and principal nobility of the Birman empire, each perfon in the place appropriated to his particular rank and fiation: proximity to the throne is, of course, the most honourable station, and this fiation was occupied by the princes of the blood and great officers of state. The heir apparent fat on a small stool, about fix inches high; the other princes on fine mats. The pace between the central pillars that front the throne, is always left vacant, for this curious reason, that his majesty's eyes may not be obliged to behold thole, whom he does not mean to honour with a look. In a few minutes, eight Brahmans dreffed in white facerdotal gowns and filk caps of the fame colour, ftudded with gold, assembled round the foot of the throne, within the balustrade, and recited a long prayer in not unpleafing recitative; this ceremony lafied a quarter of an hour When they had withdrawn, the letter from the governor-general, which I delivered to the wundoc, was placed on a filver tray in front of the railing, and the reader advanced into the vacant space, and made three proftrations, touching the ground each time with his forehead; he then read, or rather chanted, in a loud voice, what I understood was a Birman tranflation of the letter. When this was done, the reader repeated his proftrations, and next proclaimed a lift of prefents for the king. Thefe leveral readings being finithed, he repeated his obeifances and retired; after an interval of a few minutes, an officer .advanced, and proposed a question to me, as if from his majelty; on receiving my aufwer he withdrew, as it might be fuppofed, to communicate the reply; and returned in an adequate time to afk another: thus he put three feperate questions to me, which were as follows: You come from a diftant country; how long is it fince you arrived? How were the king, queen, and royal family of England, when the lait accounts came from thence? Was England at peace or war with other nations? and was your country in a state of disturbance? Thefe were all the questions that were propofed, neither the Chinese nor any other perfon being interrogated. In a few minutes after my laft reply had been conveyed, a very handfome desert was brought in, and fet before us; it confifted of a variety of fweetmeats, as well of China as Birman; pickled tea-leaf, and beetle, formed part of the entertainment, which was ferved up in filver, china, and glafs-ware; there appeared to be not less than a hundred different small dishes; we tafted of a few, and found fome of them very palatable; but none of the courtiers partook, or moved from their places. The English Ambafador's Audience of Leave; from the fame. than a quarter of an hour, when the folding doors that concealed the throne opened with a loud noife, and difcovered his majefty afcending a flight of steps, that led up to it from an inner apartment; he advanced but flowly, and feemed not to pollefs a free ufe of his limbs, being obliged to fupport himfelf with his hands on the baluftrade. I was informed, how ever, that this appearance of weaknels did not proceed from any bo. E had been feated little more crown was dily infirmity, but from the weight of the regal habiliments in which he was clad; and if what we were told was true, that he carried on his dress upwards of fifty pounds avoirdupois of gold, his difficulty of ascent was not furprifing. reaching the top he ftood for a minute, as though to take breath, and then fat down on an embroidered cushion with his legs inverted. His a high conical cap, richly ftudded with precious ftones; his fingers were covered with rings, and in his drefs he bore the appearance of a man cafed in golden armour, whilft a gilded, or probably a golden wing on each fhoulder, did not add much lightnefs to his figure. His looks denoted him to be between 50 and 60 years old, of a ftrong make, in ftature rather beneath the middle height, with hard features and of a dark complexion; yet the expreffion of his countenance was not unpleafing, and feemed, I thought, to indicate an intelligent and inquiring mind. which, in the character of a fuppliant, he entreated his majesty's acceptance. My offering confifted of two pieces of Benares gold brocade; Dr. Buchanan and Mr. Wood each presented one. When On our names were mentioned, we were feparately defired to take a few grains of rice in our hands, and joining them, to bow to the king as low as we conveniently could, with which we immediately complied. When this ceremony was finished, the king uttered a few indistinct words, to convey, as I was informed, an order for invefting fome perfons prefent, with the infignia of a certain degree of nobility: the imperial mandate was inftantly proclaimed aloud by heralds in the court. His majefty remained only a few minutes longer, and during that time he looked at us attentively, but did not honour us with any verbal notice, or speak at all, except to give the order abovementioned. When he rofe to depart, he manifefted the fame figns of infirmity as on his entrance: after he had withdrawn, the folding doors were closed, and the court broke up. On the first appearance of his majefty, all the courtiers bent their bodies, and held their hands joined in an attitude of fupplication. Nothing farther was required of us, than to lean a little forward, and to turn in our legs as much as we could; not any act being fo unpolite, or contrary to etiquette, as to prefent the foles of the feet towards Elevation of the House of Hapsburg, his twenty-fecond year, when UDOLPH had now reached the face of a dignified perfon. Four perfons, dreffed in white caps his father Albert, who was odious and gowns, chanted the ufital prayer at the foot of the throne: an officer then advanced into the vacant space before the king, and recited in a inufical cadence, the name of each perion who was to be introduced on that day, and the prefent of VOL. XLII. to the Swifs, on account of his rigour in the office of imperial commillary, died on a difiant pilgrimage. Albert's fhare of the eftates of Hapfburg devolved to Rudolph ; but a great part of the hereditary domains of his houfe was in the X hands hands of his paternal uncle, who, with his five fons, lived at Lauffenburg, on the Rhine. The property Rudolph inherited was moderate; his lands were all in fight of the great hall in his caftle. Some advocacies extended his influence to more diftant parts; but the power annexed to the title of landgrave of Alface, to which he fucceeded, was, by the refractory spirit of the times, rendered almoft nugatory. In the eager purfuit of his ambitious views, he difpifed the tardy means of prudence, and fuffered the vehemence of his temper to betray him into indifcretions, which, in men lefs audacious, would have led to ruin. Before the age of forty he had already incurred the odium of his whole family, been difinberited by his maternal uncle, the count of Kyburg, and twice excommunicated by the church. His firft conteft was with his uncle of Lauffenburg, whom he taxed with having made an unfair partition of the family eftates: but the helpless debility of the old count was fo effecluaily protected by his fon Godfried, that Rudolph foon beheld from his caftle, the flames which confumed his principal town of Bruck; and was compelled to acquiefce in the grant the old count made of the cafile of new Hapfburgh on the lake of Lucern, to the nunnery at Zuric. He next gave offence to his uncle Hartman, who had no illue; and extorted from him a large fum, as a compenfation for his claim upon the eftates of Kyburg: Hartman complied, that he might transfer the bulk of his, property to the fee of Strafburg; and in order to preclude all farther importunities from this intrufive nephew, he made his grant irrevocable. In a conteft with the bishopof Bafle, Rudolph approached with his forces, and burnt the convent of the penitent fifters in one of the fuburbs of that city; for which facrilegious deed he, and all his adherents, were put under a fevere interdict. He then (perhaps as an atonement to the church) engaged with Ottocarus king of Bohemia, in the crufade againft the infidels of Pruffia, who were contending with the Teutonic knights for the gods, and the freedom of their ancestors. His fortunes, which his rashness more frequently obftructed than promoted, took a more favourable turn, as soon as adversity had tempered the impetuofity of his unruly paffions. His mother Hedwig lived to fee him reconciled to her family, and to witness an alliance contracted between Hapfburg and Kyburg. Godfried of Lauffenburg † alfo became his friend. The days of the old count of Kyburg drawing near to a conclufion, Rudolph fought, both by perfuafion and kind offices, to induce the bishop of Strafburg to relinquish the hafty grant of Hartman. In this however he failed; and thenceforth he efpoufed the caufe of the citizens of Strafburg. against their bishop, and feized on the towns of Colmar and Mulhau Likewife called Rudolph, who died in 1249. The fon of this Godfried, who bore the fame name as his father, is reported to have fed to England from the perfecutions of his coutin Rudolph (in 1310), and under the name of Fielding, to have been the founder of the illuftrious line of the earls of Denbigh. See Dugdale's English Baronage, t. ii. p. 440. Len, fen. He allowed no repofe to this right reverend prelate during his life; and, after his death, intimidated his fucceflor Henry to fuch a degree, that he gladly confented to furrender the grant. * Hartman the elder, of Kyburg, foon after this, fent a preffing meffage to Rudolph, to folicit his aid against the burghers of Winterthur, who, in a fudden infurrection, had attacked and nearly demolished his tower near their walls. Rudolph was haftening to his affiftance, when news were brought him that Hartman, the laft count of Kyburg and landgrave of Thurgau, had clofed his illuftrious line. All the nobles of the county of Kyburg, and from Baden, Thurgau, and the Gafter, who owed allegiance to this houfe; the magiftrates of the several towns and cities, and the heads of the many convents that had been founded or patronized either by his ancestors or by himfelf, met hereupon at a general af fembly; and count Hartman was entombed with his fhield and helmet. Rudolph received the homage of the afiembly; and pardoned the infult offered by the burghers of Winterthur. The houfe of Hapfburg had on no former occafion received fo great an acceffion of power and dominions; but Rudolph, while he was liftening to the congratulations of his friends and subjects, was little aware what far greater honours were yet referved for him by his aufpicious de1liny. Rudolph was high in ftature, and of a graceful figure and deportment: he was bald, his complec tion pale, his nofe aquiline; his mien was grave, but fo engaging as to command the confidence of all those who approached him. Both at the time when, with feanty means, he performed eminent achievements, and when, in his exalted station, a multitude of public concerns claimed inceflant attention, he preferved a gay and tranquil mind, and a difpofition to facetious mirth. His manners were fimple and unaffuming: his diet was plain; and he was still more temperate in the ufe of fpirituous liquors. He once in the field appealed his hunger with raw turnips: he ufually wore a plain blue coat; and his foldiers had often feen him darn his doublet with the fame hand that grafped his conquering fword in fourteen battles. It is recorded, that he ever preferved his conjugal fidelity to his confort Gertrude, who bore him ten children. He enjoyed pleafüres without being fubfervient to them; and hence did he never want either time for labour or relaxation; or in old age, health and vigour for powerful exertions. Rudolph, in all his wars, treated the prelates, who were lefs tenacious of their fpiritual dignity than of their temporal concerns, not as preachers of the gofpel of peace, but in a manner conformable to the law of arms: on the other hand, he is reported to have fhewn great deference to the clergy, and a zealous devotion to the facred rites. One day while hunting, he met, near an overflowing brook, a parish priest, who was bearing the hoft to a dying patient: he compelled him mount his horfe; and expreffed to *This county appears in 1299, to have contained forty-four parishes, and above one hundred caftles, with fervour his lowly veneration for the fupreme Being, to whom he owed all his many bleffings, and the great profperity he enjoyed. His piety was highly extolled at Zuric when, at a folemn feftival, he exhibited to the affembled multitude many relics of the crucifixion. The new Auguftin hermits whom he established in this city, and many other religious orders on whom he conferred ample donatives, fpread the fame of his godlinels throughout the land. Account of the Emperor Rudolph's Death. From the fame. N the eighteenth year after the grace of God,' as he defcribed his exaltation, had raifed him from the huts of his ancestors to an imperial throne.' in the feventyfourth year of his age, was Rudolph firft attacked with fymptoms of a dangerous malady. He was haftening to Spire to repofe, as he intimated, amidst the tombs of many preceding kings and emperors, when his fate met him at Gemerfheim on the Rhine, a town of his own foundation. His hereditary dominions had been enlarged by the acquifition of Kyburg, Lenburg, Baden, Zoffingen, and feveral advocacies: but his greateft acceffions he owed to his victories over Ottocarus king of Eohemia, margrave of Moravia, and duke of Auftria, Stiria, Carinthia, and Carniolia, who had oppofed his election to the empire. Five years after he had reduced that power, the king, adorned with all the pomp of royalty, and furrounded by all the princes, whofe concurrence was indifpenfable in all new regulations in the empire, feated himself on his throne in the palace at Augsburg, and declared, that in order to enable his fons, Albert and Rudolph, to display the full extent of their inviolable loyalty and zeal for the glory of the empire, he had refolved to raise them to an eminent rank in the college of princes.' Hereupon, in the plenitude of his power, and with the confent of the electors, he invefted them, by the delivery of banners, with the dukedoms of Auftria, Stiria, the Windifmark, and Carniolia: he foon after granted them allo the margraviate of Burgau. To fuck eminence rose a fingle count, of a race whole very name had scarce reached the contiguous countries. By the enlargement of his bounds to the farthermoft confines of Alface and Austria, he in a manner hemmed in all Upper Germany, and kept in awe the French king, and many of the Slavian princes. His houfe, by his addrefs and wildom, rose to a power which gradually fubdued nations and countries, the very exiftence of which was then unknown. No race has fo often endangered the freedom of Europe: and its fplendid career has never met with any check, but what it derived from its own neglect of that moderation, which had ever been the great art of Rudolph. Parallel between the Literary Charaters of Fontenelle and La Motte : from Dr. Aikin's Tranjaation vj D'Alembert's Lalogies. * December 22, 1282. AGREEMENT |