s of all beholders. Such
will be the bodily fate of all those who conspire against his Highness or
his Highness's government.'

The flames sprang upwards, licking round the waxen figure and scorching
the arm of one of the criminals who was being released from the cords
that bound him.

Every eye was upon the beauty of the woman seated beside the Duke
Eberhard Ludwig. In abject submission and deadly hatred they gazed on the
face of her who thus threatened them, for they read her threat against
themselves in every word of the privy councillor's discourse, her menace
in each flame which consumed the waxen figure of her enemy, Baron
Forstner.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE SINNER'S PALACE

FORSTNER'S fate worked marvels in the outward behaviour of the
Wirtembergers. The strange scene upon the market-place lingered in their
minds, and the actual loss which Forstner sustained in confiscated
properties, monies, and titles, made the sober burghers careful even in
the private expression of their hatred of the Landhofmeisterin. They
still spoke of her as the Landverderberin (Land-despoiler), but they
greeted her with reverential demeanour when she thundered through town or
village in her coach.

Of her witchcraft there was no longer any doubt, in all opinions.
Forstner had suffered from a grievous disease, they had heard, since the
witch-woman had practised her horrid magic upon his effigy. True, Prelate
Osiander had spoken openly of the natural and inevitable effects of such
cruel misfortunes upon a man, already weakly in health, but they argued
that the churchman was obliged to take this view, and his Reverence's
opinions were rejected.

Yet the fierce hatred only smouldered under this calm and respectful
demeanour, and the Landhofmeisterin knew this right well, for his
Highness's Secret Service reported many things. The vigilance was
unceasing; through the whole country the spies wandered, and many were
the fines they levied for careless words which they called treason.
'Treason to whom, great God!' wailed the wretched people. 'Treason to his
Highness's honour,' they were told, and knew her Excellency, his
Highness's mistress, was meant under this respectable appellation.

There was no denying it: Wirtemberg belonged to the Graevenitzin. Eberhard
Ludwig was a mere shadow at her side, but a loyal shadow which approved,
or affected to approve, her every action.

The doings at Ludwigsburg were always brilliant, often gay