A.D. 1684. She had contrived to win the good opinion of Ernest Augustus as well as his wife, both of whom regarded her as an ornament to their court. They treated her with a great deal of consideration, and no doubt sympathized with her because of the selfish, brutal behavior of their son towards her. But Ernest Augustus was so indiscreet as to praise her on several occasions, and that was more than Madame von Platen could stand. He even went so far as to consult her, and such a proceeding filled the soul of Madame, the prime minister, with hatred.
[Original]
Not only did she hate Sophia Dorothea, because she was in favor with Ernest Augustus, but for another and a very unjust reason, as it was connected with the Duchess of Zell, and her daughter could not possibly have had any hand in the affair.
One day Ernest Augustus went to make a call at the house of Madame von Platen, as he frequently did; the lady was not at home, but her pretty, bright, rather forward maid was, and in the absence of her mistress set herself out to entertain the old elector. "Use"—that was the name of the girl, and quite an appropriate one—had a remarkable talent for story-telling, and had just completed one of the most brilliant she knew, for the entertainment of her royal listener, who was laughing heartily when Madame von Platen suddenly stood before them. The lady was not more shocked at the elector's lack of dignity than at the servant's audacity. The one she dared not attack, the other she could, and most certainly would, punish forthwith.
However, for the moment she only "looked daggers," and the royal visitor soon took his departure. The next day he went to one of his palaces in the country to spend a few weeks. What Madame von Platen said to her pert handmaid is not recorded; but so great was her influence in Hanover, that during the elector's absence, she had the girl locked up in jail on a charge of scandalous conduct. Poor Use was treated very unkindly while a captive, and at last in obedience to her mistress's order, actually drummed out of the town.
Now one would suppose that the wife of the elector might have interfered to prevent such harsh treatment; but she was too much occupied with her studies to take interest in such matters, and even if she had, she would have found how much greater was Madame von Platen's power than her own. So poor Use found herself outside the city walls, penniless, disgraced, friendless. She wandered through the country until, footsore and hungry, she arrived at the palace of Zell, where, upon being admitted, she frankly related her troubles to the duchess. That lady's sympathy was at once aroused, and although she told the giddy girl that she had done wrong, she could not but own to herself that the punishment for so slight an offence had been very heavy. Therefore, after due consideration and a short consultation with her husband, she gave the girl an asylum and employment in her household.
This was the head and front of the Duchess of Zell's offending, so far as Madame von Platen was concerned, and this was the insult that she resolved to revenge on the head of poor Sophia Dorothea.