fortress, induced Louis to append to our badge the chief semé with the lilies of France in token of his approval. For such baubles do men unhorse their reason, beat down their better sense, stab their humanity,and trample their social impulses in the mire. Should Rudolph be convicted of so dastardly a conspiracy as that which has consigned a more chivalrous knight than himself to a felon’s dungeon, for the heinous purposes attributed to him, then all the crime committed at Acre and at Antioch, all the robber violence of Remové, of Culm, of Riga and other castles in Livonia and in Samland, are excusable offenses compared with the base conspiracy, hatched in secret, that attempts to seize the estate of a knight of our own kindred, and our own order, intending to gratify the vulgar greed of an aspiring tyrant. Rudolph is old and worn; and I deem myself bound to seek his presence. Only his own avowal could justify me in imputing so dark a stain to a Swiss knight and an emperor. Like every other accused man, he is entitled to an unembarrassed defense, as freely as the open judicial lists can supply it.”
The old man, feeling the burden of his years, took the precaution of providing himself with an attendant. To the latter, mounted on a slow and stout packhorse, was consigned the care of such encumbrance as his journey required.
The old man bent his way first toward Fürstenberg to ascertain the exact conditions prevailing there. On his approach to the Moravian frontier such intelligence continually presented itself, in the excited con-
