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262 262 ST. ELISABETH Duke Louis soon returned to bis country, to the great joy of Elisabeth and all his people, and signified his entire approval of his wife's coudnct. Thuringia, however, was not to be loug blessed with the presence of the good duke, and Elisabeth had soon to part from her husband, as he joined the banner of the cross in the autumn of 1227. Before starting for the Holy Land, ho summoned all the princes and nobles, and conjured them to govern the country with mercy and equity in his absence, at the same time recommending Elisabeth and his children to the care of his mother and brothers. He and the few nobles who accompanied him now joined the emperor, but the em- barkation of the troops was retarded for a time by the outbreak of an epidemic. After considerable delay they set sail, but Louis, at the age of twenty-seven, was attacked by fever, and died at Otranto, Sept. 11, the third day after the Nativity of the Holy Virgin. Just before his death a flock of white doves flew into his room, and, on seeing them, he remarked, ^' I must fly away with all these beautiful doves." He had scarcely uttered these words when he breathed his last. When the sad news reached Thuringia, Elisabeth had just given birth to her fourth child, B. Gertrude, who became abbess of Altenburg. For a time she was surrounded with every care and attention, but soon discontented nobles persuaded her two brothers-in-law, Con- rad and Henry, to order her banishment from the castle. In spite of the remon- strances of the Landgravine Sophia, who had now learnt to appreciate her daughter- in-law, Elisabeth, her children, and two maids of honour were expelled from the castle, one cold day in the middle of winter. Notwithstanding all she had done for the inhabitants of Eisenach, not one of them offered her shelter. At last she had to take refuge in a humble tavern, where she and her children suffered much from cold and hunger, but during all this time of trouble her fervent faith and trust in the Lord was unchanged, and no murmur ever passed her lips. She spent many liours in prayer, andhor twocompanions,T8entrude and GuDA (3), testify that frequently the Blessed Virgin and other saints appeared to her in visions. The sad condition to which a princess of such illustrious birth was reduced soon caused some of her relations to interfere, and her aunt Matilda, abbess of Kitzingen, sent to offer her and her children a refuge in her abbey. They were lodged there in a manner befitting their rank, until Elisabeth's uncle Egbert, prince bishop of Bamberg, gave her the castle of Bottenstein as a residence. Soon afterwards the Emperor Frederick II., who had lost his wife Yolande of Jerusalem, proposed to marry Elisabeth. Her uncle begged her to consent, but she replied that she wished to remain unmarried for the rest of her life, in order to serve God alone. She visited several monasteries, and to that of Andechs — O.S.B., in the Bavarian Tyrol — she gave her wedding dress, which she had hitherto kept as a touch- ing souvenir of her married life. About this time, the Thuringian nobles who had gone to the Crusade returned to their native country, and brought with them the remains of Duke Louis, in order that he might be buried as he wished, in his own land. He was laid to rest in the abbey of Beinhartsbmn. When the pilgrim nobles heard of the indignities to which Elisabeth and her children had been exposed, they were filled with wrath, and declared they recognized her as their queen, and would always defend her. They accordingly addressed such vigorous remonstrances to the Landgrave Henry and his brother that they were ashamed of their conduct, and begged for Elisabeth's forgiveness with such sincerity that Henry was appointed regent during the minority of his nephew Hermann. Elisabeth re- mained at the Wartburg for about a year, and then begged Henry to assign her a place where she would be at entire liberty to serve God, and where she would have no distractions from works of piety and charity. Henry immediately gave her the town of Marburg, in Hess, with the grudging remark that if she had all Germany she would only give it to beggars. Thither she retired, and