. It can be reached from the former by a
walk of half an hour, and is often visited with guides. The first cave,
which one reaches through a low passage, is 13 feet high, the next
contains a small lake. There is also a little river rushing along under
steps, over which one walks. The cave contains, like all caves of this
kind, most fantastic stalactite structures, which popular fancy has
called the organ, the chancel, the skeleton, &c. Some columns when
struck give out tones which sound as thirds. The most interesting part
of the cave is called Die Fuerstengruft (The Prince's Sepulchre), a
large room, 16 feet high, with a stalactite structure resembling a
large coffin. Popular superstition has from times immemorial made this
cave the haunt of gnomes.

_Page_ 169.--The ancient county of Hauenstein lies between two spurs of
the Feldberg, the eastern one coming down to the town of Waldshut on
the Rhine, the western one to Saekkingen. It is also called Hozzenland
(see note to page 15). The early history of the country is somewhat
obscure until the time of the Emperor Rudolph of Hapsburg, when it
acknowledged the sovereignty of Austria. In the times of the fight for
the German throne between Albrecht of Austria and Adolphe of Nassau,
and between Frederick the Beautiful and Ludwig of Bavaria, when Suabia
was without a duke and Germany without an emperor, the different
villages of the country founded a union (Einung) for their protection.
There is still in existence such a union document drawn up in the year
1433. The entire union was divided into eight smaller ones, each of
which stood under an elected leader (Einungsmeister). All these eight
leaders elected one of their body as speaker (Redmann), who held the
leadership of the entire union. By this the Hauenstein peasants were
greatly protected in their ancient rights; still the oppression of the
Austrian governors (Waldvoegte) often incited revolutions, the most
important of which occurred during the Peasants' War in 1525. Others
lasted from 1589 to 1614, arising from an impost laid on wine. The poet
introduces such a rising here in the course of his story.

_Page_ 206.--The Fuggers are an Augsburg family, who, by their
linen-trade and weaving, and afterwards by the purchase of mines in
Austria, amassed an enormous fortune, and were raised to the rank of
nobles by the Emperor Maximilian. The family attained their greatest
splendour under the Emperor Charles the Fifth, who,