usually accumulated the greatest amount of property, movable and otherwise.

Among the truculent nobles who terrorised the country side, none was held
In greater awe than Baron von Wiethoff, whose Schloss occupied a promontory
Some distance up the stream from Castle Schonburg, on the same side of the
river. Public opinion condemned the Baron, not because he exacted tribute
from the merchants who sailed down the Rhine, for such collections were
universally regarded as a legitimate source of revenue, but because he was
in the habit of killing the goose that laid the golden egg, which action
was looked upon with disfavour by those who resided between Schloss
Wiethoff and Cologne, as interfering with their right to exist, for a
merchant, although well-plucked, is still of advantage to those in
whose hands he falls, if life and some of his goods are left to him.
Whereas, when cleft from scalp to midriff by the Baron's long sword, he
became of no value either to himself or to others. While many nobles
were satisfied with levying a scant five or ten per cent on a voyager's
belongings, the Baron rarely rested contented until he had acquired the
full hundred, and, the merchant objecting, von Wiethoff would usually
order him hanged or decapitated, although at times when he was in good
humour he was wont to confer honour upon the trading classes by
despatching the grumbling seller of goods with his own weapon, which
created less joy in the commercial community than the Baron seemed to
expect. Thus navigation on the swift current of the Rhine began to
languish, for there was little profit in the transit of goods from
Mayence to Cologne if the whole consignment stood in jeopardy and the
owner's life as well, so the merchants got into the habit of carrying
their gear overland on the backs of mules, thus putting the nobility to
great inconvenience in scouring the forests, endeavouring to intercept
the caravans. The nobility, with that stern sense of justice which has
ever characterised the higher classes, placed the blame of this