no
fear of any serious annoyance. Her only apprehension was that some
murderous attack might be made upon her when she drove out, so she
remained more than ever secluded and hidden in the Jaegerhaus and the
walled-in Lustgarten, her one amusement being Frau Hazzim's nightly
visits.

Wilhelmine was half dupe of her own magical practices, and she was
arduous in her studies of old black-letter books on the subject of
spirit-raising, love potions, spells, and the rest of those meddlings
with the unknown forces which have fascinated mankind for countless ages
under various forms.

Towards the end of May the weather changed, and sultry heat reigned over
Wirtemberg. Stuttgart lies deep in a valley, sheltered by hills, and the
heat in the town is often terrible. The sudden change from the chill
spring to glowing summer was unbearable to Wilhelmine, immured in the
Jaegerhaus, and she longed for the cool freshness of the Rothwald where
she had been accustomed to drive, but Zollern so strongly advised her not
to show herself in the town, that she consented to forego this pleasure
while Mueller was in Stuttgart. He had preached before the Duchess, upon
whom his passionate eloquence, the Biblical turn of his phrases, and his
denunciations of all things joyful, had made a deep and pleasing
impression. She caused the Pietist to visit her daily and instruct her
in the stern belief. Mueller told her Highness the story of his
conversion: how he had been a worldly, but he hoped a pure, pastor of the
State religion; how that an evil and lustful woman had sought to seduce
him, and he mentioned Guestrow as the place where his temptation had been
offered him. The stroke told: her Highness started visibly. He continued
by indicating that this abandoned woman was a witch, and finally let the
Duchess understand that, having triumphantly resisted the temptress's
sinful wiles, he had sought and found strength in the Pietist movement.
Even a slower intellect than that of Johanna Elizabetha could not have
failed to associate Wilhelmine von Graevenitz with the temptress of
Guestrow; and when in answer to her Highness's query, whether the evil
woman had been punished for her wickedness, Mueller threw himself at the
Duchess's feet and told her openly that the contaminating female was the
Graevenitz, whom he had followed from Guestrow--he, the poor instrument of
God's righteous wrath, her Highness indeed felt that here was the
vengeance of the Almigh