The death of Boleslav the Pious, and the accession to the dukedom of his weak and profligate son, Boleslav the Third, gave a new opportunity both to native and foreign intrigues. Indeed the Vrs̆ovici are represented by some historians as acting in this reign rather the part of patriotic opponents of a tyrant than of selfish intriguers for power. It is, however, unfortunately clear that they did not abandon their intrigues with the Polish pretender; and he was able to take advantage of the non-payment of the soldiers in the garrison of Cracow to stir up division in the fortress. By this means he was once more able to surprise the garrison, and to put all the Bohemians to the sword. Great confusion now followed; the German Emperor, Henry II., seized the opportunity of fishing in troubled waters, and something like a conquest of Bohemia by Poland was for a time the result of this struggle. The accounts, however, of the details of the struggle seem uncertain and contradictory; and it is not until the Bohemians had in some measure re-established their independence that we once more find ourselves on firm ground. Strangely enough, it is just when we have reached a point at which modern research and early tradition seem to be in practical harmony that we light upon a series of stories of the most romantic kind. Oldr̆ich, the brother of Boleslav III., had been established on the throne after the expulsion of the Poles. He seems to have been an eccentric prince, given to somewhat unconventional explorations of his kingdom. In one of these wanderings he came upon a handsome peasant-girl washing clothes in a stream. He at once fell in love with her, and soon after woo’d, won, and married her. The great ladies of the court at first resented the arrival of the peasant-queen; but in time the grace and courtesy of Beatrix broke down the opposition of her jealous critics, and the birth of her son Brac̆islav was celebrated with splendid feasts. Brac̆islav was to be the future hero and restorer of the greatness of his country; and, as usual, the political and military revival of Bohemia is preluded by a reawakening of the interest in the national language. In another of his wanderings Oldr̆ich found, in the depth of the forest, an old hermit, to whom he confessed his sins; and he was so much impressed by the power and saintliness of the man, that he persuaded him to leave his solitary life, to return to the town, and to assist the duke and other pious men in founding the monastery of Sázava. He soon found that this hermit had in his keeping copies of the old Slavonic services introduced into Bohemia by Methodius, which had doubtless disappeared from the country in the recent troubles. Encouraged by Oldr̆ich, and at a later time by his son Brac̆islav, the national ritual was rapidly extended from Sázava to other churches.