she did
good to this outcast, God would relent, would give her back Eberhard
Ludwig's love? The dwarf went, and the Landhofmeisterin turned her
attention to the scene in the banqueting-hall.

The banquet was finished, but the guests still sat round the table with
wine-reddened faces. The Prussian King loved to drink deep; he said he
abhorred the milksop who could not follow him to the dregs of a tankard,
and that was indeed no paltry measure. The Erbprincessin sat to the
King's right, his Highness himself was on his Majesty's left. The
Erbprinz, white and weary, sat opposite. The holders of important court
charges were grouped around according to their respective ranks.
Friedrich Graevenitz, as Count of the Empire and Prime Minister of
Wirtemberg, sat to the left of Serenissimus; Prelate Osiander came next,
then Schuetz and Sittmann, and the brothers Pfau. Reischach, the Master of
the Hunt; Baron Roeder, Master of the Horse; the Oberhofmarshall, the
other Geheimraethe; the generals and officers of his Highness's staff;
the colonels of the Silver Guard, of the Chevaliergarde; the young
captain of the Cadets a Cheval. Among the Wirtemberg courtiers were
seated various members of the Prussian suite: Grumbkow, the powerful
favourite; General Doenhoff; and the Austrian Ambassador at Berlin, Count
Seckendorff, who always followed Friedrich Wilhelm I., a spy and
intriguer in friendship's guise.

It was a brilliant assemblage, but it was well to be seen that deep
drinking had been indulged in. Besides the Erbprincessin, only Osiander
and the Erbprinz had calm and unflushed faces. The Landhofmeisterin's
eyes wandered from Friedrich Wilhelm to Eberhard Ludwig; his face was
flushed, and he swayed a little in his chair. His Highness was usually a
moderate drinker, and, though during his various campaigns he had drunk
and revelled like the rest, the Landhofmeisterin had never seen him with
that vacant, sottish look, and her soul sickened at the sight. The
Erbprincessin rose and took her leave, Friedrich Wilhelm shouting rough,
good-natured pleasantries to her. Then his Majesty's friend, Grumbkow,
craving the Duke's permission, called the lackey in charge, who produced
the King's huge pipe, and in a few minutes the Landhofmeisterin saw the
stately banqueting-hall take the aspect and smell of a tabagie. Dense
clouds of smoke rose up, and she saw that the Prussian King was again
served with an enormous jug of beer. The banqueting-hal