kindred called "of Ascanien and Ballenstadt;" the ASCANIER or
ANALT Markgraves; whose History, and that of Brandenburg, becomes
henceforth articulate to us; a History not doubtful or shadowy any
longer; but ascertainable, if reckoned worth ascertaining.
Who succeeded in Ditmarsch, let us by no means inquire. The Empire
itself was in some disorder at this time, more abstruse of aspect
than usual; and these Northern Markgrafs, already become important
people, and deep in general politics, had their own share in the
confusion that was going.

It was about this same time that a second line of Kaisers had died
out: the FRANKISH or SALIC line, who had succeeded to the SAXON,
of Henry the Fowler's blood. For the Empire too, though elective,
had always a tendency to become hereditary, and go in lines:
if the last Kaiser left a son not unfit, who so likely as the son?
But he needed to be fit, otherwise it would not answer,--otherwise
it might be worse for him! There were great labors in the Empire
too, as well as on the Sclavic frontier of it: brave men fighting
against anarchy (actually set in pitched fight against it, and not
always strong enough),--toiling sore, according to their faculty,
to pull the innumerable crooked things straight. Some agreed well
with the Pope,--as Henry II., who founded Bamberg Bishopric, and
much else of the like; [Kohler, pp. 102-104. See, for instance,
Description de la Table d'Aute1 en or fin, donnee a la
Cathedrale de Bale, par l'Empereur Henri II. en 1019
(Porentruy, 1838).] "a sore saint for the crown," as was said of
David I., his Scotch congener, by a descendant. Others disagreed
very much indeed;--Henry IV.'s scene at Canossa, with Pope
Hildebrand and the pious Countess (year 1077, Kaiser of the Holy
Roman Empire waiting, three days, in the snow, to kiss the foot of