y the renowned Dukes
of Meran fall extinct, and immense properties come to be divided among
connections and claimants.

Meran, we remark, is still a Town, old Castle now abolished, in the
Tyrol, towards the sources of the Etsch (called ADIGE by Italian
neighbors). The Merans had been lords not only of most of the Tyrol; but
Dukes of "the Voigtland;"--Voigtland, that is BAILLIE-LAND, wide country
between Nurnberg and the Fichtelwald; why specially so called, Dryasdust
dimly explains, deducing it from certain Counts von Reuss, those strange
Reusses who always call themselves HENRY, and now amount to HENRY THE
EIGHTIETH AND ODD, with side-branches likewise called Henry; whose
nomenclature is the despair of mankind, and worse than that of the
Naples Lazzaroni who candidly have no names!--Dukes of Voigtland, I say;
likewise of Dalmatia; then also Markgraves of Austria; also Counts of
Andechs, in which latter fine country (north of Munchen a day's ride),
and not at Plassenburg, some say, the man was slain. These immense
possessions, which now (A.D. 1248) all fall asunder by the stroke of
that sword, come to be divided among the slain man's connections, or to
be snatched up by active neighbors, and otherwise disposed of.

Active Wurzburg, active Bamberg, without much connection, snatched up a
good deal: Count of Orlamunde, married to the eldest Sister of the slain
Duke, got Plassenburg and most of the Voigtland: a Tyrolese magnate,
whose Wife was an Aunt of the Duke's, laid hold of the Tyrol, and
transmitted it to daughters and their spouses,--the finish of which
line we shall see by and by:--in short, there was much property in a
disposable condition. The Hohenzollern Burggraf of Nurnberg, who had
married a younger Sister of the Duke's two years before this accident,
managed to get at least BAIREUTH and some adjacencies; big Orlamunde,
who had not much better right, taking the lion's share. This of Baireuth
proved a notable possession to the Hohenzollern family: it was Conrad
the first Burggraf's great-grandson, Friedrich, counted "Friedrich III."
among the Burggraves, who made the acquisition in this manner, A.D.
1248.

Onolzbach (On'z-BACH or "-brook," now called ANSPACH) they got, some
fourscore years after, by purchase and hard money down ("24,000 pounds
of farthings," whatever that may be), [A.D. 1331: _Stadt Anspach,_ by
J. B. Fischer (Anspach, 1786), p. 196.] which proved a notable twin
possession of the family. And