(LOAN, not gift), such as it may be, in building the lofty rhyme, the
lofty Review-Article, for a discerning public that has sixpence to
spare! Times alter greatly.--Will the reader take a glimpse of Conrad
von Thuringen's biography, as a sample of the old ways of proceeding?
Conrad succeeded Hermann von der Salza as Grand-Master, and his history
is memorable as a Teutonic Knight.

THE STUFF TEUTSCH RITTERS WERE MADE OF. CONRAD OF THURINGEN: SAINT
ELIZABETH; TOWN OF MARBURG.

Conrad, younger brother of the Landgraf of Thuringen,--which Prince
lived chiefly in the Wartburg, romantic old Hill-Castle, now a
Weimar-Eisenach property and show-place, then an abode of very earnest
people,--was probably a child-in-arms, in that same Wartburg, while
Richard Coeur-de-Lion was getting home from Palestine and into troubles
by the road: this will date Conrad for us. His worthy elder brother was
Husband of the lady since called SAINT Elizabeth, a very pious but also
very fanciful young woman;--and I always guess his going on the Crusade,
where he died straightway, was partly the fruit of the life she led him;
lodging beggars, sometimes in his very bed, continually breaking his
night's rest for prayer, and devotional exercise of undue length;
"weeping one moment, then smiling in joy the next;" meandering about,
capricious, melodious, weak, at the will of devout whim mainly! However,
that does not concern us. [Many LIVES of the Saint. See, in particular,
_Libellus de Dictis Quatuor Ancillarum,_ &c.--(that is, Report of
the evidence got from Elizabeth's Four Maids, by an Official Person,
Devil's-Advocate or whatever he was, missioned by the Pope to question
them, when her Canonization came to be talked of. A curious piece):--in
Meuckenii _Scriptores Rexum Germanicarum_ (Lipsia, 1728-1730), ii.
dd.; where also are other details.] Sure enough her poor Landgraf went
crusading, Year 1227 (Kaiser Friedrich II.'s Crusade, who could not put
it off longer); poor Landgraf fell ill by the road, at Brindisi, and
died,--not to be driven farther by any cause.

Conrad, left guardian to his deceased Brother's children, had at first
much quarrel with Saint Elizabeth, though he afterwards took far other
thoughts. Meanwhile he had his own apanage, "Landgraf" by rank he too;
and had troubles enough with that of itself. For instance: once the
Archbishop of an Mainz, being in debt, laid a heavy tax on all Abbeys
under him; on Reichartsbronn, an Ab