Page:Zawis and Kunigunde (1895).djvu/122

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118
WEDDINGS

them a numerous body of adherents, all bent on a fixed design. Queen Kunigunde also arrived early, though quietly. Her train consisted chiefly of Bohemians. They located themselves away from the Austrians and little if any communication was observed between them. The children Wenzel, of Bohemia, and Rudolph of Habsburg had reached the ages of seven and eight respectively, and the princesses Giuta and Agnes about the mature age of eight and nine.

Queen Kunigunde appeared at the ceremony splendidly attired, but wearing a white crêpe capote denoting her widowhood. The lady Ludmila of Falkenstein attended the queen, and as lady in waiting appeared Eudocia of Osterna, daughter of the distinguished knight, Boppo of Osterna, who had relinquished his vows by special permission as a Teutonic Knight at the special instance of King Otakar. The Lady Ludmila had gathered at her brother’s castle of Fürstenberg the most distinguished persons in science, eloquence and arms, and her court became the center of song, music, and chivalry, as well as practical knowledge and philanthropy. Her halls were the resort of troubadours and jongleurs; and the tales of Palestine, Egypt, Rome, and Spain, narrated in ingenuous freedom by pilgrims of every rank, presented more truthful pictures of current and recent history than could be obtained in any narrower circle, and cultivated a breadth of sentiment, an elevation of political principle, and an abhorrence of the growing superstition of the time, that gradually rendered Fürstenberg an object of hatred to the new policy of Vienna.