tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">68

VI. LOVE'S SPRINGTIDE, 82 VII. THE FULFILMENT, 90 VIII. THE GHETTO, 103 IX. 'SHE COMES TO STAY THIS TIME,' 116 X. THE ATTACK IN THE GROTTO, 129 XI. THE MOCK MARRIAGE, 153 XII. THE MOCK COURT, 167 XIII. THE DUCHESS'S BLACK ROOMS, 181 XIV. THE SECOND MARRIAGE, 196 XV. THE RETURN, 212 XVI. LUDWIGSBURG, 224 XVII. THE BURNING IN EFFIGY, 242 XVIII. THE SINNER'S PALACE, 261 XIX. THE GREAT TRIUMPH AND THE SHADOW, 279 XX. SATIETY, 302 XXI. THE DOWNFALL, 325 XXII. REST, 350

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A GERMAN POMPADOUR

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CHAPTER I

THE INTRIGUE

On the outskirts of the village of Oberhausen in South Wirtemberg stands a deserted house. Rats are its only denizens now; rats and the 'poor ghosts,' so the peasants say. Two hundred years ago this eerie mansion was occupied by living men and women, perchance the ghosts of to-day. Who can tell? But I, who have grown to love them, having studied the depths of their hearts, I pray that they may rest them well in their graves, and that the Neuhaus ghosts be not my friends of 1705.

It was a fitting place for intrigues this Neuhaus, standing as it did so near in actual mileage to the court of Stuttgart, and hard by the Jesuit centre of Rottenburg. The high-road was close at hand, yet Neuhaus, shut off by peaceful