In the century after his death the imagination of the people went to extremes in their conception of the adventures of Duke Ernst, mixing up ideas concerning him with fancies derived from the Crusades, the whole taking form in a legend which is still preserved in the popular ballad literature of Germany.  This strange conception takes Ernst to the East, where he finds himself opposed by terrific creatures in human and brute form, they being allegorical representations of his misfortunes.  Each monster signifies an enemy.  He reaches a black mountain, which represents his prison.  He is borne into the clouds by an old man; this is typical of his ambition.  His ship is wrecked on the Magnet mountain; a personification of his contest with the emperor.  The nails fly out of the ship and it falls to pieces; an emblem of the falling off of his vassals.  There are other adventures, and the whole circle of legends is a curious one, as showing the vagaries of imagination, and the strong interest taken by the people in the fortunes and misfortunes of their chieftains.

THE REIGN OF OTHO II.

Otho II., Emperor of Germany,—­Otho the Red, as he was called, from his florid complexion,—­succeeded to the Western Empire in 973, when in his eighteenth year of age.  His reign was to be a short and active one, and attended by adventures and fluctuations of fortune which render it worthy of description.  Few monarchs have experienced so many of the ups and downs of life within the brief period of five years, through which his wars extended.

As heir to the imperial title of Charlemagne, he was lord of the ancient palace of the great emperor, at Aix-la-Chapelle, and here held court at the feast of St. John in the year 978.  All was peace and festivity within the old imperial city, all war and threat without it.  While Otho and his courtiers, knights and ladies, lords and minions, were enjoying life with ball and banquet, feast and frivolity, in true palatial fashion, an army was marching secretly upon them, with treacherous intent to seize the emperor and his city at one full swoop.  Lothaire, King of France, had in haste and secrecy collected an army, and, without a declaration of hostilities, was hastening, by forced marches, upon Aix-la-Chapelle.

It was an act of treachery utterly undeserving of success.  But it is not always the deserving to whom success comes, and Otho heard of the rapid approach of this army barely in time to take to flight, with his fear-winged flock of courtiers at his heels, leaving the city an easy prey to the enemy.  Lothaire entered the city without a blow, plundered it as if he had taken it by storm, and ordered that the imperial eagle, which was erected in the grand square of Charles the Great, should have its beak turned westward, in token that Lorraine now belonged to France.