, made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem accompanied by twenty-four noble
youths bound by sacred vows to purity and godly life. When Count Eberhard
was praying before the Holy Sepulchre, of a sudden a withered
whitethorn-tree quickened and blossomed in token of God's grace, and a
priest in Eberhard's following prophesied that so long as the world
lasted, this thorn-tree should flower whenever the noble race of
Wirtemberg should bloom anew. Piously the pilgrims bore the thorn-tree
back to their native land, and set it in a fair and sheltered spot near
to the abode of a venerable hermit. Here Count Eberhard instituted an
order of prayerful monks, garbed in fair blue habits, and for many
generations these holy men tended the thorn-tree, building giant supports
beneath its spreading roots and vigorous branches. In Protestant days the
poor thorn-tree was forgotten, save by the peasants who clung to their
old legends and vowed that, whenever an heir was born to the house of
Wirtemberg, the aged thorn put forth a flowering branch.

It happened that, shortly before the Graevenitz was banished from
Ludwigsburg, Eberhard Ludwig, in the course of his wood wanderings, came
to Einsiedel where stood the ruined monastery and the fateful thorn-tree.
An old peasant woman, who was gathering sticks for her fire in the
deserted monastery garden, told him of the legend, and, pointing to the
whitethorn, exclaimed: 'You who are a traveller, go to the palace and
tell the Duke that the thorn has blossomed. Tell him to leave the wanton
Land-despoiler, and go back to his true wife. God has caused the thorn to
bloom anew in token of pardon, and there will be an heir born to
Wirtemberg to take the place of the dying Erbprinz.' Now the Erbprinz was
not dying when the old crone spoke these words, but Eberhard Ludwig,
always feverishly anxious for his son's welfare, hurried back to
Ludwigsburg in an agony of fear and related the peasant woman's prophecy,
and the strange fact of that ancient thorn-tree putting forth a spray of
white blossom. Her Excellency the Landhofmeisterin had been much offended
by the story, and had mocked Serenissimus for his credulity.

Of course when, shortly after this event, Eberhard Ludwig repudiated his
mistress and returned to his neglected Duchess, popular report
immediately had it that the whitethorn had prophesied the happy
occurrence, and that her Highness Johanna Elizabetha was to become a
mother. This the Graevenitz had hear