There must have been many attendant advantages in connection with such an object, or the two married philosophers would hardly have worn the air of content which they put on as soon as they saw the aim of their estimable wives, and felt the gain thence accruing.
Elizabeth von Meisenbuch, the wife of von Platen, was the true mistress of the situation. Von Platen, principally through her intrigues, had been appointed prime-minister of the sovereign bishop. The time passed by von Platen with his sovereign master afforded him ample leisure to talk of his wife, praise her political abilities, and over-eulogise her. The prince-bishop felt his curiosity excited to study more nearly this phœnix of a woman. It was, therefore, the most natural of consequences that von Platen should lead his lady to his master’s feet, though it perhaps was not so natural that he should leave her there to ‘improve’ the position thus reached.
The lady lost no time in justifying all that her husband had advanced in warranty of her talent, skill, and willingness to use them for the advantage of the bishop and his dominions; the powerful prelate was enchanted with her—enchanted with her in every sense. To sum up all, Madame von Platen became the mistress of her husband’s master; and her sister, who had given her hand to von Busche, gave herself body and soul to the bishop’s son, George Louis. This arrangement seemed in no way to disturb the equanimity of the bishop’s wife, the prince’s mother.
CHAPTER III.
THE BRUNSWICKER IN ENGLAND.
Prince Augustus of Wolfenbüttel, the accepted lover of Sophia—Superstition of the Duke of Zell—Intrigues of Madame von Platen—A rival lover—Prince George Louis: makes an offer of marriage to Princess Anne—Policy of the Prince of Orange—Prince George in England: festivities on account of his visit—Execution of Lord Stafford—Illness of Prince Rupert—The Bill of Exclusion, and the Duke of York at Holyrood—Probable succession of the House of Brunswick—Prince George recalled—Successful intrigues of Sophia, wife of Ernest—A group for an artist—Ill-fated marriage of Sophia—Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia—‘Goody Palsgrave’—The Electress Sophia, and her intellectual skirmishes.
While all was loose and lively at the court of the bishop, the daily routine of simple pleasures and duties alone marked the course of events at the modest court of the Duke of Zell. The monotony of the latter locality was, however, agreeably interrupted by the arrival there of his Serene Highness Prince Augustus William of Wolfenbüttel. He had just been edified by what he had witnessed during his brief sojourn in the episcopal circle of Osnaburgh, where he had seen two ladies exercising a double influence, Madame von Platen ruling her husband and his master, while her sister Caroline von Busche was equally obeyed by her consort and his Highness George Louis, the bishop’s son.
Prince Augustus of Wolfenbüttel was the brother of that early suitor of the little Sophia Dorothea who had met a soldier’s death at the siege of Philipsburg. He was, like his brother, not so rich in gold pieces as in good qualities, and was more wealthy in virtues than in acres. He was a bachelor prince, with a strong inclination to lay down his bachelorship at the feet of a lady who would, by addition of her dowry, increase the greatness and material comforts of both. Not that Augustus of Wolfenbüttel was mercenary; he was simply prudent. A little princely state in Germany costs a great deal to maintain, and when the errant prince went forth in search of a lady with a dower, his last thought was to offer himself to one who had no heart or could have no place in his own. If there was some system, a little method, and an air of business about the passion and principle of the puissant Prince Augustus, something thereof must be laid to the charge of the times, and a little to the princely matter-of-fact good sense: he is a wise and merciful man who, before he comes to conclusions with a lady on the chapter of matrimony, first weighs prospects, and establishes, as far as in him lies, a security of sunshine.
Augustus Wolfenbüttel had long suspected that the sun of his future home was to be found at Zell, and in the person of his young cousin Sophia Dorothea. Even yet, tradition exists among Brunswick maidens as to the love-passages of this accomplished and handsome young couple. Those passages have been enlarged for the purposes of romance writers, but divested of all exaggeration there remains enough to prove, as touching this pair, that they were well assorted both as to mind and person; that their inclinations were towards each other; and that they were worthy of a better fate than that which fell upon the honest and warm affection which reigned in the hearts of both.
The love of these cousins was not the less ardent for the fact of its being partially discouraged. The Duke of Zell looked upon the purpose of Prince Augustus with an unfavourable eye. The simple-minded duke had an unfeigned superstitious awe of the new lover; and the idea of consenting to a match under the circumstances as they presented themselves, seemed to him tantamount to a species of sacrilege, outraging the manes and memory of the defunct brother. The duke loved his daughter, and the daughter assuredly loved Augustus of Wolfenbüttel; and, added thereto, the good Duchess Eleanora was quite disposed to see the cherished union accomplished, and to bestow her benediction upon the well-favoured pair. The father was influenced, however, by his extensive reading in old legendary ballad-lore, metrical and melancholy German romances, the commonest incident in which is the interruption of a marriage ceremony by a spiritual personage professing priority of right.
The opposition to the marriage was not, however, all surmounted when the antagonism of the duke had been successfully overcome. Madame von Platen has the credit of having carried out her opposition to the match to a very successful issue.