Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1907-08-23
By FRED mYRON COLBY.

rich with many memorios, and is eel
ebrated in song and story as the
Wartburg. Did you ever hear of it?
In one of it's many rooms the great
reformer, Martin Luther, spent ten
to March 6, 1922. 1t is small
apartment, and has but one window,
which even yet looks out upon a
great forest. The furniture is said
to be the same that he used. Here is
the table he wrote at and the chair
he sat in, and even the inkstand in
which he dipped his pen, that won
derful pen that wrote so many grand
and inspiring things. There, too, is
the spot of ink on the wall, made, as
the sorry goes, when the reformer
the story goes, when the reformer
truder whonf he believed to be the
devil.
In another part of the castle is
great lofty room called the Minstrels'
Hall, where took place the famous
musical contest between the trouba-
dours in the time of Landgrave Her.
mann l., about the year 1900. For
seven days this contest continued,
and the whole splendors of medieval
chivalry and hospitality was here dis
played to heighten the charm of song.
Almost can you hear the twanging
harps now and see the excited COM
batants, as you tread the floor Of the
frescoed hall.
1t was in this grand old castle with
all these historic associations that
the little prince was born who had
the bitten cheek. He lived about half
way between the time of his illus
trious ancestor, the Landgrave Her
mann, and that of Martin Luther, so
that you can very easily tell the age
in which he fiourished. The room is
shown in the upper part of the castle
where he and his little brother were
born, and there is the cradle in which
all the Landgraves were rocked for
200 or 800 years.
His name was Friedrich and his
younger brothers name was Helm
rich. Their father was the Land
grave Albrecht, called the Degener-
ate. He was brutal and unprinci-
pied man, and treated his beautiful
wife Marguerite very harshly. She
was the daughter of the Emperor
Friedrich H., one of the most bril-
liant and 'llustrious sovereigns of his
time. Marguerite was a good and
noble woman, but her husband re-
spected neither her virtues, her rank,
nor her beauty. He even seemed to
hate his children on their mothers
account, and the poor young prince
had hard time of it,
Landgraye Albrecht was mean and
selfish enough to sell Thuringia for a
large sum of money to the Emperor
Alolph, who was no relation to the
great Friedrich. He was thus de-
priving his sons of their inheritance.
In order to have notrouble with them
he determined to shut them up out o.
the way. So he sent some hard
hearted me- take them from their
mother and bring them to the Wart-
burg.
The ill-used Landgravint was liv-
ing away from her cruel husband,
and whe she heard of his orders she
tried to fee to save her children. But
the Landgrave's soldiers overlook her
and she was forced to give them up.
When she parted with them, instead
of kissing the eldest, she gave him a
fierce bite in the cheek so that the
scar would always remind him Of his
own and his mothers wrongs. Lit
tie Friedrich was then only seven
years old.
The poor children were taken to
the Wartburg and shut up in one of
its dark dungeons. Just think of
them being prisoners in the grand
and splendid home where they should
have been so happy. Was 1t not
cruel? They were treated so harshly
that they would have starved in pri-
son had not some of the old servants
been true to them and given them
food in secret. And one night, after
long, weary months, they opened the
dungeon doors and the poor little
princes walked out of their prison
and escaped in company with party
of horsemen who were watching to
help tsem.
The young princes had many adj
ventures before they regained the
side Of their mother. Once In pass
ing through a forest they and their
escort were attacked by robbers. The
half dozen horsemen were quickly
haotan doun hv fha uunarfor foroa ne
the bandits, and Friedrich and his
brother would have Jared badly had
not the robber chief noticed the elder
boys SCARED cheek.
Art thou not Friedrich of Thur
lngla, whose mother gave him such a
brave klss?" asked the robber, re-
gardlng him earnestly.
81 am Frledr CHI of Thurlngia, thy
rightful prince" answered the gal
liant boy. THE enemies of thy coun-
try pursue me. l crave thy protec-
tlon."
Thou shalt have 1t to the death, :"
declared the man, who the moment
before had been ready to treat him as
an enemy. And he and his robber
band became from that moment the
young princes devoted adherents.
Another time the prince and his
brother were so closely pursued by a
troop of the enemy that they were
forced to take refuge in the hut of a
poor charcoal burner. There was no
time for concealment, but the wife of
the charcoal burner, plying their
plight, with great presence of mind
emptied upon their heads and over
their persons 4 pot of charcoal dust.