Manchurian Books

He asked his instructor
why the merchants did not send their goods by some other route, which
was a very natural query, but was told there existed no other route. A
great forest extended for the most part between Frankfort and Cologne,
and through the wilderness were no roads, for even those constructed by
the Romans had been allowed to fall into decay; overgrown with trees,
Nature thus destroying the neglected handiwork of man; the forest
reclaiming its own.
"Indeed," continued the custodian, "for the last ten years things have
been going to the devil, for the lack of a strong hand in the capital. A
strong hand is needed by nobles and outlaws alike. We want a new
Frederick Barbarossa; the hangman's rope and the torch judiciously
applied might be the saving of the country."
Ehrenfels, belonging to the Archbishop, was not a nest of piracy, and so
its guardian could talk in this manner if he chose, but had he uttered
these sentiments farther down the Rhine, he would himself have
experienced the utility of the hangman's rope.


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