and caused the
Tuebingen compact, which restored the old law, to be introduced. This
feeling of attachment to long standing habits was also manifested
towards him personally in a very touching manner, when the League
entered the country with the intention of expelling the head of the
ancient house of their prince. Their fathers and grandfathers having
lived under the sway of the Dukes and Counts of Wuertemberg, they were
filled with dismay and consternation, when a foreign army entered their
country to deprive them of their hereditary prince. Their hatred and
revenge was excited against the League and their governors; and, though
they were compelled by force to submit to their rule, they proved their
love to their Lord in many instances of violence towards his enemies.

When their hereditary prince, therefore, a Wuertemberger, first
returned from exile, the people flocked around him, under the
impression that affairs would go on as heretofore. Under his sway they
were willing to pay the taxes, to redeem all the state debts, and
perform the service done in soccage. There was no murmuring about hard
treatment, provided it was done according to ancient usage, and by
their legitimate master. But now, the old laws having been expunged by
the new oath of fidelity to which they were called upon to swear, the
taxes being no longer levied according to old custom, and the whole
system being changed, it was no wonder that the people looked upon the
Duke as a new master, foreign to their habits, and loudly demanded a
return to former rights. They consequently lost all faith in him; not
because his hand lay heavier upon them than heretofore; not because he
required considerably more from their purses than formerly, but because
they regarded the new order of things with a suspicious eye.

A prince, particularly when he lends his ear to such a man as Ambrosius
Bolland, seldom learns the true tone of public opinion, and therefore
cannot judge whether the measures which his council place before him
have been wisely considered. In the present instance, however, the
discontent of his people did not escape the penetrating eye of the
Duke. He remarked, that he could no more depend upon them, in the event
of an extreme difficulty, than he could upon the nobility of the
country, who, since his return, had remained neutral spectators of the
state of affairs.

He endeavoured to screen from public notice the uneasiness which these
observatio