the emperor was assassinated, and there in cloistered gloom they passed
the remainder of their lives. It was an age of superstition, and yet
there were some who comprehended and appreciated the pure morality of
the gospel of Christ.

"Woman," said an aged hermit to Agnes, "God is not served by shedding
innocent blood, and by rearing convents from the plunder of families. He
is served by compassion only, and by the forgiveness of injuries."

Frederic, Albert's oldest son, now assumed the government of the
Austrian provinces. From his uncommon personal attractions he was called
Frederic the Handsome. His character was in conformity with his person,
for to the most chivalrous bravery he added the most feminine amiability
and mildness. He was a candidate for the imperial throne, and would
probably have been elected but for the unpopularity of his despotic
father. The diet met, and on the 27th of November, 1308, the choice fell
unanimously upon Henry, Count of Luxemburg.

This election deprived Frederic of his hopes of uniting Bohemia to
Austria, for the new emperor placed his son John upon the Bohemian
throne, and was prepared to maintain him there by all the power of the
empire. In accomplishing this, there was a short conflict with Henry of
Carinthia, but he was speedily driven out of the kingdom.

Frederic, however, found a little solace in his disappointment, by
attaching to Austria the dominions he had wrested from the lords he had
beheaded as assassins of his father. In the midst of these scenes of
ambition, intrigue and violence, the Emperor Henry fell sick and died,
in the fifty-second year of his age. This unexpected event opened again
to Frederic the prospect of the imperial crown, and all his friends, in