nd manners were
vulgar, his intellect sluggish. Peasant-like in his petty economies,
he was shrewder at a bargain than in wielding his imperial sceptre.
At Treves he was accompanied by his son, the Archduke Maximilian, a
fairly intelligent youth of eighteen, very ready to be fascinated by
his proposed father-in-law, who was a striking contrast to his own
languid and irresolute father, in energy and strenuous love of action.

As the two princes rode together into the city, Charles's
accoutrements attracted all eyes. The polished steel of his armour
shone like silver. Over it hung a short mantle actually embroidered
with diamonds and other precious stones to the value of two hundred
thousand gold crowns. His velvet hat, graciously held in his hand out
of compliment to the emperor, was ornamented with a diamond whose
price no man could tell. Before him walked a page carrying his helmet
studded with gems, while his magnificent black steed was heavily
weighted down with its rich caparisons.

Frederic III., very simple in his ordinary dress, had exerted himself
to appear well to his great vassal. His robe of cloth of gold
was fine, though it may have looked something like a luxurious
dressing-gown, as it was made after the Turkish fashion and bordered
with pearls. The emperor was lame in one foot, injured, so ran the
tradition, by his habit of kicking, not his servants, but innocent
doors that chanced to impede his way.

The Archduke Maximilian, gay in crimson and silver, walked by the side
of an Ottoman prince, prisoner of war, and converted to Christianity
by the pope himself. And then there was a host of nobles, great and
small. Among them were Engelbert of Nassau[3] and the representative
of the House of Orange-Chalons, whose titles were destined to be
united in one person within the next half-century.

The magnificence remained unrivalled in the history of royal
conferences. The very troopers wore habits of cloth of gold over their
steel, while their embroidered saddle-cloths were fringed with silver
bells. Surpassing all others, were the heralds-at-arms of the various
individual states which acknowledged Charles as their sovereign,
seigneur, count, or duke as the case might be. They preceded their
liege lord, clad in their distinctive armorial coats, ablaze with
colour. Before them were the trumpeters in white and blue, their very
instruments silvered, while first of all rode one hundred golden
haired boys, "an ang