om, that you are wandering, and have
wandered, in a terrible manner!--

Peter, the then Archbishop of Mainz, says there had not for hundreds of
years such a death befallen the German Empire; to which Kohler, one of
the wisest moderns, gives his assent: "It could not enough be lamented,"
says he, "that so vigilant a Kaiser, in the flower of his years, should
have been torn from the world in so devilish a manner: who, if he had
lived longer, might have done Teutschland unspeakable benefit." [Kohler,
pp. 282-285.]

HENRY'S SON JOHANN IS KING OF BOHEMIA; AND LUDWIG THE BAVARIAN, WITH A
CONTESTED ELECTION, IS KAISER.

Henry VII. having thus perished suddenly, his Son Johann, scarcely yet
come of age, could not follow him as Kaiser, according to the Father's
thought; though in due time he prosecuted his advancement otherwise
to good purpose, and proved a very stirring man in the world. By his
Father's appointment, to whom as Kaiser the chance had fallen, he was
already King of Bohemia, strong in his right and in the favor of the
natives; though a titular Competitor, Henry of the Tyrol, beaten off by
the late Kaiser, was still extant: whom, however, and all other
perils Johann contrived to weather; growing up to be a far-sighted
stout-hearted man, and potent Bohemian King, widely renowned in his day.
He had a Son, and then two Grandsons, who were successively Kaisers,
after a sort; making up the "Luxemburg Four" we spoke of. He
did Crusades, one or more, for the Teutsch Ritters, in a shining
manner;--unhappily with loss of an eye; nay ultimately, by the aid of
quack oculists, with loss of both eyes. An ambitious man, not to be
quelled by blindness; man with much negotiation in him; with a heavy
stroke of fight too, and temper nothing loath at it; of which we shall
see some glimpse by and by.

The pity was, for the Reich if not for him, he could not himself become
Kaiser. Perhaps we had not then seen Henry VII.'s fine enterprises, like
a fleet of half-built ships, go mostly to planks again, on the waste
sea, had his Son followed him. But there was, on the contrary, a
contested election; Austria in again, as usual, and again unsuccessful.
The late Kaiser's Austrian competitor, "Friedrich the Fair, Duke of
Austria," the parricided Albert's Son, was again one of the parties.
Against whom, with real but not quite indisputable majority, stood
Ludwig Duke of Bavaria: "Ludwig IV.," "Ludwig DER BAIER (the Bavarian)"
as they