[FROM KÖNIGSMARCK TO SOPHIA DOROTHEA]
_Thursday {1693}_.
I needed your letter to sustain me in the despair which had fallen
upon me. This is what comes of acting openly, and if you had not
spoken to me of ... I believe that I could not have held out a day
longer. However, I controlled myself excellently; and I wished in
the first instance to know what you would say to me; so I did not
give way to my anger. Let me tell you then that I was the day
before yesterday at Linde.[246] Mme. la Comtesse was greatly
astonished that I did not play with you. I said to her that this
required permission; she said, Mme. Léonisse made the Elector ask
me; and he replied positively that she might summon her players.
Yesterday, before receiving your letter, I was told by Oberg who
had seen M. Weyhe at Linde, that his Highness had said it to
yourself.[247] Prince Ernest Augustus said to me in these words,
that the Elector had said to you, ‘You are bored, Madam; you ought
to summon your players.’ It would have depended on yourself, if he
had spoken to you in this way. But, Madam, I was greatly relieved
when I read your letter, in which you write to me about this
matter. I have drawn my moral, which is never begin to fly into a
passion about vapours. But, my divine creature, could you not
[contrive to] let [me] come, in order that I might have the joy of
gazing upon you, and that my eyes and my heart might learn from
yours how I stand with them, and whether your love is such as you
wrote to me. Your letter of yesterday is charming; it touched me
so that I feel more on fire than ever. You write that you see
nobody; nothing could be more obliging; but you see the Reformer
all the more; which makes me fear that you will accustom yourself
little by little to his mediocre caresses, and he will kiss you so
often that I die with trouble only to think of it. For the love of
yourself, do not accustom yourself to it; always remember the way
in which he treats you—you who deserve all proper, obliging and
respectful ways. But I see the defects of another man, and I do
not see that it is in this that I am the most criminal. You have
told me yourself that the Re[former] ... [at times?] was not so
unpleasant in his ways as myself. I die to think of it. How
unfortunate I am to love you so tenderly, and that this excessive
passion makes me so odious. Think no more of the past, I beseech
you. Adieu, adieu, alas, adieu!
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Footnote 246:
Linde or Linden, an estate in the immediate vicinity of Hanover,
purchased in 1688 by Count Platen, who built in its fine gardens a
_château_, frequently mentioned as ‘_la cour de Linden_.’
Footnote 247:
The Obergs were an ancient noble family, whose estates lay in the
bishopric of Hildesheim and elsewhere. A Privy-Councillor von
Oberg is mentioned _ap._ Malortie, _u. s._ pp. 193, 194. Christian
Lewis von Oberg, a general of much distinction in the Hanoverian
service, was not born till 1689. The Obergs were afterwards raised
to the rank of Counts.—The von der Weyhe mentioned in the text was
probably the same who afterwards became a General, and married the
widowed Frau von dem Bussche, Countess Platen’s sister.
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