Entrance To The Dungeon In Schloss Forst.

On The Way To Oswald's Birthplace.

Schloss Trostburg, Early Home Of Oswald.

Door Of Dungeon, And Chain Once Attached To Oswald.

To all appearances the affair was ended. Frederick, however, hated Oswald for opposing him in a struggle which had long been going on between him and his powerful nobles. Probably, too, his hatred was increased by that most bitter of all heartaches, - retrospective jealousy. At all events, he asked Sabina to assist him to get the Minnesinger into his power.

The siren, who had never forgiven or forgotten the satire of Oswald's verses, gladly availed herself of the opportunity to reward, at the same time, her present lover, and to effect the ruin of his predecessor. Accordingly, in November, 1421, she wrote to the Minnesinger that she could not forget their hours of happiness, and that in spite of all that had transpired she loved him still. If he, too, thought of the old days and wished to live them over again, he was to come immediately to Schloss Forst near Meran. "On revient tou-jours à ses premiers amours" says a philosopher. Oswald von Wolkenstein certainly returned to his; for on receiving that letter he remembered only that its writer had been the supreme love of his life. The fire he had thought extinct, but which was merely smoldering, blazed at once into a flame. Abandoning his family, the infatuated poet hastened to the rendezvous. But there, instead of a tender, loving woman, he found four armed men waiting to receive him, by whom he was immediately thrown into the dungeon of the castle. Here the poor, disillusioned lover was not only cruelly left for months to languish in a pitiable condition, but Sabina herself, with detestable vindictiveness, frequently came to taunt him with his weakness and credulity, and even to witness tortures shamefully inflicted on his person.

Ruins Of Schloss Hauenstein, Oswald's Latest Residence.

Finally, when Frederick had achieved his purpose, his wretched victim was released, and happily obtained forgiveness from his wife, whose love meantime had never waned. This noble woman nursed him back to health and strength; and it was after this period, when living with his "true-hearted Mar-garetha," that he composed in the evening of his life his best and sweetest poems. The story of Oswald, therefore, ends like a peaceful sunset of great beauty after a day of storms; for, in 1445, he died, beloved and honored, at the ripe age of seventy-eight, at his home in Schloss Hauenstein, romantically situated in the solitude of a majestic Tyrolese forest, only a few hours distant from Meran.

Gravestone Of Oswald, Brixen, South Tyrol.

This history of Oswald has been dwelt upon, not merely on account of its intrinsic interest, but from the fact that it suggests a subject of the highest importance to any sketch of Austria and the Tyrol. It was his proud and melancholy distinction to be the "Last of the Minnesingers" - in other words, the latest born of those romantic bards of central Europe whose sudden advent in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, after the appalling gloom and ignorance of the "Dark Ages," is one of the most extraordinary events in the history of literature. Except upon the theory of a simultaneous reincarnation of previously musical souls, it is difficult to explain this well-nigh contemporaneous renaissance of song and poetry among the Troubadours of France and the Minnesingers of Germany. For, although practically synchronous, the two schools seem to have been quite independent of each other; much as two great inventors in different parts of the world may at the same time bring to light the same discovery.

Situation Of Schloss Hauenstein In The Forest.