CHAPTER V.-- CONRAD OF HOHENZOLLERN; AND KAISER BARBAROSSA.
It was in those same years that a stout young fellow, Conrad by name, far off in the southern parts of Germany, set out from the old Castle of Hohenzollern, where he was but junior, and had small outlooks, upon a very great errand in the world.

From Hohenzollern; bound now towards Gelnhausen, Kaiserslautern, or whatever temporary lodging the great Kaiser Barbarossa might be known to have, who was a wandering man, his business lying everywhere over half the world, and needing the master's eye.

Conrad's purpose is to find Barbarossa, and seek fortune under him.
This is a very indisputable event of those same years.

The exact date, the figure, circumstances of it were, most likely, never written anywhere but on Conrad's own brain, and are now rubbed out forevermore; but the event itself is certain; and of the highest concernment to this Narrative.

Somewhere about the year 1170, likeliest a few years before that, [Rentsch, _Brandenburgischer Ceder-Hein_ (Baireuth, 1682), pp.
273-276 .-- See also Johann Ulrich Pregitzern, _Teutscher Regierungs-und Ehren-Spiegel, vorbildend &c.