d the world has applauded. Take a fair and noble
mistress, one younger, less rapacious. Consider this woman: already she
grows gross; in a few years' time she will be a mountain of flesh; her
eyes are dimming, her lips are paler, her teeth less white than they were
when she came from her obscure home.'

Wilhelmine, in all the magnificence of her beauty, of her maturity, read
thus far quietly; then, raging, she sprang to her feet.

'I could have forgiven you some of your insults, Forstner, but this is
too much! By God! by God! you shall suffer! I swear it by my salvation!'

She read on: details too disgusting, too gross to write down here, foul
accusation upon accusation, hideous blasphemies against her bodily
beauty.

Of a truth, not even a saint could have forgiven the writer of that
letter--and Wilhelmine von Graevenitz was no saint.

CHAPTER XVII

THE BURNING IN EFFIGY

ON the morning following the masquerade, his Highness's Chief Officer of
the Secret Service of Wirtemberg craved audience. The Secret Service had
been instituted by Eberhard Ludwig after the murderous attack upon the
Graevenitz in Duke Christopher's grotto. In the unquiet state of the
country, rife with discontent and its attendant conspiracies, such a
service was absolutely necessary; but, of course, this system of
espionage was most unpopular, and as the Landhofmeisterin was credited
with the institution of the Secret Service, the people's fear and hatred
of her increased.

The Chief Officer had grave matters to communicate to his Highness: a
plot to murder her Excellency the Landhofmeisterin had been discovered,
and from intercepted papers it would appear that the conspirators also
aimed at the Duke himself. It seemed that many influential persons were
implicated.

The design was to induce his Highness to abdicate in favour of the
Erbprinz, during whose minority Forstner was to be Premier, and the
Duchess Johanna Elizabetha Regent of Wirtemberg. This portion of the
conspiracy could be dealt with easily, but the murderous intent upon the
Landhofmeisterin took a more serious aspect, as the Secret Service agents
had procured information which led the Chief Officer to infer that the
would-be assassins were actually in, or near, Ludwigsburg. It was,
however, impossible to arrest every stranger on mere suspicion, for both
Ludwigsburg and Stuttgart were full of country gentlemen who had been
commanded to appear at the Mask Ball.

At m