nister the said Electorate till he be paid. This is the important
news; but this is not all.

The new journey into Spain requires new moneys; this Council itself,
with such a pomp as suited Sigismund, has cost him endless moneys.
Brandenburg, torn to ruins in the way we saw, is a sorrowful matter;
and, except the title of it, as a feather in one's cap, is worth nothing
to Sigismund. And he is still short of money; and will forever be. Why
could not he give up Brandenburg altogether; since, instead of paying,
he is still making new loans from Burggraf Friedrich; and the hope of
ever paying were mere lunacy! Sigismund revolves these sad thoughts
too, amid his world-wide diplomacies, and efforts to heal the Church.
"Pledged for 100,000 gulden," sadly ruminates Sigismund; "and 50,000
more borrowed since, by little and little; and more ever needed,
especially for this grand Spanish journey!" these were Sigismund's sad
thoughts:--"Advance me, in a round sum, 250,000 gulden more," said he
to Burggraf Friedrich, "250,000 more, for my manifold occasions in this
time;--that will be 400,000 in whole; [Rentsch, pp. 75, 357.]--and
take the Electorate of Brandenburg to yourself, Land, Titles, Sovereign
Electorship and all, and make me rid of it!" That was the settlement
adopted, in Sigismund's apartment at Constance, on the 30th of April,
1415; signed, sealed and ratified,--and the money paid. A very notable
event in World-History; virtually completed on the day we mention.

The ceremony of Investiture did not take place till two years
afterwards, when the Spanish journey had proved fruitless, when much
else of fruitless had come and gone, and Kaiser and Council were
probably--more at leisure for such a thing. Done at length it was
by Kaiser Sigismund in utmost gala, with the Grandees of the Empire
assisting, and august members of the Council and world in general
looking on; in the big Square or Market-place of Constance, 17th April,
1417;--is to be found described in Rentsch, from Nauclerus and the
old Newsmongers of the time. Very grand indeed: much processioning on
horseback, under powerful trumpet-peals and flourishes; much stately
kneeling, stately rising, stepping backwards (done well, ZIERLICH, on
the Kurfurst's part); liberal expenditure of cloth and pomp; in short,
"above 100,000 people looking on from roofs and windows," [Pauli,
_Allgemeine Preussische Staats-Geschichte,_ ii. 14. Rentsch, pp. 76-78.]
and Kaiser Sigismund i