which dictated this speech; but whatever the motive, it had the same effect.

never

With

Never,' cried the old knight, 66 shall I surrender more than my brothers. them have I lived, with them shall I die Honour and right are our watchwords; and for them will I fight to the last."

"Honour and right!" he exclaimed, as he struck down, at two blows, two of the most daring of his assailants; and the same words were a sure presage of death to two more who succeeded.

"A truce! a truce!" shouted a thousand voices in the rear.

There was an immediate pause; even the hoary champion of the Temple rested a moment from the work of slaughter, to know what it meant.

A herald on a foaming horse came dashing up the precipitous path to the gate of the castle. "A truce! a truce! he shouted. “I come from the emperor with peace and pardon. "Peace and pardon from the emperor, the host.

99 echoed

The Templar stood unmoved, his dripping blade raised aloft in the act to smite the first who advanced towards him

"Cease!" cried the leader of the opposing force. The herald alighted, and delivered to him his credentials.

"Sir Knight," said he, when he had glanced at their contents, 66 here is peace and pardon. The emperor in his august clemency gives back to thy order the goods they are at present possessed of, to have and to hold till death.

Ho

nour and right are now thine. Sheathe thy sword. The emperor give thee grace.

"Hurrah! hurrah!" shouted the overjoyed troops. "Honour is ours," replied the old knight solemnly; "but pardon I wot not of. Grace is with God alone; not with man. That experienced to their cost our noble grand master and our beloved brethren, allured to France from their far-off homes in fair Cyprus. I fight for honour and right, and for them shall I die! Keep clear!"

He waved his gory glaive, and again two of the foremost fell before him; two more followed, and shared the same fate. The troops now became exasperated; they stormed and raged like wild beasts: but the undaunted old man still stood calm and unyielding, dealing out death on every side.

"Yield ye, or die!" shouted the leader of the assailants, springing forward on him.

"Well met, said the Templar. "For life

or for death.

In a second they were locked in each other's deadly grasp. For some moments the dreadful struggle between them was equal. The grand attack was suspended; and all men held in their breath to watch its issue. No word was spoken by either party. The leader of the archiepiscopal troops was young, and strong, and brave; but he had to deal with one who had grown old in strife, and who was master of all its manifold stratagems. They tottered-they advanced -- they receded the object of the former was evidently to get the old man under; but the object of the latter could not be so clearly divined. At length

the aged knight leaned an instant, as in weariness, or to draw breath, against the broken balustrade of the drawbridge; his stalwart arms still, however, compressing his adversary in their unshrinking gripe.

"Yield thee! yield thee!" cried the leader, 66 yield thee, or die!"

"Honour and right!" were the only words the Templar uttered, as throwing himself over the bridge with a sudden jerk, he carried his opponent with him,

They were dashed to pieces on rocks below.

the rugged

Thus perished the last of the Templars of Lahneck.

BRAUBACH.-MARKSBURG.

On the other side of the Rhine lies the ancient town of Braubach, and on a high rock over it towers, like a giant genius, the castle of Marksburg, or Markusburg.

"Braubach," says Vogt, was most probably founded in the early periods of the monarchy of the Franconian emperors of Germany, A. D. 1024-1125; and it then belonged to the Hainrichgau. It very soon, however, became a place of some importance; for it gave shelter and protection to Henry IV., when hotly pressed by his rebellious son (A.D. 1090-1100). The Counts of Arnstein then held the chief power in the town; but it subsequently passed into the hands

Rheinische Geschichten u. Sagen, B. iii, p. 184.

of the Pfalzgrafs of the Rhine. One of the Counts of Eppstein, who afterwards possessed it, sold it to the Count of Katzenellenbogen; and through that family, it came to the house of Nassau. The Rhenish historian says, that it is more than probable, Braubach was at one time considerably larger than it is now; an opinion in which he is borne out by the extensive ruins which cover the soil, at some slight distance beneath the surface of the adjacent land. The town was almost reduced to ashes by a fearful fire which took place in the year 1613, the origin of which is to this day a mystery.

In the castle of Markusburg or Marksburg, the only ancient castle on the Rhine still perfect, the lords of Braubach dwelt like eagles in their eyrie, looking down over flood and fell, and commanding from their inaccessible heights every human being in the vicinity of their abode. The date of the erection of this formidable structure is entirely unknown; but, from its position, and the obvious advantages presented by its site, it may be fairly presumed that it is of a very remote antiquity. It is the only castle on the Rhine, which has continued habitable without the necessity of re-edification; and to this day it is garrisoned by the princes of the house of Nassau.

It is supposed by some that the tragical occurrence about to be related, as a matter of true history, occurred in this stronghold; though, it must be admitted, that others connect the terrible transaction with the castle of Alzey, in the town of the same name, situated on the Selz

bach near Kreuznach, on the other side of the river.

Ludwig, or Louis the Severe, so called because of the strictness with which he administered justice in his dominions, inherited the territories of the Wittelsbach family, of which he was the sole survivor in Bavaria, and in the palatinate. He succeeded his father, the famous Otto the Illustrious, in the principality of the Rhine, A.D. 1255; and his brother Henry, in the Duchy of Bavaria, A.D. 1260. His rigid administration of the laws was the theme of admiration over all Europe: though in many instances, it only served to alienate the hearts of his own subjects from him. The least infraction of his decrees was punished as severely as the greatest; inasmuch for all crimes, great and small, he had but one sentence -death. But still his very cruelty was of advantage to the country in the main; for, although he caused to be executed in a single day no less than fifty robber - knights (Raubritter), who infested his dominions, there are few who know any thing of the history of Germany at that periòd, particularly of that part of it washed by the waters of the Rhine, will pronounce him guilty of any injustice in that act. Such was his love of justice, that he engaged freely in the confederation of the Rhine, projected by a citizen of Mentz, and followed up by the free cities on that noble river, for the purpose of extirpating those lawless robbers who dwelt in those hitherto impregnable fortresses on its shores, although one of its objects was, virtually, to reduce the nobility from the rank which they held in the scale of society, and elevate the