Imperial Fort as its warder, and his duty it was to guard it. Near it,
likewise, on the same hill-crag, stood the old castle belonging to the
High Constable, or Burgrave Friedrich. Now the Burgrave had come to high
words with Duke Ludwig the Bearded, of Bayern-Ingolstadt, so that the
Duke's High Steward, the noble Christoph von Laymingen, who dwelt at
Lauf, had made so bold, with his lord at his back, as to break the peace
with Friedrich, although he had lately become a powerful prince as
Elector of the Mark of Brandenburg.

The said Christoph von Laymingen, so the horsemen told us, had ridden
forth to Nuremberg this dark night and had seized the castle--not indeed
the Imperial castle, which stood unharmed, but the stronghold of the old
Zollern family which had stood by its side--and bad burnt it to the
ground. This, indeed, was no mighty offence in the eyes of the town-
council, inasmuch as it bore no great friendship to his Lordship the
Constable and Elector, and had had many quarrels with him-nay, long after
this the council was able to gain possession of the land and ruins by
purchases--till, uncle Christian bitterly rued having sent his men-at-
arms, whose duty it was to defend the castle, out into the country,
though it were for so good a purpose as fighting against the Hussites.

It might have brought him into bad favor with the Elector; however, it
did him no further mischief. One thing was certainly proven beyond
doubt: that knavish treason had been at work in this matter; at
Nuremberg, under the torture, it came out that the bear-master had been a
spy and tell-tale bribed by Laymingen to discover whither Pfinzing and
his men had removed.

And lest any one should conceive that here was an end to the woes that
had fallen on the forest lodge in that short time from midnight to