Thus Austria again comes into independent existence, to watch amidst the tumult and strife of Europe for opportunities to enlarge her territories and increase her power.  Maximilian was a prince, energetic and brave, who would not allow any opportunity to escape him.  In those dark days of violence and of blood, every petty quarrel was settled by the sword.  All over Germany the clash of steel against steel was ever resounding.  Not only kings and dukes engaged in wars, but the most insignificant baron would gather his few retainers around him and declare formal war against the occupant of the adjacent castle.  The spirit of chivalry, so called, was so rampant that private individuals would send a challenge to the emperor.  Contemporary writers record many curious specimens of these declarations of war.  The Lord of Praunstein declared war against the city of Frankfort, because a young lady of that city refused to dance with his uncle at a ball.

Frederic was now suffering from the infirmities of age.  Surrendering the administration of affairs, both in Austria and over the estates of the empire, to Maximilian, he retired, with his wife and three young daughters, to Lintz, where he devoted himself, at the close of his long and turbulent reign, to the peaceful pursuits of rural life.  A cancerous affection of the leg rendered it necessary for him to submit to the amputation of the limb.  He submitted to the painful operation with the greatest fortitude, and taking up his severed limb, with his accustomed phlegm remarked to those standing by,

“What difference is there between an emperor and a peasant?  Or rather, is not a sound peasant better than a sick emperor?  Yet I hope to enjoy the greatest good which can happen to man—­a happy exit from this transitory life.”

The shock of a second amputation, which from the vitiated state of his blood seemed necessary, was too great for his enfeebled frame to bear.  He died August 19th, 1493, seventy-eight years of age, and after a reign of fifty-three years.  He was what would be called, in these days, an ultra temperance man, never drinking even wine, and expressing ever the strongest abhorrence of alcoholic drinks, calling them the parent of all vices.  He seems to have anticipated the future greatness of Austria; for he had imprinted upon all his books, engraved upon his plate and carved into the walls of his palace a mysterious species of anagram composed of the five vowels, A, E, I, O, U.

The significance of this great secret no one could obtain from him.  It of course excited great curiosity, as it everywhere met the eye of the public.  After his death the riddle was solved by finding among his papers the following interpretation—­

Austri Est Imperare Orbi Universo.

Austria Is To govern The world Universal.

Maximilian, in the prime of manhood, energetic, ambitious, and invested with the imperial dignity, now assumed the government of the Austrian States.  The prospect of greatness was brilliant before Maximilian.  The crowns of Bohemia and Hungary were united in the person of Ladislaus, who was without children.  As Maximilian already enjoyed the title of King of Hungary, no one enjoyed so good a chance as he of securing both of those crowns so soon as they should fall from the brow of Ladislaus.