago. He flung himself down upon the stone
bench where they had sat together. He covered his eyes with his hands, he
was tortured with memories, thrilled again to past raptures; his d