none,

broils, which became the scandal of their friends, the pleasure of their foes, and the ruin of their own peace and happiness. That there may have been much to blame on both sides, it is only just to suppose : but that the principal cause was the overbearing disposition of the countess has never been denied. She inherited all the obduracy of her mother, Henrietta, of Mömpelgard; and like her seemed wholly intent on subduing her spouse to her will, or breaking his heart. A bad wife, a bad mother, and a bad mistress to her menials, she had the love of and the hatred of many. Time, which generally mellows the harsher traits of the human character, seemed to have no such effect upon her on the contrary, each succeeding year but rendered them more salient and more repulsive. Such a state of things was not to be longer endured. The patient husband now became the inexorable judge; and, compelling a formal separation on his part, gave her as dower the strong castle of Lichtenberg, in the Odenwald, on condition of residence there during the remainder of her life, or his pleasure: her children he retained at his court. But even there her unquiet spirit discovered means to disturb his repose; she was perpetually at feud with her neighbours, and disgraceful broils with the domestics of her household were of every day occurrence. Nay, even the warden of the castle came in for a touch of her tyrannical temper; though, as the representative of her husband, he was entirely exempt from her power. The consequence was, that complaints · from all quarters poured in on the hapless Phi

lip; and he found himself ultimately obliged to
take formal cognizance of the affair between his
wicked wife and his officer. The latter charged
the countess with a design to destroy every
thing, the property of his lord the count, con-
fided to his care; he also charged her with ob-
structing him in the discharge of his duties in
various ways. She, in reply to these accusa-

tions, most characteristically counter-charged

him with being the primary cause of them all;
inasmuch as he had, she said, incited the chief
butler of the castle to induce her to learn the
black art, by means of the assistance of the
devil to recover again the lost affections of her
husband. The matter was referred for decision
to a friendly tribunal, composed of the Count of
Isenburg, the Baron of Wallbrun, and her own
son; and they charitably concluded that it was
love for her spouse alone that led to these dis-
turbances on her part. They, therefore, coun-
selled the count to take her back once more to
his bosom, and give her another and a final
trial. But nothing could shake the resolution
which Philip had formed never to live with her
again. In vain did the arbitrators urge it on
him as a matter of right and duty! in vain did
his son plead with all the eloquence of filial af-
fection for his lost mother; he was not to be
moved from his purpose. To prove to them,
however, that he was not insensible to their
efforts in her favour, he consented to make any
arrangement they should suggest in amelioration
of her condition; and even imposed on himself
the voluntary penalty of an occasional visit to
her. But this would not satisfy the countess :---

like most persons of her temperament she saw no fault in her own conduct, and she consequently looked on herself rather as a persecuted being, than as one who, in reality, merited much severer treatment than that she received. The result may be anticipated. Again was the mind of the count, her spouse, agitated by renewed complaints of her unendurable conduct-her tyrannical deportment - her capriciousness - nay, even her cruelty to every one within the sphere of her influence again were charges against her poured in upon him unceasingly. He was nearly driven mad by her proceedings; and he found it was futile for him to attempt to check or control them. Emboldened by success, she finally attempted to set his children against him; and she might, perhaps, have succeeded in this unnatural design if her plan had not been discovered by accident. The last step was the one beyond which there could be no further forbearance on the part of a husband: he restricted her power at once; made her all but a close prisoner in the castle of Lichtenberg, her residence; surrounded her with his own tried and faithful servants; and applied without delay to the court of Rome for a divorce. The pope, Calixtus the Third, either to enhance the value of the gift, or, perhaps, actuated by some conscientious scruple, named the Archbishop of Mentz, as a spiritual commission, to inquire into the accuracy of the allegations against her, and to report to him on the case before he consented to grant it. The examination was accordingly made; and the report was coincident with the count's statements: a divorce was shortly after pronounced

by the holy father; and Philip and Anna were separated for ever. Ulrich, of Würtemburg, her brother, received her with all the pomp and state due to her station as his sister; and assigned her the stately castle of Weiblingen, on the Neckar, not far from Stuttgardt, with all the rich domains thereunto belonging, for her maintenance and support. But her evil disposition, even there, permitted her no peace: and she died, shortly after, in the meridian of life, a victim to a fit of insane rage and uncontrollable passion.

Philip was now happy. His son had espoused, with his consent, Ottilia, daughter of the Count of Nassau Dillenburg, who, besides a large portion, had also brought him a title to the reversion of valuable possessions in the Netherlands: and his daughter Anna had married Henry, the fourth, landgraf of Hesse, a prince of the empire, and the head of one of the oldest families in Germany. But his happiness was only transitory; in this, as in every thing else, he was again the sport of fortune. His son was slain at Bruges, in Flanders (A. D. 1454), defending the lordship of Vianen against his uncle-in-law, John of Nassau; and he had no longer any prospect of continuing his family in the direct male line, as the only issue of the deceased was a daughter. A ray of hope, however, was afforded him by the ambition of Frederic, prince palatine of the middle Rhine. That calculating sovereign, anxious to annex the county of Ellenbogen to his electoral estates, proposed a marriage between Philip's granddaughter Ottilia, so named after her mother, and his ne

phew and heir, the electoral prince Ludwig, a youth of great promise. But it was soon overcast; in this, as in every thing else, some perverse power seeming to take a pleasure in thwarting his views. On the proposition being made to Ludwig by his uncle, the prince palatine, in a plenar court convened for the occasion, the youth briefly and coldly replied, "that he would never consent to a union in which his heart had no part; and that he, moreover, considered himself sufficiently old to choose for himself in such a weighty matter as marriage." Frederic was as much surprised as annoyed at this resolution; and it is said that Philip fell sick with mortification and disappointment when it was communicated to him. Shortly after he married Ottilia to the Markgraf Christoph of Baden; but even this marriage, though it presented every outward appearance of prosperity, and seemed as desirable a union as could be wished for, became a fertile source of unhappiness to him, arising from the discord and disunion which it introdueed among his heirs and probable successors.

In his latter years, however, although his granddaughter gave him a male child to succeed to his title and estates, he took it into his head to marry again; and he espoused, accordingly, Anna, the young and beautiful widow of Otto, duke of Brunswick, in her own right a countess of the noble house of Nassau. She was an excellent woman; one, indeed, in every way worthy of choice. Mild in manner, kind of heart, loveable, and loving, her whole soul seemed devoted to her husband, and all her efforts directed to one end--that of making the remainder of his