NG, 68
VI. LOVE'S SPRINGTIDE, 82
VII. THE FULFILMENT, 90
VIII. THE GHETTO, 103
IX. 'SHE COMES TO STAY THIS TIME,' 116
X. THE ATTACK IN THE GROTTO, 129
XI. THE MOCK MARRIAGE, 153
XII. THE MOCK COURT, 167
XIII. THE DUCHESS'S BLACK ROOMS, 181
XIV. THE SECOND MARRIAGE, 196
XV. THE RETURN, 212
XVI. LUDWIGSBURG, 224
XVII. THE BURNING IN EFFIGY, 242
XVIII. THE SINNER'S PALACE, 261
XIX. THE GREAT TRIUMPH AND THE SHADOW, 279
XX. SATIETY, 302
XXI. THE DOWNFALL, 325
XXII. REST, 350

A GERMAN POMPADOUR

CHAPTER I

THE INTRIGUE

'Es ist eine Hofkabale.'--SCHILLER.

ON the outskirts of the village of Oberhausen in South Wirtemberg stands
a deserted house. Rats are its only denizens now; rats and the 'poor
ghosts,' so the peasants say. Two hundred years ago this eerie mansion
was occupied by living men and women, perchance the ghosts of to-day. Who
can tell? But I, who have grown to love them, having studied the depths
of their hearts, I pray that they may rest them well in their graves, and
that the Neuhaus ghosts be not my friends of 1705.

It was a fitting place for intrigues this Neuhaus, standing as it did so
near in actual mileage to the court of Stuttgart, and hard by the Jesuit
centre of Rottenburg. The high-road was close at hand, yet Neuhaus, shut
off by peaceful fields, was hidden from the passer-by, and here began the
great intrigue, as it was called then. Of a truth the plot, as it was
conceived, was no mighty thing; it was designed, as many another gossamer
web of court gallantry and petty pecuniary gain, for obscure individuals;
but great it became through the potent will of a woman.

On a dreary November afternoon of the year 1705, a party of four was
assembled in the Neuhaus, the seldom-used country mansion of Madame de
Ruth, an important personage at Stuttgart's court, and of Monsieur de
Ruth, an undistinguished character, who played no role that we know of,
save to bequeath his ancient name--and the Neuhaus--to his relict.

The house was a long, two-storied building, with large, black wooden
beams showing quaintly outside against the white plast