companions. The woman, terrified, hastened to the emperor to implore
mercy. He ordered her to be admitted to the dining-room, and promised to
forgive her if she would repeat to the company all her abusive epithets,
not omitting one. She did it faithfully, to the infinite merriment of
the festive group.

So far as we can now judge, and making due allowance for the darkness of
the age in which he lived, Rhodolph appears to have been, in the latter
part of his life, a sincere, if not an enlightened Christian. He was
devout in prayer, and punctual in attending the services of the Church.
The humble and faithful ministers of religion he esteemed and protected,
while he was ever ready to chastise the insolence of those haughty
prelates who disgraced their religious professions by arrogance and
splendor.

At last the infirmities of age pressed heavily upon him. When
seventy-three years old, knowing that he could not have much longer to
live, he assembled the congress of electors at Frankfort, and urged them
to choose his then only surviving son Albert as his successor on the
imperial throne. The diet, however, refused to choose a successor until
after the death of the emperor. Rhodolph was bitterly disappointed, for
he understood this postponement as a positive refusal to gratify him in
this respect. Saddened in spirit, and feeble in body, he undertook a
journey, by slow stages, to his hereditary dominions in Switzerland. He
then returned to Austria, where he died on the 15th of July, 1291, in
the seventy-third year of his age.

Albert, who resided at Vienna, succeeded his father in authority over
the Austrian and Swiss provinces. But he was a man stern, unconciliating
and domineering. The nobles hated him, and hoped to drive him back to