had
he been travelling on business in those parts, have done better with his
dinner?--

"At Sinzheim?" thinks his Royal Highness; and has spoken privily to
the Page Keith. To glide out of their quarters there, in that waste
negligent old Town (where post-horses can be had), in the gray of the
summer's dawn? Across the Rhine to Speyer is but three hours riding;
thence to Landau, into France, into--? Enough, Page Keith has undertaken
to get horses, and the flight shall at last be. Husht, husht. To-morrow
morning, before the sparrow wake, it is our determination to be upon the
road!

Ruins of the Tower of Stauffen, HOHEN or High STAUFFEN, where Kaiser
Barbarossa lived once, young and ruddy, and was not yet a MYTH, "winking
and nodding under the Hill at Salzburg,"--yes, it is but a few miles
to the right there, were this a deliberate touring party. But this is
a rapid driving one; knows nothing about Stauffen, cares nothing.--We
cannot fancy Friedrich remembered Barbarossa at all; or much regarded
Heilbronn itself, the principal and only famous Town they pass this day.
The St. Kilian's Church, your Highness, and big stone giant at the top
of the steeple yonder,--adventurous masons and slater people get upon
the crown of his head, sometimes, and stand waving flags. [Buddaus,
_Lexicon,_ ii.? Heilbronn.] The Townhouse too (RATHHAUS), with its
amazing old Clock? And Gotz von Berlichingen, the Town-Councillors
once had him in prison for one night, in the "Gotz's Tower" here; your
Highness has heard of "Gotz with the Iron Hand"? Berlichingens still
live at Jaxthausen, farther down the Neckar Valley, in these parts; and
show the old HAND, considerably rusted now. Heilbronn, the most famous
City on the Neckar; and its old miraculous Holy Well--? What cares his
Highness! Weinsberg again, which is but a few miles to the right of
us,--there it was that the Besieged Wives did that astonishing feat,
600 years ago; coming out, as the capitulation bore, "with their most
valuable property," each brought her Husband on her back (were not the
fact a little uncertain!)--whereby the old Castle has, to this day, the
name "WEIBERTREUE, Faithfulness of Women." Welf's Duchess, Husband on
back, was at the head of those women; a Hohenzollern ancestor of yours,
I think I have heard, was of the besieging party. [Siege is notorious
enough; A.D. 1140: Kohler _Reichshistorie,_ p. 167, who does not
mention the story of the women; Menzel (Wolfgang), _Ges