Chapter V.

CONRAD OF HOHENZOLLERN; AND KAISER BARBAROSSA.

It was in those same years that a stout young fellow, Conrad by
name, far off in the southern parts of Germany, set out from the
old Castle of Hohenzollern, where he was but junior, and had
small outlooks, upon a very great errand in the world.
>From Hohenzollern; bound now towards Gelnhausen, Kaiserslautern,
or whatever temporary lodging the great Kaiser Barbarossa might
be known to have, who was a wandering man, his business lying
everywhere over half the world, and needing the master's eye.
Conrad's purpose is to find Barbarossa, and seek fortune
under him.

This is a very indisputable event of those same years. The exact
date, the figure, circumstances of it were, most likely, never
written anywhere but on Conrad's own brain, and are now rubbed out
forevermore; but the event itself is certain; and of the highest
concernment to this Narrative. Somewhere about the year 1170,
likeliest a few years before that, [Rentsch,
Brandenburgischer Ceder-Hein (Baireuth, l682),
pp. 273-276.--See also Johann Ulrich Pregitzern,
Teutscher Regierungs-und Ehren-Spiegel, vorbildend &c. des Hauses
Hohenzollern (Berlin, 1703), pp. 90-93. A learned
and painful Book: by a Tubingen Professor, who is deeply read in
the old Histories, and gives Portraits and other Engravings of
some value.] this Conrad, riding down from Hohenzoliern, probably
with no great stock of luggage about, him,--little dreams of being