Page:Libussa, Duchess of Bohemia; also, The Man Without a Name.djvu/127

Rh and the circle of the Erzgebirg, on the west by Thuringia and Franconia, and on the south by part of Upper Saxony. The principal rivers are the Eger, the Saale, and the Elster. The well-known mountain Fichtelberg is also in Voigtland.

Lauenstein.] Several castles and towns in Germany bear this name. There is the castle and town of Lauenstein in the circle of the Erzgebirg in Saxony; a small town of that name in Lower Carinthia; a castle and small town in the kingdom of Hanover; besides the castle and village of Lauenstein in the Voigtland, on the little river of Lockwitz. It is situated close to the Thuringian frontier, and belongs now to the house of Brandenburg.

The Count of Orlamünde was, according to history, in the year 1429, in possession of Lauenstein.

Cagliostro.] There is no doubt that the famous Count Cagliostro was a man of superior talent and abilities, and probably a natural son of some distinguished personage; although, after his death, it was reported that he was the son of a man of low extraction in Palermo, a certain Joseph Balsamo. He died in the castle of St. Angelo in Rome, in the year 1794. Most of his biographers call him an impostor, and give him the worst of characters. There are, however, very strong reasons to doubt the authenticity