The Vermont transcript. [volume] (St. Albans, Vt.) 1864-1870, 1867-09-06
Romance Of History.

Few men fill larger place in histo-
ny than Charles ", Emperor of Ger
many and King of Spain, who ruled
from 1916 to 1865, and who was the
contemporary of henry VIII, of Eng
land of Francis l. of Fance, and of
Luther of the world.
Charles was very fond of the chase,
and his hunting parties in the great
woods of Germany were often on an
imperial sea G, hundreds of knights
renowned in war being in his train.
On the ccasion before us, the par
ty that had been summoned together,
at the foot OF Harraz Mountain, was
eyea larger and more splendid than
usual; the object being, in mimic war,
to pursue the stag, aud the wolf, and
the wild boar; it being arranged, also,
that they should remain week to-
gether
At dawn, on Monday, the bugles
sounded, and the chase began; every
gentleman being provided with a re-
lay OF six horses-a fresh one for each
day And before the rays of the set
ting sun had lit up the forest leaves,
many score of wild denizens of the
forest had been piled up as trophies
of the days tolls.
But on the second day, the mon
arch, n he heat OF the sport, got sep
arated from his attendants, and found
himself alone IN the depths of the wild
Every sound of the pursuit had died
away fIom his ear; the rustling of the
leaves alone whispered around him;
the very football of his horse, and it
trod upon the debris, centurys old, of
the pines, could scarcely be heard
The Emperor enjoyed his acciden
tai seclusion. A delightful change it
WAS to one, to whom the clang of ar-
NOR the din of cities, the buzz of fiat
terers, were so common. Here, among
the trees, the hush was like that of
vast cathedral; he felt himself
crowned prince no more, but alone
with awful Nature and with God;
simply man, whose noblest faculty
was that he was capable of Worship
capable of bending in prayer to the
0fcaI ollehl Onc.
Deeply impressed by the stiffness,
he dismounted from his steed, and
leading him by the bride, he stepped
reyerently along through the vista
opened before him, deeper among the /
trees A delightful reverie, half of
fancy, half of alteration, stole over
him. he forgot that he was the nigh
test ruler then on earth. Half utter
ed, these words fell from those noble
lips:
"How sweet is peace How great is
God!'
The deep nature of the man bore
sway for a time; as it did at that hour
when, voluntarily, he abducted all his
many crowns; and that other hour,
when he made them lay him, living,
in his coffin, in the monastery
Mt Estr emadura, that he might
realize more wildly the solemnities of
death and the grandeurs of eternity,
and the emptiness of mere tinsel
shows.
Suddenly, the narrow vista, over
lrched with trees, opened into an ex-
panse of two or three acres of the
sreenest meadow, through which
Iill of bright water trickled on its
way. Pausing to exam.
ne the spot closely, the emperor es-
pied to the left hand, a vast oak, and
behind it, closely covered with ivy,
og house, built against rock of fifty
or sixty feet in height.
"a delightful retirement i" said he
10 himself. "What holy hermit has
made that his home of prayer Let
me go in and see Assuredly, who {
aver he is, he has chosen well. What l
i strange feeling comes over me at
lines, as if some day would resolve ,
70 withdraw from royal pomp, to live
n seclusion with Jehovah. just such