The King had asked the hand of his cousin in a moment of infatuation; but it was not the fire of his senses which burned within him: his feelings were the joy of the artist at the sight of beauty. More than one trustworthy chronicler of the events of this time has hinted that the Duchess had a serious inclination for another, and that it was the desire of her parents for the marriage with her cousin which influenced her decision in favour of it. Although Ludwig was hardly her first love it was impossible that she could have been insensible to his beauty, which fascinated all women, or to the charm of his manner and personality when in his best moods. All who knew Sophie as a girl speak enthusiastically of her liveliness and buoyancy. Her goodness of heart was also praised, though this did not exclude a light vein of mockery. She was gay; but she was, nevertheless, haughty and proud, and there is hardly any ground to doubt that she was tempted by the brilliance of a royal crown.
Early in the spring the ducal family went out to Possenhofen, and Ludwig at the same time took up his residence at the château of Berg. His little yacht, the Tristan, often bore him to the house of his betrothed, where he was in the habit of spending the evenings. He showered costly presents on Sophie. Every morning the royal lover rode round the Starnberger See to offer her in person a bunch of roses. If he came too early he gave the bouquet to her waiting-maid; and on the way back from his ride, stopped to see the Duchess. Thus weeks and months passed by. The idyll had not apparently suffered any break. It was Ludwig’s hope that his future wife would be the friend of his loneliness. He talked often to her of Richard Wagner, whom he loved so dearly. He recited to her poems, ancient and modern, and scenes from Schiller’s dramatic works. She listened at first with pleasure to his declamations and outpourings; but at length grew tired of them. The King was of a suspicious nature; he suspected Sophie and himself. He sent her notes and presents in the middle of the night, exacting long letters of thanks by the returning messenger. If she forgot to fulfil a single wish of his he was sulky for days. Unwarrantable fits of violence alternated with profound melancholy. He suffered from headache; and his excited nerves required solitude. After the intoxication of the first few weeks was past, his betrothed saw in him a total stranger. His extraordinary caprices gave her anxiety; and his intellectual life was a closed book to her superficial nature. If she was wanting in the ability to follow his flights of fancy, he on his side was incapable of satisfying her need for love. There was in the whole of this connection something which was artificial, and which did not ring true. The Duchess had a hasty temper. The restless state of mind induced in her by his changing moods made her capricious and unable to govern herself. Misunderstandings which at first had gone unheeded, began to arise between the young couple; disagreements separated them still more from one another. Long before Sophie knew for certain that the engagement would be broken off, a presentiment must have warned her that it could not possibly endure.
[1] Frau Louise von Kobell says, in her reminiscences, that infatuation went so far that several ladies lost their reason, although the King had not given them the slightest ground to suppose that their feelings were reciprocated. [↑]
[2] Elizabeth, Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary. [↑]
[3] Maria, Queen of Naples. [↑]
CHAPTER X
The King goes to Paris—Disharmonies between the Engaged Couple—Ludwig meets the Emperor Napoleon and the Empress Eugénie in Augsburg—The King breaks his Promise of Marriage
In the midst of the preparations for the wedding the King made several journeys. At the beginning of June he went with Prince Otto to Eisenach, in order to see Wartburg. Later in the summer he went to Paris, where an International Exhibition was going on.