e being both probably out, he quitted Germany for the second
and last time; came home to Berkhamstead in Hertfordshire here, [Gough's
_Camden,_ i.339.] more fool than he went. Till his death (A.D. 1271), he
continued to call himself, and was by many persons called, Kaiser of the
Holy Roman Empire;--needed a German clerk or two at Berkhamstead, we
can suppose: but never went back; preferring pleasant Berkhamstead, with
troubles of Simon de Montfort or whatever troubles there might be, to
anything Germany had to offer him.

These were the Three futile Kaisers: and the LATE Kaiser Conrad's
young Boy, who one day might have swept the ground clear of them,
perished,--bright young Conradin, bright and brave, but only sixteen,
and Pope's captive by ill luck,--perished on the scaffold; "throwing
out his glove" (in symbolical protest) amid the dark mute Neapolitan
multitudes, that wintry morning. It was October 25th, 1268,--Dante
Alighieri then a little boy at Florence, not three years old; gazing
with strange eyes as the elders talked of such a performance by Christ's
Vicar on Earth. A very tragic performance indeed, which brought on the
Sicilian Vespers by and by; for the Heavens never fail to pay debts,
your Holiness!--

Germany was rocking down towards one saw not what,--an Anarchic Republic
of Princes, perhaps, and of Free Barons fast verging towards robbery?
Sovereignty of multiplex Princes, with a Peerage of intermediate Robber
Barons? Things are verging that way. Such Princes, big and little, each
wrenching off for himself what lay loosest and handiest to him, found it
a stirring game, and not so much amiss. On the other hand, some voice
of the People, in feeble whimperings of a strange intensity, to the
opposite effect, are audible to this day. Here are Three old Minstrels
(MINNESANGER) picked from Manesse's Collection by an obliging hand, who
are of this date, and shall speak each a word:--

No. 1 LOQUITOR (in cramp doggerel, done into speech): "To thee, O Lord,
we poor folk make moan; the Devil has sown his seeds in this land! Law
thy hand created for protection of thy children: but where now is Law?
Widows and orphans weep that the Princes do not unite to have a Kaiser."

No. 2: "The Princes grind in the Kaiser's mill: to the Reich they fling
the siftings; and keep to themselves the meal. Not much in haste, they,
to give us a Kaiser."

No. 3: "Like the Plague of Frogs, there they are come out; defiling the
Reich