might have been known to them,—­and if they were, no doubt Cymburga, like American ladies of to-day, had the sense and taste to use them.  She had such strength of fist that, when she had occasion to drive a nail into anything, she dispensed with a hammer; and she economized in nut-crackers, as some independent people do in the item of pocket-handkerchiefs, by using her fingers.  One would think that Ernest would have hesitated to woo and wed a lady who was so capable of carrying matters with a high hand; but then he was a very strong man, and was surnamed “The Iron,” so that he could venture where no other man would have thought of going.  This strong-handed as well as strong-minded couple, who were both paired and matched, must be taken as the real founders of that house of Austria which has been so conspicuous in the history of Christendom for almost four centuries, though they and their descendants built on the broad and solid foundations established by Rudolph of Hapsburg and his earlier descendants.  Some authorities say that Cymburga brought into the Hapsburg family that thick lip—­“the Austrian lip”—­so often mentioned in history; but others call it the Burgundian lip, though the marriage between Maximilian (Cymburga’s grandson) and Mary of Burgundy (Charles the Bold’s daughter) did not take place till 1477; and the ducal Burgundian family was only a branch of the French royal line of Valois.  It was no addition to the beauty of the imperial family, no matter to whom that family was indebted for it.  It is certain that it appeared in the Emperor Frederick III., son of Ernest and Cymburga, and father of that Emperor who, when an archduke, married the Burgundian duchess, if such Mary can be called; for Menzel, who must have seen portraits of him, and who knew his history well, speaks of him as “a slow, grave man, with a large, protruding under-lip.”

This Frederick was a singular character.  He had the longest reign—­fifty-three years—­of all the German Emperors, and it may be said that he founded the house of Hapsburg, considering it as an imperial line.  Yet he is almost invariably spoken of contemptuously.  Menzel says that no Emperor had reigned so long and done so little.  Mr. Bryce declares that under him the Empire sank to its lowest point.  Even Archdeacon Coxe, who held his memory in respect, and did his best to make out a good character for him, has to admit “that he was a prince of a languid and inactive character,” and to make other damaging admissions that detract from the excellence of the elaborate portrait he has drawn of him.  There was something fantastical in his favorite pursuits,—­astrology, alchemy, antiquities, alphabet-making, and the like,—­which the men of an iron age viewed with a contempt that probably had much to do with giving him that character which he has in history, contemporary opinion of a ruler generally being accepted, and enduring.  “A species of anagram,” says the English historian of his family, “consisting of the