amed in spirit
with most divine utterances and conversations, at length she rested
from jubilating, and inclining her head as if falling into a sweet
sleep, expired.'

P. 147. 'Canonisation.' Cf. Lib. VIII. section 10. If I have in
the last scene been guilty of a small anachronism, I have in this
been guilty of a great one. Conrad was of course a prime means of
Elizabeth's canonisation, and, as Dietrich and his own 'Letter to
Pope Gregory the Ninth' show, collected, and pressed on the notice
of the Archbishop of Maintz, the miraculous statements necessary for
that honour. But he died two years before the actual publication of
her canonisation. It appeared to me that by following the exact
facts I must either lose sight of the final triumph, which connects
my heroine for ever with Germany and all Romish Christendom, and is
the very culmination of the whole story, or relinquish my only
opportunity of doing Conrad justice, by exhibiting the remaining
side of his character.

I am afraid that I have erred, and that the most strict historic
truth would have coincided, as usual, with the highest artistic
effect, while it would only have corroborated the moral of my poem,
supposing that there is one. But I was fettered by the poverty of
my own imagination, and 'do manus lectoribus.'

Ibid. 'Third Minors.' The order of the Third Minors of St. Francis
of Assisi was in invention of the comprehensive mind of that truly
great man, by which 'worldlings' were enabled to participate in the
spiritual advantages of the Franciscan rule and discipline without
neglect or suspension of their civic and family duties. But it was
an institution too enlightened for its age; and family and civic
ties were destined for a far nobler consecration. The order was
persecuted and all but exterminated by the jealousy of the Regular
Monks, not, it seems, without papal connivance. Within a few years
after its foundation it numbered amongst its members the noblest
knights and ladies of Christendom, St. Louis of France among the
number.

P. 149. 'Lest he fall.' Cf. Fleury, Eccl. Annals, in Anno 1233.
'Doctor Conrad of Marpurg, the King Henry, son of the Emperor
Frederick, etc., called an Assembly at Mayence to examine persons
accused as heretics. Among whom the Count of Saym demanded a delay
to justify himself. As for the others who did not appear, Conrad
gave the cross to those who would take up arms against them. At
which these supp