they yelled, they bit, till the Duke arrived on the scene, parted the
combatants, and usually thrashed--the Countess of Sponeck! All Germany
knew, watched, and laughed.

At length it could be borne no longer, and the Countess of Sponeck, with
her children, retired to a distant castle. Then Henriette Hedwig died,
and the Moempelgard court seemed tidied up a little, although Henriette
left five children in the castle, two of whom called Leopold father.

But there still remained a fourth sister Esperance, Elizabeth Charlotte.
This lady's ambition soared higher than that of the other three sisters.
She made Leopold divorce the Countess of Sponeck. The other sisters had
been called the legal wives of the Duke, according to his Mahometan
principles, but Elizabeth Charlotte insisted upon a greater surety, and
Leopold acquiesced, as usual, when his affections were engaged. The
Countess of Sponeck being divorced, he married the fourth and last sister
Esperance. He spoke of poor Sponeck as 'The Widowed Lady,' and Elizabeth
Charlotte as 'The Reigning Lady.'

Now came the complications concerning the offspring of the Duke's various
wives. To annoy poor Sponeck, Leopold in 1715 had entered into a contract
with Wirtemberg, whereby he declared his distant cousin, Eberhard Ludwig,
heir to Moempelgard; but he soon repented of this admission, and besought
the Emperor to legitimatise his children: those morganatically born by
the Countess of Sponeck, and the rest of the brood from the Esperance
sisters. The Emperor refused.

Then Leopold appealed to Louis XIV., who also proved obdurate. Finally
during the Regency, Leopold repaired to Paris in person and prayed the
Regent, Duc d'Orleans, to legitimatise his progeny. 'A Lutheran prince
was legally permitted to marry whom, when, and as often as he wished,' he
averred. This precept being received with mockery, he expatiated on
Persian customs, and declared himself a believer in the Koran alone. But
Paris laughed at him, and after making himself ridiculous at the court of
France during eight months, Leopold returned to Moempelgard. Then he
married his son, George Leopold, Count of Sponeck, to his daughter
Eleonore Charlotte of Sandersleben; and his son, Karl Leopold of
Sandersleben, to his daughter Leopoldine Eberhardine of Sponeck. This
double marriage was a magnificent ceremony at Moempelgard, and Duke
Leopold was wild with delight at the revival of 'the beautiful old
Persian custom.' But