son consisted in having grasped the reins of government from the
hand of their rightful wielder, his Highness Eberhard Ludwig of
Wirtemberg; in having kept back from his knowledge many facts in the
administration of the country, and destroying documents addressed to him.
Also in having been untrue to him in word and deed. Almost comic this
last--a sort of topsy-turvy adultery charge!

'Purloining of lands and monies.' She replied that if his Highness's
presents were accounted to her as peculation, she had been guilty. For
the rest she, having governed the country in his name and with his
sanction, had made free use of the revenues for legitimate and public
official purposes, exactly as do other rulers, be they kings, dukes, or
ministers of state.

To the charge of witchcraft and black magic she refused to make answer,
save that she denied harming man, woman, child, or beast. She was still
hoist with her own petard: the pitiful belief in the potency of her
absurdities.

Bigamous intent she repudiated proudly. She had been married in all legal
form, and according to the ancient privileges of ruling princes to take
to wife whom they chose, provided they, by open and public decree,
declared any prior union null and void. It had pleased the Emperor as
over-lord to decide otherwise, and she had bowed to this decision, thus
forfeiting her just rights. For this she could not be punished, she
averred.

The attempted murder she denied absolutely. It was an absurd story
founded on the indiscretion of an insane servant, whom she had dismissed
from her service.

For the rest, she referred her accusers and her judges to the first, and
only competent witness on her side, viz. his Highness Duke Eberhard
Ludwig of Wirtemberg.

Such in few words are the contents of the massive dossier of her trial,
and her dignified answers.

The details these gentlemen of the law permitted themselves to prepare
are numerous, and unfit for publication to-day. Her alleged misconduct
(she being mistress, not wife--the term seems strangely applied!) is
accompanied with a dozen disgusting stories, which it must be said were
entirely fabricated for the trial; and, as she herself pointed out, the
chief and only competent witness on her side was the man she had loved
and lived with for over twenty years,--who, however, was the very person
to permit the commencement of this trial, and must have read and approved
the accusations in all their revolting de