rill);" at which they all laughed, and called | his head on the block at Freyberg: some the collier der Triller, the Driller. Meanwhile, Mosen the Misnian is also faring ill; with the alarm-bells all awake about him, and the country risen in hot chase. Six of his men have been caught; the rest are diving ever deeper into the thickets. In the end, they seek shelter in a cavern, stay there perdue for three days, not far from the castle of Steina, still within the Saxon border. Three days, while the debate of Westminster is prosperously proceeding, and imbecile Henry the Sixth takes his ease at Windsor,-these poor fellows lie quaking, hungry, in their cave; and dare not debate, except in whispers; very uncertain what the issue will be. The third day they hear from colliers or wandering woodmen, accidentally talking together in their neighborhood, that Kunz is taken, tried, and most probably beheaded. Well-a-day! Well-a-day! Hereupon they open a correspondence with the nearest Amtmann, him of Zwickau: to the effect, That if free pardon is granted, they will at once restore Prince Ernst; if not, they will at once kill him. The Amtmann of Zwickau is thrown into excitement, it may well be supposed; but what can the Amtmann or any other official person do? Accede to their terms, since, as desperate men, they have the power of enforcing them. It is thought, had they even demanded Kunz's pardon, it must have been granted; but they fancied Kunz already ended, and did not insist on this. Enough, on the 11th of the month, fourth day since the flight, third day in this hunger-cave of Steina, Prince Ernst was given up; and Mosen, Schönfels, and Co., refreshed with food, fled swiftly unharmed, and "were never heard of more," say my authorities. Prince Ernst was received by his glad father at Chemnitz; soon carried to his glad mother and brother at Altenburg: upon which the whole court, with trembling joy, made a pilgrimage to Ebersdorf, a monastery and a shrine in those parts. They gave pious thanks there, one and all: the mother giving suitable donation furthermore; and, what is notable, hanging up among her other votive gifts two coats: the coat of Kunz, leather buff, I suppose, and the coat of The Driller, Triller, as we call that heaven-sent collier, coat grimy black, and made of what stuff I know not. Which coats were still shown in the present generation; nay, perhaps are still to be shown to this day, if a judicious tourist made inquiry for them. On the 14th, and not till then, Kuns of Kaufungen, tried and doomed before, laid say, pardon had been got for him from the joyful Serene Highnesses, but came an hour too late. This seems uncertain, seems improbable: at least poor Dietrich of Kaufengen, his younger brother, was done to death at Altenburg itself some time after, for "inconsiderate words" uttered by him,-feelings not sufficiently under one's control. That Schwalbe, the Bohemian Cook, was torn with "red-hot pincers," and otherwise mercilessly mangled and strangled, need not be stated. He and one or two others, supposed to be concerned in his peculiar treason, were treated so; and with this the gallows part of the transaction ended. As to the Driller himself, when asked what his wish was, it turned out to be modest in the extreme: Only liberty to cut of scrags and waste wood, what would suffice for his charming purposes, in those wild forests. This was granted to the man and his posterity: made sure to him and them by legal deed, and to this was added, So many yearly bushels of corn from the electoral stockbarns, and a handsome little farm of land, to grow cole and sauerkraut, and support what cows and sheep, for domestic milk and wool, were necessary to the good man and his successors. "Which properties," I am vaguely told, but would go to see it with my eyes, were I touring in those parts, "they enjoy to this day." Perhaps it was a bit of learned jocularity on the part of the old conveyancers, perhaps in their high chancery at Altenburg they did not know the man's real name, or perhaps he had no very fixed one; at any rate, they called him merely Triller (Driller), in these important documents; which courtly nickname he or his sons adopted as a surname that would do very well; surname born by them accordingly ever since, and concerning which there have been treatises written." This is the tale of Kunz of Kaufungen: this is that adventure of the Prinzenraub (Stealing of the Princes), much wondered at, and talked of, by all princes and all courtiers in its own day, and never quite forgotten since; being indeed apt for remembrance, | and worthy of it, more or less. For it actually occurred in God's Creation, and was Groshupf's Oratio de gentis Trillerianae ortu (cited in Michaelis Geschichte der Chur- und Fürstlichen Häuser in Teutschland, i. 459) is one. See, for the rest, Schurzfleisch, Dissertatio de Conrado Kaufungo (Wittenberg, 1720); Tenzel (Gotha. 1700); Rechenberg, De Ruptu Ernesti et Alberti ; Sagittarius, Fabricius, &c., &c. a fact, four hundred years ago; and also is, ing insignificant little territories, names, relationships and titles; inextricably indecipherable, and not worth deciphering; which only the eye of the Old Serpent could or would decipher! Let us leave them there; and remark that they are all divided, after our little stolen Ernst and Albert, into two main streams or lines, the Ernst, or Ernestine Line, and the Albert or Albertine Line; in which two grand divisions they flow on, each of them many-branched, through the wilderness of Time ever since. Many-branched each of the two, but conspicuously separate each from the other, they flow on; and give us the comfort of their company, in great numbers, at this very day. We will note a few of the main phenomena in these two Saxon lines,-higher trees that have caught our eye, in that sad wilderness of princely shrubbery unsurveyable otherwise. ERNESTINE LINE. Ernst, the elder of those two stolen boys, became Kurfürst (Elector); and got for inheritance, besides the "inalienable properties" which lie round Wittenberg, as we have said, the better or Thuringian side of the Saxon country-that is, the Weimar, Gotha, Altenburg, &c., Principalities-while the other youth, Albert, had to take the "Osterland (Easternland), with part of Meissen," what we may in general imagine to be, (for no German Dryasdust will do you the kindness to say precisely) the eastern region of what is Saxony in our day. These Albertines, with an inferior territory, had, as their main towns, Leipzig and Dresden; a Residenz-Schloss (or sublime enough Ducal Palace) in each city, Leipzig as yet the grander and more common one. There, at Leipzig chiefly, I say, lived the august younger or Albertine line; especially there lived Prince Albert himself, a wealthy and potent man, though younger. But it is with Ernst that we are at present concerned. The two boys, Ernst and Albert, who, at the time of their being stolen, were fourteen and twelve years old respectively, and had Frederick the Peaceable, the Placid or Pacific, for father, came safe to manhood. They got, by lucky survivorship, all these inextricable Saxon territories combined into two round lots-did not, unfortunately, keep them so; but split them again into new divisions, for new despair of the historical student, among others!-and have at this day, extensive posterity, of thrice-complex relationship, of unintelligible names, still extant in the high places of the world. Unintelligible names, we may well say; each person having probably from ten to twenty names: not John or Tom; but Joachim John Ferdinand Ernst Albrecht; Theodor Tom Carl Friedrich Kunz:-as if we should say, Bill Walter Kit, all as one name; every one of which is good, could you but omit the others! Posterity of unintelligible names, thrice-complex relationship;-and in fine, of titles, qualities, and territories, that will remain for ever unknown to man. Most singuAs for Ernst, the elder, he and his lived lar princely nomenclature, which has often chiefly at Wittenberg, as I perceive; there and filled me with amazement. Designations in the neighborhood, was their high Schloss; worse than those of the Naples Lazzaroni; distinguished among palaces. But they had who indeed "have no names," but are, I con- Weimar,they had Altenburg, Gotha,Coburg→→ clude, distinguished by numbers, No. 1, No. above all, they had the Wartburg, one of the 2, and can be known when mentioned in most distinguished Strong Houses any Duke human speech! Names, designations, which could live in, if he were of frugal and heroic are too much for the human mind-which turn. Wartburg, built by fabulous Ludwig are intricate, long-winded; abstruse as the the Springer, which grandly overhangs the Sybil's oracles; and flying about, too, like town of Eisenach, grandly the general Thuher leaves, with every new accident, every ringian forest; it is now,-Magician Klingnew puff of wind. Ever fluctuating, ever sohr having sung there, St. Elizabeth having splitting, coalescing, re-spliting, re-combin-lived there and done conscious miracles, Martin Luther having lived there and done | have young Charles V., Max's grandson, unconscious ditto, the most interesting elected to it. Whereby it came that the Residenz, or old grim shell of a mountain grand Reformation Cause, at once the grandCastle turned into a tavern, now to be found est blessing and the grandest difficulty, fell in Germany, or perhaps readily in the world. to the guidance, not of noble German veracity One feels,-standing in Luther's room, with and pious wisdom, but of longheaded obstiLuther's poor old oaken table, oaken ink- nate Flemish cunning; and Elector Frederick holder still there, and his mark on the wall indeed had an easier life, but Germany has which the Devil has not yet forgotten,-as ever since had a much harder one! Two if here once more, with mere heaven and the portraits of this wise Frederick, one by silent Thuringian Hills looking on, a grand Albert Dürer, and another of inferior quality and grandest battle of "One man versus the by Lucas Kranach, which represented to us Devil and all men" was fought, and the an excellent rather corpulent elderly gentlelatest prophecy of the Eternal was made to man, looking out from under his electoral these sad ages that yet run; as if here, in cap, with a fine placid, honest, and yet vigifact, of all places that the sun now looks lant and sagacious aspect, are well known to upon, were the holiest for a modern man. print-collectors; but his history, the practiTo me, at least, in my poor thoughts, there cal physiognomy of his life and procedure seemed something of authentically divine in in this world, is less known to hereditary this locality; as if immortal remembrances, governing persons, and others, than it ought and sacred influences and monitions were to be, if there were any chance of their hovering over it: speaking sad, and grand, taking pattern by him! He was twenty and valiant things to the hearts of men. years Luther's senior; they never met perdistinguished person, whom I had the honor sonally, much as they corresponded together, of attending on that occasion, actually during the next four years, both living oftenstooped down, when he thought my eye was est in the same town. He died in 1525, and off him; kissed the old oaken table, though one was succeeded by his brother, John the of the grimest men now living; and looked Steadfast, (Johann der Beständige.) like lightning and rain all morning after, with a visible moisture in those sun-eyes of his, and not a word to be drawn from him. Sure enough, Ernst and his line are not at a loss for residences, whatever else he and they may want. A Ernst's son was Frederick the Wise, successor in the Kur (Electorship) and paternal lands; which, as Frederick did not marry, and there was only one other brother, were not further divided on this occasion. Freder ick the Wise, born in 1463, was that evermemorable Kurfürst, who saved Luther from the Diet of Worms in 1521. A pious Catholic, with due horror of heresy up to that time, he listened with all his faculties to the poor Monk's earnest speech of four hours; knew not entirely what to think of it; thought at least, "We will hear this man further, we will not burn this man just yet!"and snatched him up accordingly, and stuck him safe into the Wartburg for a year. Honor to such a Kurfürst :-and what a luck to him and us that he was there to do so evermemorable a thing, just in the nick of time! A Kurfürst really memorable and honorable, by that and by many other acts of wisdom, piety, and prudent magnanimity; in which qualities history testifies that he shone. He could have had the Kaisership, on Max's death, some years before, but preferred to This brother, Johann der Beständige, was four years younger; he also was a wise and eminently Protestant man. He struggled very faithfully for the good cause, during his term of sovereignty; died in 1532 (fourteen years before Luther), having held the Electorate only seven years. Excellent man, though dreadfully fat; so that they had to screw him up by machinery when he wished to mount on horseback, in his old days. His son was Johann Friedrich, the Magnanimous by epithet (der Grossmüthige), under whom the Line underwent sad destinies; lost the Electorship, lost much; and split itself after him, into innumerable branches, who are all of a small type ever since; and whom we shall leave for a little, till we have brought forward the Albertine Line. ALBERTINE LINE. Albert the Courageous (der Beherzte) was the name this little stolen boy attained among mankind, when he grew to maturity and came to his properties in Meissen and the Osterland. What he did to merit such high title might, at this date, in this place, be difficult to say. I find he was useful in the Netherlands, assisting Kaiser Max (or rather young Prince Max, Kaiser indeed, and Charles V.'s grandfather, in time coming) when the said young Max wedded the beautiful young Mary of Burgundy, the great heiress in those parts. | Albert's eldest son, then, and successor in the eastern properties and residences, was Duke George of Saxony-called "of Saxony," as all those Dukes, big and little, were and still are,- Herzoz Georg von Sachsen: of whom, to make him memorable, it is enough to say that he was Luther's Duke George! Yes, this is he with whom Luther had such wrangling and jangling. Here, for the first time, English country gentlemen may discern "Duke George" as a fact, though a dark one, in this world; see dimly who begat him, where he lived, how he actually was (presumably) a human creature, and not a mere rumor of a name. "Fear of Duke George?" said Luther: "No, not that. I have seen the King of Chaos in my time, Sathanas himself, and thrown my inkbottle at him. Duke George! Had I had business in Leipzig, I should have gone thither, if it had rained Duke Georges for three days running!" Well, reader, this is he: George the Rich, called also the Barbatus (Beardy), likewise the Learned: a very magnificent Herr; learned, bearded, gilded, to a notable degree; and much reverenced by many, though Luther thought so little of him. He was strong for the old religion, while his cousins went so valiantly ahead for the new. He attended at Diets, argued, negotiated; offered to risk life and fortune, in some diplomatic degree, but was happily never called to do it. His brother, and most of his people, gradually became Protestants, which much grieved him. Pack, unfortunate Herr Pack, whose "revelations" gave rise to the Schmalkaldic League, and to the first Protestant War, had been his secretary. Pack ran off from him; made said "revelations," That there was a private bargain, between Duke George and others, headed by the Kaiser, to cut off and forfeit Philipp of Hesse, the chief Protestant, that &c., &c.: whereby, in the first place, poor Pack lost his head; and in the second place, poor Duke George's troubles were increased fourfold and tenfold. Poor soul, he had lost most of his ten children, some of them in infancy, others in maturity and middle age, by death; was now himself getting old, within a year or two of seventy and his troubles not in the least diminishing. At length he lost his wife; the good old dame, a princess of Bohemia, who had been his stay in all sorrows, she too was called away from him. Protestantism spreading, the Devil broken loose, all was against Duke George; and he felt that his own time must now be nigh. His very brother, now heir apparent, by the death of all the young men, was of declared Protestant tendencies. George wrote to his brother, who, for the present, was very poor, offering to give him up the government and territories at once, on condition that the Catholic religion should be maintained intact: Brother respectfully refused. Duke George then made a will, to the like effect; summoned his Estates to sanction it; Estates would not sanction: Duke George was seized with dreadful bowel disorders, and lay down to die. Sorrow on it! Alas, alas! There is one memorability of his sad last moments: A reverend Pater was endeavoring to strengthen him by assurances about his own good works, about the favor of the Saints and such like, when Dr. Rothe, the Crypto-Protestant medical gentleman, ventured to suggest in the extreme moment, Gnädiger Herr, you were often wont to say, Straightforward is the best runner! Do that yourself; go straight to the blessed Saviour and eternal Son of God, who bore our sins; and leave the dead Saints alone!" "Ey, then-help me, then," George groaned out in low sad murmur, "true Saviour, Jesus Christ; take pity on me, and save me by thy bitter sorrows and death!" and yield. ed up his soul in this manner. A much afflicted, hard-struggling, and not very useful man. He was so learned, that he had written his father Albert's exploits in Latin; of which respectable "Monograph," Fabricius, in his Chronicle, has made use. Fabricius; not that big Hamburg Fabricius of the Bib liothecas; but an earlier minor one, Georg | Goldschmied his vernacular name, who was "crowned poet by Kaiser Max," became head schoolmaster in Meissen, and wrote meritorious chronicles, indifferently exact, Rerum Misnicarum, and such like; he is the Fabricius to whom the respectable Monograph fell. Of this poor Duke's palaces and riches, at Leipzig and elsewhere, I say nothing, except that they were very grand. He wore a magnificent beard, too, dagger-shaped and very long; was of heroic stature and carriage; truly a respectable looking man. I will remember nothing more of him, except that he was withal an ancestor of Frederick the Great; no doubt of that small interesting fact. One of his daughters was married to Philip the Magnanimous of Hesse; wife insufficient for magnanimous Philip, wherefore he was obliged to marry a second, or supplement to her, which is a known story! But another of Duke George's daughters, who alone concerns us here, was spouse to Joachim II., sixth Kurfürst of Brandenburg, who bore him Johann George, seventh ditto, in lawful wedlock; and so was Frederick the Unique's great-grandfather's great-grandmother, that is to say, lineal ancestress in the seventh generation. If it rained Duke Georges for eight days running, I would say no more about them. terous management, Duke Moritz got the Electorship transferred to himself; Electorship, with Wittenberg and the "inalienable lands and dignities;" his poor cousin sitting prisoner the while, in imminent danger of his life; not getting loose for five years, but following the Kaiser like condemned luggage, up and down, in a very perilous and uncomfortable manner! This from Moritz, who was himself a Protestant, only better skilled in jockey ship, was not thought handsome conduct--nor could it be. However, he made it good; succeeded in it-what is called succeeding. Neither is the game yet played out, nor Moritz publicly declared (what he fully surely is, and can by discerning eyes be seen to be) the loser. Moritz kept his Electorship, and, by cunning jockeying, his Protestantism too; got his Albertine or junior Line pushed into the place of the Ernestine or first; in which dishonorably-acquired position it continues to this day; performing ever since the chief part in Saxony, as Electors, and now as Kings of Saxony--which seems to make him out rather as winner in the game. For the Ernestine, or honorable Protestant Line is ever since in a secondary, diminished, and as it were disintegrated state, a Line brokem small; nothing now but a series of small Dukes, Weimar, Gotha, Coburg, and the like, in the Thuringian region, who, on mere genealogical Coburg, Sachsen-Weimar, &c.; and do not look like winners. Nor perhaps are they— if they also have played too ill! Perhaps neither of the two is winner; for there are many other hands in the game withal; sure I am only that Moritz has lost, and never could win! As perhaps may appear yet, byand-by. We come now to Elector Moritz, our second figure. George's brother, Henry, suc-grounds, put Sachsen to their name; Sachsenceeded; lived only for two years; in which time all went to Protestantism in the eastern parts of Saxony, as in the western. This Henry's eldest son, and first successor, was Moritz, the "Maurice" known in English Protestant books; who, in the Schmalkaldie League and War, played such a questionable game with his Protestant cousin, of the elder or Ernestine Line-quite ousting said cousin, by superior jockeyship, and reducing his line and him to the second rank ever since. This cousin was Johann Friedrich the Magnanimous, of the Ernestine Line; whom we left above waiting for that catastrophe; and it came about in this manner. Duke Moritz, refused, namely, to join his poor cousin and other fellow Protestants in the Schmalkaldic League or War, in spite of Secretary Pack's denunciations, and the evidence of facts. Duke Moritz waited till the Kaiser (Charles V., year 1547), and their own ill-guidance, had beaten to pieces and ruined said League and War; till the Kaiser had captured Johann Frederick the Magnanimous in person, and was about to kill him. And then, at this point of the game, by dex But however that may be, the Ernestine Line has clearly got disintegrated, broken small, and is not in a culminating condition. These, I say, are the Dukes who in the present day put Sachsen to their names: sons of Ernst, sons of Johann Friedrich the Magnanimous, all now in a reduced condition : while the sons of Albert, nephews of George the dagger-bearded ("if it rained Duke Georges"), are Kings of Saxony, so called Kings. No matter: nay, who knows whether it is not perhaps even less than nothing to them, this grand dignity of theirs? Whether, in very truth, if we look at substance and not semblance, the Albertine Line has risen since Moritz's time; or in spite of all these crowns and appearances, sublime to the valet judgment, has fallen and is still falling? |