They left England on a blustery March day and after a hazardous journey reached Gothenburg.
It was pleasant to see Carl John again but it was a very restive and frustrated brother whom Philip found. He hated to be defeated, he admitted; and the English adventure had been a humiliating one. For a little while Carl John looked after his estates and taught Philip to help him; but Philip was well aware that such a state of affairs could not last. He was right. A month or so after Philip’s return, Carl John announced his intention to join Uncle Otho William and immediately plunged into preparations. Very soon, Philip was alone, dreaming of the time when he would be able to join his brother.
Carl John sent word that he did not expect his brother to remain in Sweden. Although England was barred to him, other courts were not. The most glittering court in the world was at Versailles; Carl John did not see why his young brother should not visit France; there, he was convinced that he could learn more graceful manners than he could in England.
So to Versailles went Philip, and after a pleasant stay there, he travelled to other European countries, always awaiting that call to join his brother.
He would never forget the day the long-awaited news of Carl John came to him. But it was not a call to join him; and he knew then that there would never be one. Carl John was dead – not gloriously, as one would have expected him to die, in battle, in the midst of some reckless adventure – but of pleurisy, brought on through exposure during a battle.
Philip was the new Count Königsmarck.
He grieved for his brother bitterly; but eventually he began to understand that he was rich, accomplished, handsome, and that because of these assets he would be welcomed in almost every court in Europe.
He travelled; he indulged in many a love affair; he had become as romantic a figure as the brother whom he had always tried to copy. He was the darling of his sisters; he had stepped into Carl John’s place at the head of the family. He became witty and gay and when he arrived at Saxony, the Prince Frederick Augustus became his friend and invited him to stay at his court as long as he cared to, for, Frederick Augustus told him, he would always be welcome there.
News came to Saxony of Hanover, and it was then that he heard gossip about the lecherous Ernest Augustus, the rapacious Clara von Platen, the boorish George Lewis and the sadly neglected but very beautiful Sophia Dorothea.
Sophia Dorothea! The dainty little girl he had known was it ten years ago? He had been enchanted with her, and she with him. And now, poor girl, it seemed she was being sadly treated by that uncouth husband of hers. No doubt she was in need of a little comfort. The Count Königsmarck was very capable of supplying comfort to ladies who did not find it in their married lives.
Sophia Dorothea, naturally, would be different from all the others. He knew that before he saw her again.
And when he did he was certain. On that night when he was presented to her and she stood before him in all her dainty femininity, she was the beautiful lady in distress calling on her knight-errant to rescue her.
She could rely on him; he would not fail her.
The Temptation of Königsmarck
SOPHIA DOROTHEA HAD dismissed all her attendants with the exception of Eléonore von Knesebeck. The excitement of the last weeks was now tinged with apprehension and she wanted to talk about it.
Eléonore von Knesebeck was sitting on her stool, her hands clasped about her knees, staring ecstatically before her.
‘He was so handsome tonight. He is surely the most handsome man in Hanover.’
‘And like as not he knows it,’ retorted Sophia Dorothea.
‘He would be a fool if he did not, and would you want a fool for a lover?’
‘A lover! Don’t use that word.’ Sophia Dorothea looked over her shoulder. ‘How do we know who listens?’
Eléonore blew with her lips to denote contempt for the suggestion. ‘Everyone in Hanover is too concerned with their own affairs to bother with ours.’
‘I wish I could be sure of that.’
‘And if you were … would you say yes to Königsmarck?’
‘Yes … to what?’
‘Oh, come, Your Highness is coy. He is in love with you … and you …’
‘You talk nonsense,’ said Sophia Dorothea.
‘Why should it be nonsense for you to enjoy your life when others so blatantly do all about you?’
‘I have taken my marriage vows to George Lewis.’
‘And he to you. But he does not remember them, so …’
‘Eléonore von Knesebeck! You forget to whom you speak.’
Eléonore leapt up, knelt at the feet of Sophia Dorothea, took her hand and kissed it. ‘Your Highness,’ she murmured, raising her eyes in mock supplication.
‘Get up and don’t be foolish,’ said Sophia Dorothea with a laugh. They had been children together so how could she be taken seriously if she tried to play the haughty princess now? But Knesebeck did talk too much; and she was afraid. Afraid of herself?
She sat down suddenly and said in a melancholy voice: ‘I have never been happy since my sixteenth birthday.’
Eléonore von Knesebeck nodded.
‘And now?’ she asked.
‘I am still married to George Lewis.’
‘You must enjoy life as he does. You could be happy again. Why not? Should you be expected to shut yourself away … to look on at him and that Schulenburg woman …’
‘Hush.’
‘And why? The handsomest man in Hanover is in love with you. Why should you turn from him for the sake of that …’
‘You will be in trouble one day, Eléonore von Knesebeck, if you do not guard your tongue. I am the Crown Princess of Hanover. I have a son and a daughter. He can have as many mistresses as he likes. They say that is unimportant. But if I took a lover, what a scandal there would be! They would suspect the paternity of a child who might be the heir of Hanover.’
‘You have the heir to Hanover and none can doubt his parentage.’
‘If I took a lover the parentage of all my children would be suspected. They would say, “If she sins now why not before?”’
‘They would not dare.’
‘Are you urging me to take a lover? You are a wicked woman, Knesebeck.’
‘I’m a proud one and I hate to see you treated as you have been. Do you know that since Königsmarck came to Hanover you have been different … younger … more beautiful? I wonder everyone does not notice.’
‘I must not see him. It is too dangerous. I must make him understand that there can be nothing but friendship between us.’
‘You would be denying the truth.’
Sophia Dorothea gave her friend a little push. ‘I understand you. You want to be a go-between, to carry the notes between us, to arrange the clandestine meetings, to live in danger and fear of discovery. You would enjoy that, Knesebeck. You are bored and long for excitement. Well, you are not going to have your excitement over this.’
Eléonore von Knesebeck lowered her eyes but her lips were smiling. She was not so sure.
In his lodgings Königsmarck was thinking of Sophia Dorothea, and he could not resist talking of her to his secretary Hildebrand.
‘How strange it is that she is not appreciated here, Hildebrand. When I see the Crown Prince with that stupid looking girl I wonder whether he is in fact blind. Surely he must be.’
‘He has none of your finer feelings, my lord Count.’
‘And to think that they married her to him. I knew her, Hildebrand, when she was a child … a dainty fairy of a child. I never forgot her.’
‘No, my lord.’
‘Hildebrand, you are looking worried.’