his pocket!" Unadmiring posterity has
confirmed the nickname of this Karl IV.; and calls him PFAFFEN-KAISER.
He kept mainly at Prag, ready for receipt of cash, and holding well out
of harm's way. In younger years he had been much about the French Court;
in Italy he had suffered troubles, almost assassinations; much blown to
and fro, poor light wretch, on the chaotic Winds of his Time,--steering
towards no star.

Johann, King of Bohemia, did not live to see Karl an acknowledged
Kaiser. Old Johann, blind for some time back, had perished two years
before that event;--bequeathing a Heraldic Symbol to the World's History
and to England's, if nothing more. Poor man, he had crusaded in Preussen
in a brilliant manner, being fond of fighting. He wrung Silesia,
gradually by purchase and entreaty (_pretio ac prece_), from the Polish
King; [1327-1341 (Kohler, p. 302).] joined IT firmly to Bohemia and
Germany,--unconsciously waiting for what higher destinies Silesia might
have. For Maultasche and the Tyrol he brought sad woes on Brandenburg;
and yet was unconsciously leading Brandenburg, by abstruse courses,
whither it had to go. A restless, ostentatious, far-grasping,
strong-handed man; who kept the world in a stir wherever he was. All
which has proved voiceless in the World's memory; while the casual
Shadow of a Feather he once wore has proved vocal there. World's memory
is very whimsical now and then.

Being much implicated with the King of France, who with the Pope was
his chief stay in these final Anti-Ludwig operations, Johann--in 1346,
Pfaffen-Kaiser Karl just set on foot--had led his chivalry into France,
to help against the English Edwards, who were then very intrusive there.
Johann was blind, but he had good ideas in war. At the Battle of Crecy,
24th August, 1346, he advised we know not what; but he actually fought,
though stone-blind. "Tied his bridle to that of the Knight next him; and
charged in,"--like an old blind war-horse kindling madly at the sound
of the trumpet;--and was there, by some English lance or yew, laid
low. They found him on that field of carnage (field of honor, too, in
a sort); his old blind face looking, very blindly, to the stars: on his
shield was blazoned a Plume of three ostrich-feathers with "ICH DIEN
(I serve)" written under:--with which emblem every English reader is
familiar ever since! This Editor himself, in very tender years, noticed
it on the Britannic Majesty's war-drums; and had to in