, a sturdy,
thick-set figure in the Wirtemberg peasant's short, well-fitting,
dark-blue coat, adorned with rows of round knob silver buttons. He wore a
peaked fur cap drawn down over the ears. The woman was in a thick blue
frieze cape and elaborate Sunday headdress. She had slipped her hand
through her husband's arm and they were talking gaily together. Eberhard
Ludwig pointed towards them and a sigh escaped his lips.

'There is the peace of two loving hearts. They are happier than we, for
their love is duty, their duty love,' he said sadly.

'Alas!' she answered; but she knew that for her such peace was not, and
that she would not have wished for it; yet a regret smote her, a yearning
to be all she was not. And with this pang came the bitter recollection of
her painful humiliation. Her face hardened. 'That happiness is only
possible in the protection of the strong,' she said. 'Do you think yonder
peasant would suffer his beloved to be scorned, to be insulted? The Duke
of Wirtemberg alone cannot protect the woman he loves.'

Eberhard Ludwig drew back from her.

'How cruel you are, dear heart,' he said, and a great sadness lay in his
voice. She told him that the truth was often cruel to hear; that she but
spoke these things because he let himself drift into weak conniving at
the intrigues of Johanna Elizabetha. Then she recounted the petty spite
and the thousand taunts to which she was subjected. She painted Stuttgart
in sombre colours, the dullness, the stiffness. Why should Wirtemberg be
the least brilliant, least gay, of all the German courts? She talked of
Berlin and the splendours of the newly made King Frederick I. Of Dresden
with the Elector-King of Poland, Augustus the Strong; of his splendid
residence, the Zwinger, which, like an enchanted palace, had been built
in so short a span, and to whose marvels each day was added a wonderful
chamber, a gilded dome, or a fair work of art.

Why should not peace and happiness reign in Wirtemberg with splendour and
gaiety? Why should not a gracious palace rise to rival even the glories
of Versailles? She drew the picture with sure strokes, each word an added
colour in the vision of a life of tranquil yet brilliant ease and
distinguished magnificence.

Eberhard Ludwig, caught by the flame of her eloquence, flared into
enthusiasm, and they fell to discussing which town or castle should be
the chosen spot for their new court. Urach, Tuebingen, Wildbad, all were
reviewed.