The tears and sobs of his wife and family interrupted him while he uttered these parting words.  The bugles then sounded.  The knights mounted their horses; the clatter of hoofs was heard, and the glittering cavalcade soon disappeared in the forest.  Albert had left his ancestral castle, never to return.  He had but just arrived in Palestine, when he was taken sick at Askalon, and died in the year 1240.

Rhodolph, his eldest son, was twenty-two years of age at the time of his father’s death.  Frederic ii., one of the most renowned monarchs of the middle ages, was then Emperor of that conglomeration of heterogeneous States called Germany.  Each of these States had its own independent ruler and laws, but they were all held together by a common bond for mutual protection, and some one illustrious sovereign was chosen as Emperor of Germany, to preside over their common affairs.  The Emperor of Germany, having influence over all these States, was consequently, in position, the great man of the age.

Albert, Count of Hapsburg, had been one of the favorite captains of Frederic ii. in the numerous wars which desolated Europe in that dark age.  He was often at court, and the emperor even condescended to present his son Rhodolph at the font for baptism.  As the child grew, he was trained to all athletic feats, riding ungovernable horses, throwing the javelin, wrestling, running, and fencing.  He early gave indications of surprising mental and bodily vigor, and, at an age when most lads are considered merely children, he accompanied his father to the camp and to the court.  Upon the death of his father, Rhodolph inherited the ancestral castle, and the moderate possessions of a Swiss baron.  He was surrounded by barons of far greater wealth and power than himself, and his proud spirit was roused, in disregard of his father’s counsels, to aggrandize his fortunes by force of arms, the only way then by which wealth and power could be attained.  He exhausted his revenues by maintaining a princely establishment, organized a well-selected band of his vassals into a military corps, which he drilled to a state of perfect discipline, and then commenced a series of incursions upon his neighbors.  From some feeble barons he won territory, thus extending his domains; from others he extorted money, thus enabling him to reward his troops, and to add to their number by engaging fearless spirits in his service wherever he could find them.

In the year 1245, Rhodolph strengthened himself still more by an advantageous marriage with Gertrude, the beautiful daughter of the Count of Hohenberg.  With his bride he received as her dowry the castle of Oeltingen, and very considerable territorial possessions.  Thus in five years Rhodolph, by that species of robbery which was then called heroic adventure, and by a fortunate marriage, had more than doubled his hereditary inheritance.  The charms of his bride, and the care of his estates seem for a few years to have arrested the progress of his ambition; for we can find no further notice of him among the ancient chronicles for eight years.  But, with almost all men, love is an ephemeral passion, which is eventually vanquished by other powers of the soul.  Ambition slumbered for a little time, but was soon roused anew, invigorated by repose.