* * * *

Duke Karl Alexander, successor to Eberhard Ludwig, was a gallant
gentleman, hero of a hundred battles. He was received in Wirtemberg with
popular enthusiasm, in spite of the damning fact that he was a Roman
Catholic. He reassured his people by swearing to uphold the Evangelical
Church. This being so, he began his reign with the entire approbation of
the Wirtembergers, and in the press of business and rejoicings the trial
of the Graevenitz seemed forgotten. Still, the mass of carefully prepared
accusations remained, and the gentlemen of the law but bided their time.

Meanwhile the chorus of approval in Stuttgart wavered; for if Eberhard
Ludwig had countenanced the Land-despoiler, Karl Alexander was also ruled
by a favourite, into whose hands he confided the administration of the
Dukedom. This favourite was Joseph Suess Oppenheimer, a Frankfort Jew. To
the horror of officialdom, Suess was made Minister of Finance, and, in
point of fact, chief adviser to the new Duke.

Unheard of that a Jew should be admitted into the government! That one of
the despised race should appear at court; not only appear, but rule,
direct all things, be the familiar friend of a noble Duke!

If money had been levied by the Graevenitz, far heavier taxes were imposed
by Suess Oppenheimer. If the court at Ludwigsburg had been brilliant and
lavish in the Land-despoiler's day, it was the scene of an unending
series of costly festivities under the new regime. And if the late Duke's
mistress had been ruinous to the country's finance, the new Duke
maintained half a dozen such ladies in the greatest splendour. Suess was
accused of arranging the Duke's relations with these ladies, and of
sharing their favours with his unsuspecting patron. It is certain that
the Jew led a dissolute life, and that his amours were numerous.

The Wirtembergers were in despair, and murmured more ominously than ever;
but they were powerless. Suess was master of the situation, exactly as the
Graevenitz had been before.

Of all this the prisoner at Hohen-Urach knew nothing. She succeeded in
persuading the governor to forward a letter from her to her brother,
Friedrich Graevenitz, in which she implored him to visit her; but she
received no answer from that estimable personage. In point of fact, he
was in an awkward predicament himself. True, he had sided against his
sister openly, but the Duke, not relishing a too glaring reminder of the
past, had