cret Service reported these
sermons to the Landhofmeisterin, and the preachers were fined or
imprisoned, but the stream of denunciation continued nevertheless.

The Graevenitz was very lonely now. His Highness had changed to her, she
could no longer blind herself to the fact. Madame de Ruth was dead;
Zollern, old and sad, was rarely at Ludwigsburg. Friedrich Graevenitz was
covertly hostile to her. In the autumn a serious quarrel had taken place;
the brother demanding as free gift the property of Welzheim, which the
Landhofmeisterin had lent him. This Wilhelmine refused; she did not
relish her brother's way of asking, and she bitterly resented the
pompous, self-righteous, disapproving manner which he had adopted towards
her of late. After all, he owed her everything, she told herself. Her
sister, Sittmann, was a useless parasite. The Landhofmeisterin accounted
her as one who would desert her immediately did misfortune come. The
Sittmann sons, young men who owed their high position entirely to their
aunt's power, not to their own merit or capability, were colourless,
insipid youths. Sittmann himself, Schuetz and the rest, she knew to be
fair-weather friends; evidently they descried the clouds gathering over
their patroness's head, and they were quietly drawing back from her. Only
Maria, the maid, remained faithful and admiring, and tended her adored
mistress with unfailing patience and devotion. In the early spring the
preparations began for the King of Prussia's visit, but Serenissimus
himself took the lead in settling the arrangements, and the
Landhofmeisterin was constantly met with the answer: 'His Highness has
ordered that otherwise, your Excellency,' or, 'that point has been
settled by the Duke.' For twenty years she had directed and ruled, and
now all things seemed to crumble at her touch.

King Friedrich Wilhelm I. arrived in Wirtemberg towards the middle of
April. He was met at the frontier by Eberhard Ludwig and the whole Silver
Guard. The cavalcade was very brilliant, the horses magnificent, and the
bluff Prussian King greeted the Duke with rough cordiality. They had been
companions-in-arms during the Spanish Succession campaigns, and as they
rode together through the beautiful spring land of Wirtemberg they
recalled old memories, fighting over again the battles of Blenheim, or of
Malplaquet, and talking of military matters. It was like a breath of the
camp life of long ago, of those young, gay, adventurous day