e Count. This I
would not do, as I wished to have no transactions with the Count. Yet
at last I gave in so far, to the purport of the settled agreement, that
I would submit myself respectfully to both Princes, and give up the
supremacy of Hohenburg and Bissingen, on payment of sixty-two thousand
gulden; but not withdraw from it till I was paid the last penny in
peace and security."

Thus far Schaertlin. In spite of his complaints of loss, it may be
assumed that the sale, at least in a pecuniary point of view, was
advantageous to him, but certain it is, that it did not put an end to
his quarrels with the Count. For years they both continued to make
complaints before the Supreme Court of Justice and the Emperor; and to
make violent and mutual attacks on each other. At last the adversaries
were obliged to shake hands in presence of the Emperor.

Hans Von Schweinichen.

About the end of the sixteenth century the deeds of violence of the
noble landed proprietors were less barefaced and less frequent. Most of
them became peaceful Landjunkers, the ablest and poorest sought shelter
at the numerous courts. When Goetz was young every Landjunker was a
soldier, for he was a knight, and the traditions of knighthood had
influence even in great wars. But it was just then that the great
change was preparing which made the infantry the nucleus of the new
army; from that time an experienced Landsknecht who had influence over
his comrades, or a burgher master-gunner, who understood how to direct
a carronade, was of more value to a general than a dozen undisciplined
Junkers with their retainers. The power of the princes had for the most
part, through the new art of war, mastered that of the lower nobility,
and had made the descendants of the free knights of the Empire,
chamberlains and attendants of the great dynasties. The new roads to
fortune were flattery and cringing. The old martial spirit was lost,
but the craving for excitement remained. The Germans had always been
hard drinkers; now drunkenness became the most prominent vice in those
provinces where the vine was not cultivated. Ruined property,
prodigious debts, and insupportable lawsuits disturbed the few sober
hours of the day. The sons of the country nobility attended Latin
schools and the University, but the number of those who pursued a
regular course of study was small, for even throughout the whole of the
next century the higher offices of the