CHAPTER XXIV.
THE RUIN OF THE PRINCESS.
What if my life be all undone, And all things false below the sun, Yet still I have been true to one— Most passionately true! LADY ARABELLA ROMILLY.
After Königsmarck had left, the Princess passed most of the night in packing up her jewels, sorting and burning papers, and completing arrangements for her flight. It was arranged that, on receipt of a note from Königsmarck in the morning, the Princess and her lady-in-waiting should steal disguised to some quiet spot in the city, and thence escape in his coach, which, it afterwards transpired, was under orders to start for Dresden at a moment’s notice. Outside Hanover the order would have been reversed; the coachman would have been told to drive with all speed to Wolfenbüttel, and once across the Hanoverian frontier the fugitives would have been safe from pursuit.
During the night Knesebeck fancied that she heard sounds, but thought nothing of them. Königsmarck had promised to send the Princess word early in the morning, but when the day wore on and nothing came she grew anxious, and her anxiety increased when she learnt that he had not returned home and his servants knew nothing of his whereabouts. His absence did not trouble his servants, as the Count was given to nocturnal adventures and often remained away for days together. But it troubled the Princess greatly, and she began to fear that some evil had befallen him. Presently some one came into the antechamber with the rumour that Königsmarck had fought a duel with Count Lippe, and had been run through the body. Greatly alarmed, the Princess sent to Marshal Podevils to find out if the report were true, but the Marshal said that it was groundless and Königsmarck was doubtless safe and well. Later, when the Princess attempted to go out, she was informed that it was the Elector’s pleasure she should not leave her apartments, and no reply was vouchsafed to her remonstrance. Her children were in the habit of coming to see her daily at a certain hour, but this day they came not, and when she requested their presence she was told that the Elector had given orders they were not to be admitted, and the young Prince George Augustus was dining with the Elector alone.
By this time the Princess had no doubt that she was betrayed, and gave herself up to a passionate agony of grief; while Knesebeck, though greatly frightened also, vainly endeavoured to comfort her. Great though the Princess’s fear was, and great though her peril, she gave little thought to her own danger; all her anxiety was for Königsmarck’s safety. She was in the same plight as she had written to him long ago: “I fear that we are betrayed. I am trembling on the edge of a precipice, but my own danger is the least of my anxieties. I scarcely think of the misfortunes inevitable and unavoidable if we are discovered: you, only, occupy my thoughts.” Then her terrors were imaginary; now they were real. At the very moment of fruition all her hopes were dashed to the ground, and she saw before her nothing but ruin and lifelong misery. To all her frenzied inquiries (and it was no use sending Knesebeck for further information, as that lady had now been ordered not to quit the Princess’s chamber) she could elicit no reply; and the fact that she was a prisoner in her apartments made her fear the worst. She passed the night in a torment of anxiety.
Meantime the inquiries which Knesebeck had started set Königsmarck’s servants on the same track, and all sorts of rumours flew around Hanover. It was reported that the previous night Königsmarck, surrounded by a bright light, had been seen in the palace through the windows, and a crowd assembled outside the gates, to the manifest discomfort of the Elector, who gave orders for them to be dispersed. So passed Monday. The next day, Tuesday, July 3, Hildebrand, Königsmarck’s secretary, went to Marshal Podevils to get information, if possible, of his master’s fate, as there was now a report that he was imprisoned in the palace. Podevils, who had always been a good friend of the Königsmarck family, and who must have suspected that there was foul play, nevertheless stood loyally by his master, the Elector, and said: “The Count will be found somewhere. There is no use making a fuss. Tell the servants to keep quiet.”
Up till now no rumour had reached Celle of the catastrophe, for we find the English envoy, Cresset, writing on this date: “The Electoral Prince is amusing himself in Berlin, and the Electoral Princess is always ill at Hanover”.[225]
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Footnote 225:
Cresset’s _Despatch_, Celle, July 3, 1694.
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The following day Hildebrand received a strong hint to keep quiet, but nevertheless he despatched a trusty servant to Dresden to tell the Elector of Saxony of his master’s disappearance. Hardly had he done so, than the Elector of Hanover sent three officials to search Königsmarck’s rooms thoroughly, and particularly his writing-table. Several papers were seized, and the rooms and their contents were sealed up with the official seal. The next day Hildebrand wrote a guarded letter to Königsmarck’s sisters at Hamburg to tell them that their brother was missing, and asking for directions as to what he was to do with his effects. He added that he believed the Count was still alive, and asked them to wait eight days before demanding his restoration; but so frightened was he, lest the Hanoverian authorities might intercept this letter, that he did not mention that the Count’s rooms had been searched and his papers seized.
These same papers sealed the doom of the Princess. They were taken to the Elector, who went through them carefully with the Platens. They were found to include many letters from Sophie Dorothea to her lover from the beginning of the year, and especially during his absence at Dresden, detailing minutely the story of her wrongs. They showed evidence of an extended secret correspondence, but the letters before January were missing and some even since that date. They had passed into the hands of Königsmarck’s sisters; they are the letters published in this book.[226] But though these could not be found, there remained more than enough to reveal everything. The cypher was easily made out, and though some of the Princess’s letters were written in a disguised hand, and some transcribed by Knesebeck, this did not conceal anything, but only served to implicate the lady-in-waiting in the intrigue. The letters contained convincing proofs of the Princess’s passion for Königsmarck and of her hatred of her husband and the House of Hanover. They contained, too, many severe reflections on her father’s harshness, especially when he refused to grant her a separate maintenance,—words written in the heat of anger, and perhaps forgotten as soon as written, but the writing remained. They afforded, also, full evidence of her projected flight to Wolfenbüttel, in which Frau von Metsch and Knesebeck were implicated—an act of treason in itself. The old Elector was incensed at these revelations; and though he might have overlooked the intimacy with Königsmarck, for he was not hard on such weaknesses, he could not forgive the intrigue with his arch-enemy of Wolfenbüttel. This prejudiced him hopelessly against the Princess, and made him harden his heart against any thought of mercy. It was clear that not only the honour, but the safety of his House demanded that the Princess should be kept in durance vile.
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Footnote 226:
We have the following evidence of how a portion of them were rescued, even at the eleventh hour. In the _Memoirs of Countess [Aurora] Königsmarck_, Auditeur Rüdiger, a confidant of Königsmarck’s, states that Metsch, one of the intermediaries employed by the lovers in their secret correspondence, was with Secretary Hildebrand after Königsmarck’s disappearance on July 1. Hildebrand asked him if he knew of any letters that might incriminate the Count. “As I answered in the affirmative,” proceeds Rüdiger’s statement, “and added I had seen a packet of letters in the small box on the Dresden journey, tied together with a yellow ribbon, of which the Count took especial care, the secretary requested me to take the box with me to my room and when the packing up was done to send it unopened by the lackey Mickel to Celle.” Aurora and her sister we know were at Celle soon after, and we are justified in surmising that these letters reached them by the hand of some trustworthy person, and thus ultimately came to hand with the other letters.
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The Electress Sophia, who had now been informed of the course of events, had no word strong enough to express her condemnation of the offender. She at last saw a chance of ridding herself for ever of the daughter of the d’Olbreuse, and she hailed it gladly. There was no mercy in the heart of the Electress for her erring daughter-in-law, nor would she hearken to any plea of extenuating circumstances. Yet if she had reflected she might have seen that it was she who had helped to drive the unhappy woman to these desperate steps. A little kindness, a little forbearance, a word of advice at the right season might have saved Sophie Dorothea: but no help ever came from the Electress Sophia.
Meantime the Princess, half-crazed with fear and suspense, implored to see the Elector and to know whereof she was accused; but no answer was returned to her prayers. She wrote long letters to her parents at Celle, complaining bitterly of the indignities to which she was subjected, and begging them to come to her succour. But at Celle she had been forestalled by Count Platen, who, on the discovery of the secret correspondence, posted off to Duke George William under orders of the Elector. Count Platen laid bare to the Duke the whole miserable story, and last, but not least, told him of the Princess’s aspersions upon her father. He showed him the Princess’s own letters to Königsmarck, especially those which animadverted on her father’s meanness and cruelty in refusing her shelter from her enemies at Hanover.
The Duke of Celle was wounded to the quick when he read these letters, and enraged beyond measure; his pride was hurt, too, by the dishonour done to his House. His standard of morality was not a high one, but he held that princesses of the House of Brunswick-Lüneburg should be above reproach, as in the case of his own wife and the Electress Sophia. The Electoral Prince’s many infidelities formed to him no excuse for his wife going astray. He argued that however immoral a man might be, he could not, like a woman, introduce spurious offspring into the family, or affect the legitimacy of the succession. The old Duke prided himself on being a blunt, straightforward man, and he had a horror of intrigue and double-dealing. From every point of view it seemed to him that his daughter’s conduct was as bad as it could be—a view in which Platen did not hesitate to back him up.
With the Duchess of Celle it was different. However culpable she might deem her daughter to be, she would not forsake her in her desperate straits, for she believed that the Prince was far more culpable than she. The Duchess, too, refused to believe, however imprudent her daughter might have been, that she was actually guilty with Königsmarck. She reminded the Duke of how alone and unprotected his daughter was, how surrounded by enemies, whose cruelty had goaded her to these desperate steps. She urged that her harsh expressions about her father were written when she was beside herself, and therefore allowance was to be made for them. Then, seeing he was still obdurate, she threw herself at his feet, and with tears and prayers besought him not to desert his only child in her hour of trouble. But the Duke would hear no reason. His wife had long since lost her influence over him, and he cursed her, and her daughter, and the day when he first brought her to his house, and drove her from him with bitter words. The Duchess next went to Bernstorff, who had ever shown himself her enemy, and besought his aid in this terrible crisis, offering him a large sum of money if he would work for the interests of the Princess and do what he could to mitigate the Duke’s anger against her.
Bernstorff, already in the pay of Hanover, double traitor that he was, did not reject the proffered bribe, and hypocritically promised the Duchess that he would use his best exertions. It must have been a triumph to his mean soul to see this proud and imperious woman humbling herself before him as a suppliant. He knew well her day was over, that the sun of her power had set for ever: the ruin of the daughter meant also, comparatively speaking, the ruin of the mother. The Duchess Eléonore had indeed to drink the cup of humiliation to the dregs. For years she had planned and laboured until she had reached the summit of her ambition, and now she was hurled from it by the cruellest blow that Fate could have dealt her. Yet her mother’s heart beat true. She had no reproaches for her erring daughter, only love; and, bitter though her fall was, it was not half so bitter as her impotence to help.
Though the Duchess could do little, she did not cease to importune every one concerned—the Duke, Bernstorff, and Platen—that the Princess should be treated with leniency; and especially she pleaded against harsh and hasty judgment. Had it not been for those unlucky letters she might have succeeded, for the Duke’s anger was not wont to be long-lived; but unfortunately they remained, and bore damning evidence against the unhappy Princess. Count Platen’s mission to the court of Celle was first to prejudice the Duke against his daughter and then to take counsel with him as to what should be done. There were grave issues at stake, and it was important that whatever steps were taken should be taken in concert between the two courts. Things had come to a desperate pass; but it was resolved not to abandon all efforts to bring about, not a reconciliation, for that was impossible, but an arrangement which might obviate the necessity of public scandal.
This task was very difficult, and was rendered more so by the irreconcilable attitude of the Princess. She was still ignorant of Königsmarck’s fate, but she refused positively to remain at Hanover of her own free will. To keep her there as a prisoner would give occasion for the enemy to blaspheme, and the courts of Hanover and Celle were anxious above all things to keep the real facts of the case from leaking out. Both courts resolved that Königsmarck’s name should not be even mentioned in connection with the Princess, and that any course agreed upon should be carried out as though the Count had never existed. Pending further negotiations, it was resolved to remove the Princess to her father’s territory—not to the castle of Celle, for that would look as though he condoned her conduct and bring her and her mother together—but to Ahlden, a lonely magistrate’s house in a distant village, some twenty miles from Hanover and Celle respectively, where she would be effectually cut off from intercourse with the world. It was determined, if possible, to give this removal the appearance of voluntary flight; and the imprisonment of Knesebeck was also decided upon.
While Count Platen was at Celle the Princess had addressed another letter to the Elector, who had always hitherto been inclined to treat her with indulgence, asking for an interview with him, and for permission to be allowed to retire to the territory of Celle. The Elector merely acknowledged the letter, saying the matter was under consideration.
The return of Count Platen to Hanover, bringing the news of how utterly Duke George William condemned his daughter’s conduct, deprived the unhappy woman of her last chance of protection; her own father had turned against her, and there was now no longer any need to treat her with consideration, or even with respect. Knesebeck was arrested forthwith, and without any explanation was hurried off to prison. Then the Princess knew that she must expect the worst.
As Count Platen had seen the Duke of Celle, he was deemed the fit and proper person, despite the infamous conduct of his wife, to interview the Princess, and conduct the difficult and delicate negotiations necessary to bring her to reason. Armed therefore with the Elector’s authority, he went to the Princess’s apartments, entrusted with full power to deal with her as need required. The Princess had now been shut up in her rooms for nearly a fortnight under strict surveillance, without any explanation having been vouchsafed, though she had guessed the reason but too well.
Platen went expecting to find her humble and contrite; instead he found her angry and defiant, and most indignant that he of all people should have been sent to her: she did not forget that she was still the Electoral Princess and the heiress of Celle, and her first question was why the Elector had not come to see her himself. Platen replied that His Highness bade him say that he declined to have any further communication with her, and had sent him to communicate to the Princess the fact that she would no longer be permitted to remain at the court of Hanover. To this the Princess replied that she desired nothing better than to go away from it for ever; it had been her wish for a long time past. But she demanded the reason of her unjustifiable detention. Platen retorted that her detention was not unjustifiable; it was in accordance with the orders of her father as well as of the Elector, and she had brought it upon herself by her misconduct. The Princess haughtily asked him to what he referred, and he replied _tout court_, to her criminal intimacy with Königsmarck; and by way of thrusting the insult home, added that her imprisonment was likely to be prolonged as it was suspected that she was pregnant by Königsmarck. The Princess’s anger blazed forth at this coarse insult, and she asked Platen if he mistook her for his shameless wife. Platen rejoined that it was useless for the Princess to equivocate or to deny: everything was discovered and known; they had possession of her letters, and her lover had met with his deserts. The Princess’s face blanched, and she exclaimed, “Where is Königsmarck?” Platen answered that the Count was discovered leaving her chamber on the night of July 1, and had been killed in resisting his arrest.
This cruel blow completely shattered the Princess’s self-control; her agony and despair were piteous to behold. The thought of Königsmarck’s murder swallowed up all else, and, lost to the sense of her own peril, she burst into weeping and lamentations, praying God to take her, since he was dead, and vowing she would live no longer. Platen looked on unmoved, and noted down all these cries as so many proofs of her guilt. The Princess, beside herself with grief, denounced him in the most passionate terms, and not him only, but the Elector and all the House of Hanover as murderers and assassins; she refused to parley with Platen longer, and bade him begone from her presence. He left, not without giving orders for the Princess to be watched closely, as she threatened to kill herself. He reported all that had passed to the Elector, saying that the Princess was very violent, and impenitent, and more insubordinate than ever.
It is quite possible that the Princess would have committed suicide if she had possessed the means of doing so, for now, deprived of every friend and help on earth, she abandoned herself to despair. Beside the fact that Königsmarck was dead all else was nothing. She no longer cared for her safety or heeded her interests; life had nothing left for her. As she wrote to him long ago: “My life is bound up with yours. I would not live a moment if you were to be killed.” And again: “Without you life would be intolerable, and imprisonment within four walls preferable than to go on living in the world”. The thought that her lover had been foully murdered coming from her chamber that night, with her kisses still warm on his lips, drove her nearly mad, and to her excited imagination his blood seemed to be on her head. Her horror and loathing of his assassins, among whom she included the Electoral family of Hanover as well as the Platens, knew no bounds; compromise with them was impossible, and her one desire was to quit this hated palace and find some quiet spot where she might die. To this frame of mind—absolute recklessness of the future and indifference to her own interests—must be attributed much of the subsequent attitude of the Princess, an attitude her enemies were not slow to take advantage of to work for her hurt.
The Princess’s defiance was reported to Celle, and reconciliation was seen to be absolutely impossible or even an amicable settlement. Something would have to be done forthwith, and it was resolved that steps should be taken to procure a separation, on the ground of the Princess’s wilful desertion of her husband and refusal to submit herself to her consort’s connubial rights; the more drastic measure of divorce was not yet hinted at. The first thing was to remove the Princess from Hanover, and communications passed daily between the two courts as to when the Princess should be sent to Ahlden and the best means of twisting events so that the Königsmarck affair might be kept in the background, and colour given to the theory of wilful desertion.
In accordance with this policy extraordinary care was then, and afterwards, taken to destroy or suppress any documents containing mention of Königsmarck’s name. But though no reference to Königsmarck can be found in the manuscripts preserved in the Hanoverian Archives, they contain several interesting papers which have reference to the Princess’s case, and among them may be found a despatch bearing on this particular crisis, a despatch of Platen to Bernstorff, dated July 13, 1694.
In it Platen replies to a letter from Bernstorff, and says that he gathers from it the Princess may set out for Ahlden on July 15. The Princess will hear this “with great satisfaction, as she is much annoyed that the journey cannot be undertaken on the 14th, so anxious is she to leave Hanover”. After discussing the journey, retinue, and luggage, he goes on: “As to the proposition of suggesting through Monsieur Bussche to Madame la Princesse that she may declare, in order to save appearances, that she will not, and cannot, live with the Prince, and therefore has begged leave to retire before his return here, we consider it desirable to spread such a rumour abroad, but not to suggest to the Princess that she should say it. We will speak to Her Highness to-morrow on the matter and see what her resolve is.”
On July 15 Platen again writes to Bernstorff saying that he will put his letter of the 14th before the Elector, and does not doubt that he will fall in with all Bernstorff’s proposals with regard to the journey to Ahlden. Further on it is again stated: “She [the Princess] is extremely anxious to leave this place, so much so that she receives the news that her journey must still be delayed a couple of days with great impatience And finally: “The departure of Madame la Princesse Electorale cannot possibly pass for desertion, as she wishes to take all her belongings and attendants with her”.
It is evident from these letters that the courts of Hanover and Celle were anxious to save appearances, even to the extent of circulating a false report as to the Princess’s flight.
On July 17 the journey was, so to speak, put upon the stage, and the Princess quitted Hanover for ever. On arrival at Ahlden she found herself a state prisoner.
Despite all these elaborate precautions, the truth was beginning to leak out. Every court in Europe was talking, and, notwithstanding persistent denials, the imprisonment of the Princess and the disappearance of Königsmarck were coupled together. Louis XIV. asked the Duchess of Orleans at supper whether it was true that Königsmarck was imprisoned in a cellar of the castle at Hanover. Stepney writes from Dresden:—
“We have whisperings as if one of Count Königsmarck’s servants was come hither Post from Hanover to tell y^e Elector, His Master has been missing ever since the 30th of last month, the day he designed to leave Hanover and come hither, where he has been made lately Major Generall, to cleare a debt of m/30 Dollars which He won of y^e Elector when he made y^e campaign two years ago with you in Flanders. If it be true that y^e Count is not to be found, ’tis an even lay that they have used him little better than his Brother did Esquire Thinn, and perhaps a great Lady likewise (with whom he is suspected to have been familiar) may have been some cause of his misfortune. All I can say of y^e matter, the Electorall Prince of Hanover is at Berlin, acting Comedyies, and making merry with his sister y^e Electrice.”[227]
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Footnote 227:
Stepney to Blathwayt, Dresden _Despatch_, July 10/20, 1694.
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[Illustration:
THE CASTLE OF AHLDEN AS IT WAS WHEN SOPHIE DOROTHEA WAS IMPRISONED THERE. _From an old engraving in the Castle._ ]
In Hanover, too, the wildest rumours flew about, and in Celle, where the Princess was very popular, there was a great feeling of indignation at the way she was being treated. All this was very unpleasant to the ducal brothers, and feeling that some explanation was advisable, they drafted a circular letter to their representatives abroad “as a declaration for foreign courts wherever delicate points occur”.
“The Princess at first,” so runs the document, “displayed only some coldness towards her husband, but Fräulein von Knesebeck by degrees inspired her with such dislike to him that she begged from her father permission to return to her parents’ home. Her father was displeased, and warned the Princess to place confidence in her husband. After that she paid her father a visit at Brockhausen; but when he learnt that the Prince was intending to make a journey to Berlin to see his sister, he sent his daughter back to Hanover with further admonitions that she should speak with her husband before his departure. But her dislike of her husband was so intensified by the machinations of Fräulein von Knesebeck that she determined not to await his return from Berlin. As soon as his arrival was imminent, she withdrew again from Hanover to her father. He, however, sent messengers to meet her on the way to forbid her coming to Celle, and insisted on her either returning, or withdrawing for the present to the magistrate’s house at Ahlden, which lay on the way. The Princess chose the latter course; but her corrupter, Fräulein von Knesebeck, was arrested at the wish of the Duke George William.”
This circular was duly despatched to the Brunswick-Lüneburg envoys at the different courts. The very fact of speaking of Ahlden as if it lay on the road between Hanover and Celle, when it was twenty miles away from either of them in an opposite direction, shows that this report relied on the ignorance of foreign courts to conceal the actual circumstances. If we compare Count Platen’s two letters already quoted with this circular, it is clear the whole policy of those in authority at this time was to mislead. There is no mention of Königsmarck’s name, no more than if he had never existed. Knesebeck is made the scapegoat, and her conduct is distorted to veil the Princess’s errors.
We must now leave the Princess for a space and return to the fate of her lover.
Though this circular to the foreign courts might explain the Princess’s captivity, it shed no light whatever on Königsmarck’s disappearance, with which they were much more concerned. The Hanoverian government at this time were verily at their wits’ end to meet the inquiries which beset them on every side, and the truth that murder will out was being proved once more. The Count’s sisters were most untiring in their efforts to discover their missing brother. Acting on the secretary’s advice, the Countess Aurora and the Countess Lewenhaupt, then at Hamburg, waited twelve days after receiving his letter, before taking any steps, in the hope that their brother might turn up. Then they wrote to the Elector of Hanover for information, saying that they were credibly informed he was imprisoned in the Elector’s palace. To this letter as to all others, from whatever quarter, the Elector replied, saying that he had no knowledge of Königsmarck’s whereabouts, nor was he in any way responsible for him. On receiving this unsatisfactory reply Aurora set out for Hanover and proceeded to prosecute a vigorous search. At Hanover she was simply ordered to leave, and given a time to quit the town.[228] She then went to Celle, where Bernstorff told her that her importunate demands would only have the effect, in case her brother was in the hands of the Hanoverian government, of making them refuse to give him up;[229] so after remaining some time at Celle without any result, she set out for Dresden to implore the aid of the Elector of Saxony.
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Footnote 228:
_The Magazine of the Historical Association for Lower Saxony_, 1879, p. 65.
Footnote 229:
Communication of Bernstorff at the Conference of Engesen, August 5, 1694.
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Before the arrival of Aurora the Elector of Saxony had already instituted a search for the vanished man. On receipt of a letter from Hildebrand he sent Bannier to Hanover on July 13 to demand the instant restitution of Königsmarck, on the ground that he was major-general in a cavalry regiment of the Saxon army, under orders to join the active forces on the Rhine. Aghast at this peremptory message from his brother of Saxony, the Elector Ernest Augustus shuffled and said that he had no wish to detain the Count, and did not hold him in his power. Bannier rejoined that Königsmarck had disappeared, and it was the duty of the Elector to institute a search for him. The answer was that His Serene Highness, “in personal remembrance of the high services as colonel rendered by the vanished man, would not have failed to institute such an inquiry, but the fact had been elicited from the Count’s own servants that he had often gone away at night without leaving any message, and remained away for days at a time, and so there was no ground for instituting inquiries”. Bannier then pertinently asked why the Count’s belongings had been sealed and his papers seized. This was met by the statement that when an officer in the Hanoverian service died it was customary to subtract his official papers; and stress was laid on the fact that the Count was still in the Hanoverian army when he vanished, and therefore the Elector, though willing to do all in his power, could not rightly be expected to hand the man over if he were found.[230] But, however much the Hanoverian ministers might evade or deny, it was firmly believed at Dresden that Königsmarck’s disappearance was connected with the Princess. Something of this may be gathered from the following letter, which Stepney wrote at this time to Cresset, the English envoy at Hanover:—
“I have great curiositie to know what piece of mischief has been brewing at Hannover. If you dare not trust it at length, I must beg you to satisfy me in Cypher, as likewise with y^e particulars of your Princess’s ruine. Amours are fatall in these parts; wee have had a scene of them here, and may hereafter have more y^e like nature. But at present y^e Tragedy is removed to y^r Courts, and I fear Daggers and poyson will be as familiar among you as they are in Italy. Y^r Princes have been often there, and may have learned y^e humour of y^e country of despatching people without Noise. A servant or two of Count Königsmarck run frequently betwixt this place and Hannover, (as I have heard Count Berlo’s dog did betwixt y^e Camp and Brusses after y^e Battle of Fleuros,) seeking out their master, but have no tidings: our Elector sent one of his Adjutants, Mr. Bannier (a Swede likewise) to Hannover, I believe with a design to stopp y^e blow if it was not yet given. But I suppose the Corps by this time is in y^e common shore, and our Elector by y^e accident has cleared y^e debt m/30 R he had lost to him two years ago at play. I have been told his sister raves like Cassandra, and will know what is become of her brother; but at Hannover they answer, like Cain, that they are not her brother’s keeper, and that y^e Body should be found (which I believe as little as y^t of Moses), yet y^e circumstances of y^e Murder will be left as much in y^e dark as y^e manner of despatching Sir Edmonbury Godfrey has been. He was not recommended to me by Mr. Stratford; I knew him in England, at Hamburg, in Flanders and at Hannover for a dissolute debauchee whom I would always have avoided. By chance I ate with him here at Count Frizews and our new privy counsellor Haxthausen, and by chance likewise they did suppe with me, whereas they were invited to Mr. Bomenburgh’s, who too late remembered it was a fish-night, and so shifted off his own company on me. This is all I have had to do with y^e spark, and if he has been so black as we think he is, his Fate (be what it will) is not to be pityed.”[231]
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Footnote 230:
_Vide_ Article in _Magazine for Lower Saxony_, 1879.
Footnote 231:
Stepney to Cresset, Dresden _Despatch_, July 24/August 3, 1694.
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To modify the somewhat cavalier treatment of Bannier at Hanover a statement was drawn up by the Hanoverian government, and Count Witgenstein was despatched to Dresden as an envoy extraordinary to explain matters personally. Witgenstein was well received by the Elector of Saxony, and the matter would probably have blown over without further noise had it not been for the arrival at Dresden of the Countess Aurora. This beautiful and brilliant woman, the fame of whose charms had travelled to every court of Europe, threw herself at the Elector’s feet, and, repeating all that she had gleaned of her brother’s disappearance at Hanover and Celle, besought his powerful aid and protection. Augustus the Strong could never refuse the prayer of beauty in distress. He assured Aurora that he would do everything in his power to discover the missing man, and force the Elector of Hanover, if need be at the point of the sword, to give him up. Stepney writes again:—
“Connigsmark’s sister is come hither under pretence of getting y^e Elector to interest himself more warmly than he has done hitherto with the Dukes of Brunswick-Luneburg about her brother’s liberty, if he be still alive: she believes he is, and wherefore y^e Elector has sent orders to his Adjutant Bannier to demand him vigorously. Count Witgenstein (who is here from Hannover) endeavours to mitigate y^e Elector by alledging he ought not to concern himself for a person who was actually in the Hannoverian service having received y^e pay three days before he was missing, besides that it is usual before laying down to make up accounts with the Regiment, to take leave at y^e head of it, and so have a Congé in form signed by y^e Master. All which ceremonies being omitted, he was lyable to be punished as a Deserter if he were yet to be found which y^e Elector of Hannover will know nothing of, he being a debauched rambling sparke, who kept irregular hours, and consequently it is next to an impossibility to give an account what may become of him. I cannot tell if y^e Elector of Saxony will be contented with these excuses. Count Witgenstein told me yesterday his greatest misfortune is that the Elector has not given y^e cognizance of this affaire to his Privy Council, but has referred it as he does almost all others to his favourite Haxthausen, and he communicates all to his cousin y^e Dane, who, being a _boutefeu_, seeks all occasions to embroile this house with that of Hannover, and thinks he has now got a good handle besides y^e old dispute about Saxe-Lawenburg, which is only covered with Ashes, and will certainly break out when time serves. If y^e Count be dead, I suppose y^e other syde of his sister’s errand will be to try if she can recover any part of y^e m/30 Dollars (which as I told you) y^e Elector had lost to her brother in Flanders, and I am persuaded she will not take his death to heart when she has once got her hand on his inheritance. They have lodged her in y^e court.”[232]
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Footnote 232:
Stepney’s _Despatch_, Dresden, August 14/24, 1694.
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Augustus the Strong again told Bannier to prosecute his inquiries at Hanover with the utmost vigour; and thus it came about that, while the Hanoverian envoy in Dresden was being cordially received, the Saxon envoy in Hanover was pressing and threatening more than ever. Bannier declared he was instructed by his master to demand once more the restitution of Königsmarck sharply and energetically, and a refusal might entail mischief, for his master had promised their brother’s production to the Count’s sisters, and made a point of honour of fulfilling his promise. The situation was very unpleasant for the Hanoverian government, for it was feared that Saxony might give its powerful support to the enemies of Hanover—Wolfenbüttel, Münster, and Denmark.
The brothers of Hanover and Celle, driven to extremities, appealed to the Emperor, and declared that unless Augustus the Strong took up a more reasonable attitude they would withdraw their troops from the Allies. This threat made a strong impression in Vienna, where the action of the Saxon court was called preposterous. How could the Elector Augustus, the Emperor asked, demand from the Elector of Hanover a man who had not been given into his charge? The Emperor and the Elector of Brandenburg brought pressure to bear on Saxony, and both these potentates used their influence in opposition to the promptings of the Countess Aurora. Stepney writes at this time:—
“The Danish Haxthausen pretends to be going from hence in a day or two and y^e Countess of Königsmarck likewise. The Elector had used her with great distinction, and has supp’d with her twice with y^e Privy Counsellor Haxthausen at his House, some think these Curttisyes are only to put her of with good words since there is nothing more to be done for her Brother. However, Mr. Bannier is still soliciting at Hannover, and Count Witgenstein making the best excuses he can here.”[233]
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Footnote 233:
Stepney to Blathwayt, Dresden, August 17/27, 1694.
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It would seem from this that Aurora was losing ground; but still Bannier was instructed to insist at the court of Hanover for Königsmarck’s restitution. He therefore offered Count Platen two alternatives—either Königsmarck was in confinement, or they had put an end to him. If the former, and his release was not to be obtained by mild measures, His Highness would be obliged to show his just resentment and take others; and he let slip the remark casually that other Powers would be likely to interest themselves in the fate of Königsmarck, and make common cause with the Elector of Saxony if His Highness should be driven to resort to extreme measures. He went on to say that if Königsmarck did not reappear, “the witnesses whom they could produce would support Saxony to the astonishment of the whole world, and matters would come to extremities”.
But Bannier’s threats at Hanover were checkmated by Witgenstein’s representations at Dresden, and eventually the long and violent altercation came to an end without anything having been done. How could it be otherwise? Königsmarck was dead, and all the princes and potentates of the world could not bring him back to life.
Stepney thus describes the final scene of the dispute:—
“Yesterday Count Witgenstein received an express from Hannover about Count Coningsmark, and had this morning audience of the Elector, in which (he tells me) he made long contestations in y^e Elector of Hannover’s name, how willing he is to cultivate his friendship by doing all that could be desired of him, but that he protested he knows not what has become of y^e Person for whom application was made, and to y^e Question whether he was alive or dead no positive answer could be given, since after y^e best enquiry that could be made they were able to make no true discovery, which left a very strong suspicion that he is rather dead than Living. The Elector of Saxony seemed very moderate after this answer, as if he doubted not the truth of what had been offered and replyed, only that he hoped as an instance of friendship that y^e Elector of Hannover would give him notice as soon as he should learn any tidings of Count Coningsmark, and I believe here that y^e affair will end without causing any breach betwixt y^e two Electors. The Count’s sister is gone hence, but I know not which course she steers.”[234]
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Footnote 234:
Stepney to Blathwayt, Dresden, August 21/31, 1694.
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Thus ended the ineffectual search for Königsmarck. His disappearance nearly set Europe by the ears, and shows that he was a far more important personage than his enemies are wont to admit him to be.
If the Countess Aurora left Dresden, it was only for a time, and she returned later to be one of the many mistresses of Augustus the Strong. The result of their _liaison_ was the birth of the most celebrated of all Augustus’s three hundred and fifty-four illegitimate children—Maurice, the famous Marshal de Saxe.
Aurora soon found herself superseded in the fickle favour of the Elector, and a quarrel ensued between her and her lover. She bitterly reproached him, and it would seem that the Elector had also something against Aurora, since he reminded her that Cæsar’s wife should be above suspicion. In reply she gave utterance to the celebrated _mot_: “The cases are not parallel: you are not Cæsar, and I am not your wife”. The rest of Aurora’s strange career and all that she did—how she withdrew to the Abbey of Quedlinburg, how she went on her ineffectual mission to the King of Sweden, how she paid her son’s debts and plotted for him, and all the other events of her most eventful life, belong not to this history.