"'To Charlotta, born Landgravine of Hesse.
"'It surprises me much that you should venture to ask why I have put you under surveillance. You cannot deny that on my return from Ratisbon to Heidelberg, I urgently commanded you to follow me without fail the next day. But you did not do so till some weeks later, and during this period you spent so much money, that our subjects, who were sufficiently ruined without this, will for a long time have much, to endure. You also know well how you disgraced me at Ratisbon by your hunting parties, and how--because I in my just indignation, on account of your past frivolity of conduct and wanton indecorum of dress in the presence of the assembled Diet, have put you only under slight restraint--you have for the past half-year refused to live with me as a wife. This culpable conduct has entirely released me from all bonds of wedlock; and I am fully resolved to separate myself completely from you by a public act. This, my purpose, has moved me to assure myself of your person, that you may not as a fugitive, by exasperating your brother and other friends, bring evil on my country. Finally, if you will keep quiet and retired, and will consent to the divorce, I promise you on my Electoral faith, that I will not only entirely free you from restraint, but will assign you an income which will enable you to maintain yourself right royally. Thus saying, and expecting a decisive declaration from you,
"'I remain your loving cousin,
"'The Elector.'
"When this writing was put into our hands, we were in such great affliction we did not know how to decide. At last we sent a noble bedchamber woman to our lord and husband, commanding her to signify to his Princely Highness that we were disposed to consent willingly to all his desires, except as concerning the divorce. For this, being an affair of conscience, must be well considered. I begged him therefore for a little time for deliberation. Undoubtedly if his Princely Highness should please to accomplish a divorce by his own power, we were much too weak to hinder him. But we thought we had never given his Princely Highness any sufficient reason for repudiating us.
"The bedchamber woman delivered this in the best way she could. But our lord and husband thus answered: 'Fair lady, tell your mistress we are now minded to give her henceforth more freedom, and to withdraw the four Swiss entirely from her apartment. It shall also be permitted to her to walk below in the garden if agreeable to her; and she may rest assured that I will find means to content her, but she must not think of writing to her lord brother concerning our purposes. She must also agree to the divorce, for I am minded to marry another.'
"The noble maiden had scarcely given us this answer, when the four Swiss were with all speed withdrawn from our apartment, and we went the same evening to breathe the fresh air in the garden. The day following our lord and husband journeyed to the castle at Ladenburg. In the evening, about five o'clock, the noble Count von Eberstein, our loving lord and cousin, came to us. He told us that the von Degenfeld had been sojourning already three months at the Castle of Ladenburg, and that our lord and husband had betaken himself thither every week during our absence; nay he had caused a special road to be made that he might the sooner reach it. Then we first discovered what had been the aim of our lord and husband, and we lamented our misfortune with many tears.
"A week after, our lord and husband sent us a note, the contents of which ran literally thus:--
"'Most Serene Highness,
"'I wish to inform your Highness in a few words, that in consequence of our afore-mentioned divorce, I have again engaged myself in marriage with the noble Lady, Marie Susanna von Degenfeld. I therefore hope that your Highness will be therewith content, as it cannot now be altered. For I have already sent for our dear and trusty Samuel Heyland, preacher of the Lutheran community of our city of Heidelberg, to unite us in Christian wedlock. But as I know well that your Highness has begotten me three royal children, it becomes me to furnish your Highness with a princely allowance for the rest of your life. Therefore we grant unto your Highness the power to make use at your good pleasure of the half of the castle of Heidelberg, and you may receive from our lord treasurer sufficient money for your maintenance; only you must reconcile yourself to my present wife, and inflict no injury upon her, that I may not have occasion to withdraw my favour from your Highness.