give full
credit. But they were unable to resist the temptation of sharing in
their brother's wealth. Taking now upon him as head of the house, Martin
Waldeck bought lands and forests, built a castle, obtained a patent of
nobility, and, greatly to the indignation of the ancient aristocracy
of the neighbourhood, was invested with all the privileges of a man of
family. His courage in public war, as well as in private feuds, together
with the number of retainers whom he kept in pay, sustained him for some
time against the odium which was excited by his sudden elevation, and
the arrogance of his pretensions.

And now it was seen in the instance of Martin Waldeck, as it has been in
that of many others, how little mortals can foresee the effect of
sudden prosperity on their own disposition. The evil propensities in his
nature, which poverty had checked and repressed, ripened and bore their
unhallowed fruit under the influence of temptation and the means of
indulgence. As Deep calls unto Deep, one bad passion awakened another
the fiend of avarice invoked that of pride, and pride was to be
supported by cruelty and oppression. Waldeck's character, always bold
and daring but rendered harsh and assuming by prosperity, soon made him
odious, not to the nobles only, but likewise to the lower ranks, who
saw, with double dislike, the oppressive rights of the feudal nobility
of the empire so remorselessly exercised by one who had risen from the
very dregs of the people. His adventure, although carefully concealed,
began likewise to be whispered abroad, and the clergy already
stigmatized as a wizard and accomplice of fiends, the wretch, who,
having acquired so huge a treasure in so strange a manner, had not
sought to sanctify it by dedicating a considerable portion to the use
of the church. Surrounded by enemies, public and private, tormented by
a thousand feuds, and threatened by the church with excommunication,
Martin Waldeck, or, as we must now call him, the Baron von Waldeck,
often regretted bitterly the labours and sports of his unenvied poverty.
But his courage failed him not under all these difficulties, and seemed
rather to augment in proportion to the danger which darkened around him,
until an accident precipitated his fall.

A proclamation by the reigning Duke of Brunswick had invited to a solemn
tournament all German nobles of free and honourable descent; and Martin
Waldeck, splendidly armed, accompanied by his two brothers,