centuries ago, built its BURG there, and done that function in a
small but creditable way ever since;--kindred possibly enough
derivable from "Thassilo," Charlemagne, King Dagobert, and other
Kings, but certainly from Adam and the Almighty Maker, who had
given it those qualities;--and that Conrad, a junior member of the
same, now goes forth from it in the way we see. "Why should a
young fellow that has capabilities," thought Conrad, "stay at home
in hungry idleness, with no estate but his javelin and buff
jerkin, and no employment but his hawks, when there is a wide
opulent world waiting only to be conquered?" This was Conrad's
thought; and it proved to be a very just one.

It was now the flower-time of the Romish Kaisership of Germany;
about the middle or noon of Barbarossa himself, second of the
Hohenstauffens, and greatest of all the Kaisers of that or any
other house. Kaiser fallen unintelligible to most modern readers,
and wholly unknown, which is a pity. No King so furnished out with
apparatus and arena, with personal faculty to rule and scene to do
it in, has appeared elsewhere. A magnificent magnanimous man;
holding the reins of the world, not quite in the imaginary sense;
scourging anarchy down, and urging noble effort up, really on a
grand Scale. A terror to evil-doers and a praise to well-doers in
this world, probably beyond what was ever seen since. Whom also we
salute across the centuries, as a choice Beneficence of Heaven.
Encamped on the Plain of Roncaglia [when he entered Italy, as he
too often had occasion to do], his shield was hung out on a high
mast over his tent;" and it meant in those old days, "Ho, every
one that has suffered wrong; here is a Kaiser come to judge you,
as he shall answer it to HIS Master." And men gathered round him;
and actually found some justice,--if they could discern it when