and it was necessary for him to move with caution there, and not to disturb the ancient usages of the realm lest he should excite insurrection.  In Hungary, where the laws and customs were entirely different, Leopold held merely a nominal, hardly a recognized sway.  The bold Hungarian barons, always steel-clad and mounted for war, in their tumultuous diets, governed the kingdom.  There were other remote duchies and principalities, too feeble to stand by themselves, and ever changing masters, as they were conquered or sought the protection of other powers, which, under the reign of Leopold, were portions of wide extended Austria.  Another large and vastly important accession was now made to his realms.  The Tyrol, which, in its natural features, may be considered but an extension of Switzerland, is a territory of about one hundred miles square, traversed through its whole extent by the Alps.  Lying just south of Austria it is the key to Italy, opening through its defiles a passage to the sunny plains of the Peninsula; and through those fastnesses, guarded by frowning castles, no foe could force his way, into the valleys of the Tyrol.  The most sublime road in Europe is that over Mount Brenner, along the banks of the Adige.  This province had long been in the hands of members of the Austrian family.

On the 15th of June, 1665, Sigismond Francis, Duke of Tyrol, and cousin of Leopold, died, leaving no issue, and the province escheated with its million of inhabitants to Leopold, as the next heir.  This brought a large accession of revenue and of military force, to the kingdom.  Austria was now the leading power in Europe, and Leopold, in rank and position, the most illustrious sovereign.  Louis XIV. had recently married Maria Theresa, eldest daughter of Philip IV., King of Spain.  Philip, who was anxious to retain the crown of Spain in his own family, extorted from Maria Theresa, and from her husband, Louis XIV., the renunciation of all right of succession, in favor of his second daughter, Margaret, whom he betrothed to Leopold.  Philip died in September, 1665, leaving these two daughters, one of whom was married to the King of France, and leaving also an infant son, who succeeded to the throne under the regency of his mother, Ann, daughter of Ferdinand III., of Austria.  Margaret was then too young to be married, but in a year from this time, in September, 1666, her nuptials were celebrated with great splendor at Madrid.  The ambitious French monarch, taking advantage of the minority of the King of Spain, and of the feeble regency, and in defiance of the solemn renunciation made at his marriage, resolved to annex the Spanish provinces of the Low Countries to France, and invaded the kingdom, leading himself an army of thirty thousand men.  The Spanish court immediately appealed to Leopold for assistance.  But Leopold was so embarrassed by troubles in Hungary, and by discontents in the empire that he could render no efficient aid.  England, however, and other powers of Europe, jealous of the