His Highness dismissed Stafforth and Grävenitz. As the door closed upon the two courtiers, Eberhard Ludwig snatched a crumpled paper from his breast. It was the Duchess Johanna Elizabetha's formal command to her guests to appear at her private concert of madrigals:—
'Le Chambellan de
Son Altesse
Madame la Duchesse de Wirtemberg
a l'honneur d'inviter Madame de Stafforth ce Lundi
25 Juin à 8 heures du soir.
Je regrette de ne pas pouvoir inviter des voyageurs étrangers.—J. E.'
Signed and annotated, you will see, by her Highness's own hand. Beneath which, in strong, manlike characters, was written—
'Ce soir à onzes heures.—Philomèle.'
And it is a matter of history that his Highness Eberhard Ludwig of Wirtemberg did not keep his tryst at dawn with Oberhofmarshall Stafforth and Friedrich Grävenitz in the Rothwald.