in consequence withdrew his sentence of excommunication, and Ottocar
returned to his mutilated kingdom, a humbler and a wiser man.

Rhodolph now took possession of the adjacent provinces which had been
ceded to him, and, uniting them, placed them under the government of
Louis of Bavaria, son of his firm ally Henry, the King of Bavaria.
Bavaria bounded Austria on the west, and thus the father and the son
would be in easy coöperation. He then established his three Sons,
Albert, Hartmann, and Rhodolph, in different parts of these provinces,
and, with his queen, fixed his residence at Vienna.

Such was the nucleus of the Austrian empire, and such the commencement
of the powerful monarchy which for so many generations has exerted so
important a control over the affairs of Europe. Ottocar, however, though
he left Rhodolph with the strongest protestations of friendship,
returned to Prague consumed by the most torturing fires of humiliation
and chagrin. His wife, a haughty woman, who was incapable of listening
to the voice of judgment when her passions were inflamed, could not
conceive it possible that a petty count of Hapsburg could vanquish her
renowned husband in the field. And when she heard that Ottocar had
actually done fealty to Rhodolph, and had surrendered to him valuable
provinces of the kingdom, no bridle could be put upon her woman's
tongue. She almost stung her husband to madness with taunts and
reproaches.

Thus influenced by the pride of his queen, Cunegunda, Ottocar violated
his oath, refused to execute the treaty, imprisoned in a convent the
daughter whom Rhodolph had given to his son, and sent a defiant and
insulting letter to the emperor. Rhodolph returned a dignified answer
and prepared for war. Ottocar, now better understanding the power of his