e
other, and that here they discussed and settled the terms of the
evacuation of Wirtemberg and the sum of the indemnity, all of which was
afterwards solemnly ratified by the Geheimraths of Stuttgart, who,
willingly, permitted the Duchess-mother to bear nearly the entire cost of
the indemnity, a matter of some two hundred thousand gulden. Villars,
upon payment of this sum, half of which he is reported by German
historians to have retained for his own uses, now left Wirtemberg, and
marched towards the French frontier, leaving, however, six thousand men
under General Vivant in the country.

The Imperial army under command of the Elector of Hanover was at
Heilbronn in Wirtemberg, a mediaeval Imperial free town. Eberhard Ludwig,
in command of the Wirtemberg contingent, was with the army. His Highness
had taken up his quarters in the ancient Abbey of Maulbronn, between
which and Heilbronn spread the encampment of the Imperial army. Eberhard
Ludwig had chosen Maulbronn for his quarters, thinking that the peace of
the Monastery, with its shadowy, highly vaulted cloisters, and its
old-world garden, might soothe the restlessness which had devoured his
being since his absence from Wilhelmine. In Maulbronn's garden stands the
haunted tower where legend says that Doctor Faustus, the frenzied
searcher for the elixir of eternal life, bartered his soul to Satan in
return for a span of youth and love. The Faust tower faces the great
cloister, and they say the Doctor, when sealing his pact with the devil,
was disturbed by the monks' chanting.

Eberhard Ludwig revelled in the garden and its fantastic legends, but his
yearning for Wilhelmine only grew the stronger. Why was she not with him
to dream in the cool silence of the cloister? How she would love the
garden with its luxuriance of old-world flowers--the fragrant roses
planted by some long-dead monk--the huge tree-peonies. The very breezes
seemed legend-laden. Wilhelmine! beloved! It was a futile thing indeed
for this poet-prince to endeavour to forget the woman he loved! In a
garden so wondrous beautiful, in this place of dreaming, he could but
dream the more. So, when the news came that Villars had retired, his
Highness decided he must follow Wilhelmine to Switzerland forthwith.
Forstner was summoned, and the Wirtemberg troops placed under his
command. Of course he protested he was not efficient, but, as usual,
Eberhard Ludwig the impetuous overruled him.

The news of his Highne