1828.] The Durrenstein. 259 
helm, to die as -he had lived, with the emblem of management in his 
hand. The chieftains made but one bound from the precipice to the 
deck, and were followed by a knot of their most agile plunderers. They 
opened chest after chest, never had so much Saxon broad cloth, Bavarian 
earthen ware, and Styrian peach brandy, fallen into the hands of any of 
the family for three generations of spoil. At length they came to one 
cabin which defied their pike handles. The merchant was commanded 
to open the door. He warned them against the crime of seizing ‘the 
last, and, he would allow, the most valuable property that he had on 
board.’ They insisted. The scene of supplication was again gone 
through, but more at length, and more violently. In the mean time the 
wind freshened, and the vessel had heeled a little off the shore. <‘ Vil- 
lain,’ said Hadmar, drawing his knife, ‘ we shall be kept here all night, 
by coming on board without our sledge-hammers and_picklocks.’ 
‘ Villain, said Heinrich, flourishing his sabre over the unhappy mer- 
chant, ‘ we will not stay here five minutes longer for the souls and 
bodies of all the burghers of Vienna.. So open this infernal door 
instantly. If I have not cut off your head already, it is because I only 
waited till you had turned the key in this great beast of a lock. But as 
you persist in your rebellion against the lawful lords of every thing that 
sails upon the river, and runs upon the bank, you die without the law’s 
delay.’ 
oo The sabre swept round, but Hadmar interposed, observing, that 
though the merchant’s life was worth no more than that of any other 
merchant, and that no more than of any other animal of burthen, the 
opening of the door would not be advanced by the’ abscision of the 
delinquent’s head. A sudden roll of the vessel at once showed that it 
Was now in the centre of the stream, and threw the whole crew, chief- 
tains and all, over each other. The merchant opened the door, ‘a pile of 
chests fell out, and after them jumped forth fifty of the imperial soldiery, 
every man in full armour, and sword in hand. Their enemy was rolling 
on the floor. Their battle was already fought by the billows; and 
before the illustrious Hadmar could recover his legs, or the heroic 
Heinrich grasp his pike, both were in stout hands, that paid no respeet 
to their thirty-two quarterings, but put their patrician limbs in irons. 
Their followers were put to the rout with equal expedition. The shouts 
of joy from the castle turrets had been turned into roars of rage, they 
were now turned into howlings of despair. Their friends, one by one, 
after many a pike thrust on both sides, were tumbled into the stream. 
To pull them out was the only hope, as no power short of wings could 
reach the vessel, which continually enlarged the distance from the shore, 
‘and was rapidly rolling down to the dungeons of the Emperor Frederic 
in Vienna. 
“There the merchant took his leave of the brother chieftains, consign= 
ing them to the imperial gaoler, and warning them, on all future occasions, 
‘to take the master of the cargo’s advice as to what portion of the freight 
would be good for their purposes. The historian loves to investigate 
the final career of fallen greatness, and he has told us that after a dozen 
years of fetters, bread and water, and working in the ditch of these rams 
parts, which, afterwards, in the niemorable siege of 1683, kept off the 
Ottomans until Sobieski came to cut off their beards, and unturban 
their three-tailed pachas, the chieftains of Aggstein petitioned to change 
their condition. The: merchant, Rudiger, was by this time opulent, 
A 
‘ 
