of them, by character and behavior as well as by descent. No lack
of quiet energy, of thrift, sound sense. There was likewise solid
fair-play in general, no founding of yourself on ground that will
not carry;--and there was instant, gentle but inexorable, crushing
of mutiny, if it showed itself; which, after the Second Elector,
or at most the Third, it had altogether ceased to do. Young
Friedrich II., upon whom those Berlin Burghers had tried to close
their gates, till he should sign some "Capitulation" to their
mind, got from them, and not quite in ill-humor, that name
IRONTEETH:--"Not the least a Nose-of-wax, this one! No use trying
here, then!"--which, with the humor attached to it, is itself
symbolical of Friedrich and these Hohenzollern Sovereigns. Albert,
his Brother, had plenty of fighting in his time: but it was in the
Nurnberg and other distant regions; no fighting, or hardly any,
needed in Brandenburg henceforth.

With Nurnberg, and the Ex-Burggrafship there, now when a new
generation began to tug at the loose clauses of that Bargain with
Friedrich I., and all Free-Towns were going high upon their
privileges, Albert had at one time much trouble, and at length
actual furious War;--other Free-Towns countenancing and assisting
Nurnberg in the affair; numerous petty Princes, feudal Lords of
the vicinity, doing the like by Albert. Twenty years ago, all
this; and it did not last, so furious was it. "Eight victories,"
they count on Albert's part,--furious successful skirmishes, call
them;--in one of which, I remember, Albert plunged in alone, his
Ritters being rather shy; and laid about him hugely, hanging by a
standard he had taken, till his life was nearly beaten out. [1449
(Rentsch, p. 399).] Eight victories; and also one defeat, wherein
Albert got captured, and had to ransom himself. The captor was one