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 The People in Country and Town 415 hold it above, while the mayor and citizens furnished two thirds, to guard it below. The mayor and citizens confirmed to the merchants. . . the liberties which they had possessed before this time, to be enjoyed by themselves and their successors forever. And, moreover, in consideration of the repairs and defense of the gate aforesaid, the citizens shall, so far as in them lies, hold their peace forever concerning the duty of watch and ward. . . . The mayor and citizens agreed that the merchants should have their own alderman as in former times, so that the alderman be free of the city aforesaid ; provided that, after his election by the merchants, he be presented to the mayor and aldermen of the city, and swear to do right and justice to every man, according to the law and custom of the city. IV. KNIGHTS, BURGHERS, AND FARMERS Although the various contracts and other legal doc- uments, examples of which have been given, contain the most accurate information available in regard to the condition of the farmers and townspeople in the Middle Ages, we may get a livelier, and in some ways better, idea of the general situation from the fiction of the period. While this cannot be taken as history, such tales as those given below seem to give an essentially true and living picture of the attitude of the various classes of society toward one another. Wolfram von Eschenbach (d. ca. 1225), the famous German minnesinger, narrates the adventures of Wil- liam, count of Orange and margrave of Aquitaine, who, although he really lived in the eighth century, fares in Wolfram's tale as any knight might have done at the opening of the thirteenth, when Wolfram wrote.