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228 induce her to abandon the idea. In fact she repeated her wishes so often, attended by tears and prayers, that the Emperor was at length glad to compromise the affair by fixing a certain period for her journey, should she still continue to entertain the idea.

This being the case, the Emperor resolved that she should be accompanied by an imposing train of his tributary princes and nobility, all richly decorated with gold, silver and precious stones, and bearing numerous passports and credentials in order to facilitate the objects of the princess’s tour, and obtain for her the respect and admiration of the Christian world. These grand preparations being completed, the Empress, attended by a noble escort and supplied with rich gifts, set forth with a feeling of delight upon her tour into distant lands. She was every where received with the utmost courtesy and respect, by the various princes through whose dominions she had to pass; such as the consort of so mighty an Emperor well merited. In this way she at length reached the country of Silesia, near the skirts of the Zobtenberg, shortly before called Fürstenberg, to which it is reported by the old chronicles, that the ancient princes of Silesia and Poland owe their origin. At the same period stood two powerful castles, named Fürstenberg and Leubus, in the vicinity, which are now converted into a monastery for the Cistercian fa-