tails! He also, and he alone,
could prove that the woman had governed, purloined, etcetera, with his
sanction. He alone could say whether he had made free gifts to his
beloved mistress of lands, jewels, and monies; or whether she had
appropriated them without his consent.

Concerning the witchcraft charge it is difficult to exculpate the
Graevenitz, seeing she herself refused to deny her magic practices, and
there is little doubt that she possessed that magnetic or hypnotic power,
the use whereof our ancestors called witchcraft. It is curious to
speculate how much of this power, in wonderfully subtle and varied forms,
exists in every human being of whom we say: 'They have great personal
charm.'

The village notary carried the Graevenitz's answers to Stuttgart, and for
many weeks the unhappy woman heard no more of her trial. She waited in a
fever of impatience, but she dared not make any endeavour to obtain news
for fear the governor should see fit once more to restrict her little
liberty.

Her pride was not broken; it was terribly sentient, quivering with
painful defeat and humiliation. Worse than all was the silence she was
forced to maintain. She spoke with Maria, but the good, tender-hearted
peasant, though she sympathised passionately and with that noble loyalty
of which such women are capable, yet she could not comprehend or respond
to the workings of her mistress's brain, could not offer consolation to
the cultured mind.

In truth, it was a terrible downfall, a disaster; this gorgeous life,
this towering success, which of a sudden had been broken, flung down into
the very depths of mortal abasement.

The summer days passed. Autumn came, and still no news arrived from
Stuttgart, nor did the notary return to give her information. Suspense
deepened to melancholy, and, as the days dragged by, melancholy was
supplanted by despair. 'I shall die in Hohen-Urach,' she said to Maria.

At length towards the beginning of November the notary arrived.

'Your trial will take place soon, Excellency,' he said. 'It has been
retarded by his Highness's illness; that being over, the matter will
proceed.'

The man rubbed his hands in self-satisfaction. He was persuaded that the
authorities in Stuttgart had chosen him for his qualities of mind and
knowledge of law, and he had become a very important personage in his own
estimation and in that of his cronies in the village.

'His Highness's illness, Herr Maerkle? I pray you te