Still, however, in the wilder and more mountainous parts of the
country, some of the old families of unreduced, truly free Freiherren
lingered, their hand against every man, every man's hand against
them, and ever becoming more savage, both positively and still more
proportionately, as their isolation and the general progress around
them became greater. The House of Austria, by gradually absorbing
hereditary states into its own possessions, was, however, in the
fifteenth century, acquiring a preponderance that rendered its
possession of the imperial throne almost a matter of inheritance, and
moreover rendered the supreme power far more effective than it had
ever previously been. Freidrich III. a man still in full vigour, and
with an able and enterprising son already elected to the succession,
was making his rule felt, and it was fast becoming apparent that the
days of the independent baronies were numbered, and that the only
choice that would soon be left them would be between making terms and
being forcibly reduced. Von Adlerstein was one of the oldest of
these free families.
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