INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

THERE are few travellers, when about to plunge into the intricacies of a catacomb, or explore the ruins of a feudal castle, but would thankfully accept the services of a guide whose previous researches qualified him to furnish a clue for the one, and to throw some light on the history of the other.

It is thus, we hope, that our readers, before they enter on our tale of the past, will courteously accept our assistance in clearing away some of its medieval haziness by a short sketch of the period immediately antecedent to its commencement.

The murder of Albert the First, Emperor of Germany (son of the great Rudolph, who founded the dynasty, which in the female branch still reigns in Austria), was perpetrated on the 1st of May, 1308-on the spring's bright holiday-in the view of numerous friends and armed retainers, from whom he was separated only by the narrow stream of the Reuss.