then, in some seven years more (A.D.
1338), the big Orlamunde people, having at length, as was too usual,
fallen considerably insolvent, sold Plassenburg Castle itself,
the Plassenburg with its Town of Culmbach and dependencies, to the
Hohenzollern Burggraves, [Rentsch, p. 157.] who had always ready money
about them. Who in this way got most of the Voigtland, with a fine
Fortress, into hand; and had, independently of Nurnberg and its Imperial
properties, an important Princely Territory of their own. Margraviate
or Principality of CULMBACH (Plassenburg being only the Castle) was the
general title; but more frequently in later times, being oftenest split
in two between brothers unacquainted with primogeniture, there were two
Margraviates made of it: one of Baireuth, called also "Margraviate On
the Hill;" and one of Anspach, "Margraviate Under the Hill:" of which,
in their modern designations, we shall by and by hear more than enough.

Thus are the Hohenzollern growing, and never declining: by these few
instances judge of many. Of their hard labors, and the storms they had
to keep under control, we could also say something: How the two young
Sons of the Burggraf once riding out with their Tutor, a big hound of
theirs in one of the streets of Nurnberg accidentally tore a child; and
there arose wild mother's-wail; and "all the Scythe-smiths turned out,"
fire-breathing, deaf to a poor Tutor's pleadings and explainings; and
how the Tutor, who had ridden forth in calm humor with two Princes, came
galloping home with only one,--the Smiths having driven another into
boggy ground, and there caught and killed him; [Rentsch, p. 306 (Date
not given; guess, about 1270).] with the Burggraf's commentary on that
sad proceeding (the same Friedrich III. who had married Meran's Sister);
and the amends exacted by him, strict and severe, not passionate or
inhuman. Or again how the Nurnbergers once, in the Burggraf's absence,
built a ring-wall round his Castle; entrance and exit now to depend on
the Nurnbergers withal! And how the Burggraf did not fly out into battle
in consequence, but remedied it by imperturbable countenance and power
of driving. With enough of the like sort; which readers can conceive.

BURGGRAF FRIEDRICH III.; AND THE ANARCHY OF NINETEEN YEARS.

This same Friedrich III., Great-grandson of Conrad the first Burggraf,
was he that got the Burggraviate made hereditary in his family (A.D.
1273); which thereby rose to the