a glimpse of Conrad von Thuringen's biography, as a sample of
the old ways of proceeding? Conrad succeeded Hermann von der
Salza as Grand-Master, and his history is memorable as a
Teutonic Knight.


THE STUFF TEUTSCH RITTERS WERE MADE OF. CONRAD OF THURINGEN:
SAINT ELIZABETH; TOWN OF MARBURG.

Conrad, younger brother of the Landgraf of Thuringen,--which
Prince lived chiefly in the Wartburg, romantic old Hill-Castle,
now a Weimar-Eisenach property and show-place, then an abode of
very earnest people,--was probably a child-in-arms, in that same
Wartburg, while Richard Coeur-de-Lion was getting home from
Palestine and into troubles by the road: this will date Conrad for
us. His worthy elder brother was Husband of the lady since called
SAINT Elizabeth, a very pious but also very fanciful young woman;
--and I always guess his going on the Crusade, where he died
straightway, was partly the fruit of the life she led him; lodging
beggars, sometimes in his very bed, continually breaking his
night's rest for prayer, and devotional exercise of undue length;
"weeping one moment, then smiling in joy the next;" meandering
about, capricious, melodious, weak, at the will of devout whim
mainly! However, that does not concern us. [Many LIVES of the
Saint. See, in particular, Libellus de Dictis Quatuor
Ancillarum, &c.--(that is, Report of the evidence got
from Elizabeth's Four Maids, by an Official Person, Devil's-
Advocate or whatever he was, missioned by the Pope to question
them, when her Canonization came to be talked of. A curious
piece):--in Meuckenii Scriptores Rexum Germanicarum