"Doubtless, according to his own ideas. But there is no guaranty that these ideas are exempt from all selfish considerations! The Emperor is Alexander's personal enemy; think you that he would recognize his rights to the throne of Saint Peter?"

"These questions are insulting, Sire!--Frederic is too just by nature, to be guilty of an injustice.--And you ask for guaranties of the purity of his intentions? To whom would you make the Emperor responsible? On whom does he depend?"

"He is responsible to the laws of nations, which he has repeatedly violated in many different ways, my lord."

"This reproach has often been made by interested persons; I am surprised, Sire, that you would repeat it."

"And we are surprised!" said Louis, proudly, "that you, Count, do not feel the importance of this reproach! Besides, in the a.s.sembly of Besancon, there will be present both temporal princes and unconsecrated bishops.--Who has conferred on laymen the right of voting in purely ecclesiastical questions, and particularly on questions of this importance?"

"The Emperor!" replied Da.s.sel, promptly. "If his Imperial Majesty sees fit to sanction an exception to a rule, this very exception becomes by the consequence of his high and mighty authority, the rule and the law.

And more, if the chief of the Roman Empire, who is, at the same time, the chief of all the princes of Christendom, thinks it expedient to grant a vote upon this question to foreign princes, he has a right to all their grat.i.tude."

"Very good, my lord! and we are then the Emperor's va.s.sals? This is a new phase!--Our bishops will be delighted with the lesson you set them!--Gentlemen," he added, "are you not somewhat surprised to hear such a doctrine preached?"

Rinaldo answered boldly, and some bitter words were interchanged; at last he lost patience.

"We have no need, in any way, of French bishops to put an end to schism!" he cried. "When a discussion on the subject of a bishopric arises among you, you put an end to the difficulty yourselves: why should not the Emperor have the same right? Rome belongs to him."

The French courtiers heard these words, with surprise. Da.s.sel's opinions were in opposition to all received notions, and to the canons of the Church. The King profited by the statesman's mistake.

"I am astonished," he said, "that so cautious a man as yourself should advance such extraordinary a.s.sertions. We have the right to choose our bishops after a previous understanding with the Holy See. But no bishop of my kingdom is chief of Christendom; your argument is consequently invalid. You say that the Emperor and his bishops alone have the right to choose the Pope. Did not Christ confide to Saint Peter and his successors all his flock? Were my bishops and myself excepted? Is the Pope only your shepherd, and not mine?"

This language astonished Rinaldo, who was nevertheless forced to admit its truth; but all efforts to explain his words were useless, Louis turned away from him, and soon after rode back to Laon.

"What a changeable man!" said the Bishop Gero of Halberstadt.

"Yesterday the French king was the Emperor's humble servant, and to-day he seems to defy him."

"Patience!" replied Werner of Minden; "Frederic will teach him obedience. It must come to that. If peace were to last forever, there would be no need of our good armor. Believe me, this insolence of Louis comes very opportunely; in two days' time the Imperial eagle will float over the French frontier."

"Yesterday, the Emperor gave me a splendid charger and a suit of Venetian armor; I shall be glad of a chance to use them," said Philip of Osnabruck.

"I shall wear my Nuremberg mail," added the Bishop of Munster; "it was a present from Frederic, and so far no weapon has started a single link."

The entrance of the Count of Champagne interrupted the conversation; Da.s.sel, who had been reflecting seriously, approached him.

"Back already?" said the Chancellor. "I trust that you have brought the Cardinal Roland with you."

"With the best intentions in the world, it was impossible," replied Henry, whose gloomy face presaged no good. "All is lost. The English king, Henry, is marching forward with a mighty army. Luckily I was informed in time, and so escaped from falling into the hands of these partisans of Alexander. Just now I saw the English amba.s.sador, Earl Gilbert, in the King's suite."

Rinaldo was thunderstruck.

"At last," he cried, "I have the clue to the mystery. But it is strange that the negotiation between Alexander and England should have escaped our notice. I can scarcely believe it possible."

"It was entirely out of my calculation," said Henry, trying to console the statesman. "The English king, whose character you all know, has pursued a course which no one suspected, but which probably has been long in preparation. It is certain that he is not marching merely to Alexander's a.s.sistance, but against the Imperial supremacy."

"It is really absurd! As if a feeble gazelle could struggle against a tiger," said Da.s.sel. "Let us go at once to the Emperor; he must hear it from your own mouth."

The Count was in no hurry, for he looked at the question in a different light.

"My personal safety forbids it," he said. "I have done all I could; I supported the Emperor; but it would be madness in me to give the English King a pretext for seizing my domains. For the time being, I can only be a secret ally of Frederic."

"What! Count, you think to serve two masters?" cried Da.s.sel, furiously.

"How can you be at the same time the friend and the enemy of the Emperor?"

The Count admitted the dilemma, but no entreaties could change his determination.

"It cannot be, my lord; I must no longer delay my return to Laon.

Farewell; present my homage to the Emperor."

He sprang into the saddle and rode towards the city.

"Ah! these falsehearted Frenchmen!" said the Chancellor; "but it is well; our arms will teach them honor and conscience."

"That is my advice too," said the fighting Bishop Werner; "German honesty, which more than once has been the dupe of its own rect.i.tude, is well known. Let us go to the camp at once, raise our standards, and reap a new harvest of laurels in the heart of France."

The n.o.bles returned to the Imperial camp, where they found their sovereign surrounded by his princes and bishops. The startling intelligence of the change in the French policy, and the movements of the English King, amazed every one. A few, among whom were the fierce Otho of Wittelsbach and the schismatical bishops of the Empire, were in favor of crossing the frontier at once. But the Dukes of Austria, Saxony, and Bavaria, and some others, who were secret partisans of Alexander, took the matter with the greatest coolness.

Barbarossa remained calm in appearance, although the flash of his eyes and the contraction of his features gave unmistakable evidence that he with difficulty controlled his rage and disappointment. With a slight inclination of the head to the a.s.sembly, he beckoned to Rinaldo and left the tent, which had now become the scene of an animated discussion.

Hastily divesting himself of the sumptuous costume with which he had thought to dazzle the King of France and his great va.s.sals, Barbarossa seated himself before the Chancellor.

"The solution of the question can now only be arrived at in the field,"

said Da.s.sel, with the insinuating manner of a serpent creeping on his prey. "We must attack Louis before his troops are thoroughly organized.

You have been insulted, and every man, even to the meanest serf in our army, feels the outrage done you by the King of France; let us profit by the opportunity."

"If you had observed my faithful va.s.sals, you would scarcely call the present a good opportunity," replied Barbarossa. "Besides, I do not wish to trust all to the fortune of war. We are not strong enough yet to engage the united forces of France and England. But," he added, "is the result of this ecclesiastical meeting very certain?"

"Certain!" said the Count. "We are sure of our own bishops, but not of those of the King of Sweden. Some things cannot be accomplished by mere brute force, and rather need skill and intelligence than threats of violence."

"You are at your tricks again, and I am tired of them," said Barbarossa. "The Danish prelates are only men; after all, self-interest will guide them. Besides, Victor will be enjoined from the commencement of the Council to abrogate all appeal to Rome or elsewhere. We shall see how the Danes can get over this difficulty."

"All well enough in its way! that may intimidate some," answered Da.s.sel; "but in this way you lessen the Papal power, and increase that of the bishops. What will the Emperor gain by the change?"

"What the Pope alone possesses now, will become the property of a thousand different individuals, and I have always looked upon a divided power as more easy of direction than when it is vested in one person."

"Your Majesty's observation is just and to the point," replied the wily statesman.

After a lengthy interview, Rinaldo left the Emperor to take charge of the preparations for the council. Louis breathed freely at the announcement of the departure of the German army for Besancon.

Alexander had written to him of the intended campaign of the English King against Frederic. At the same time he learned that Andrew of Hungary was ready to march an army into Germany, as soon as the Imperial troops crossed the French frontier. In the meanwhile, the Emperor, accompanied by several of his princes, and by about fifty Bishops and Archbishops, nearly all of whom were as yet unconsecrated, had arrived at Besancon. King Waldemar of Denmark came to meet him there, but he was attended by only one prelate, the Bishop Absalom of Roskilde, for the northern sovereigns could not make up their minds to attend a council which had been convened in defiance of the canonical rules, and with the sole view of legalizing the acts of the schismatical Frederic. The preliminaries against Alexander, the recognition of Victor, and, as a natural consequence, the Imperial supremacy, were rapidly and skilfully arranged.

As the Emperor was leaving his apartment, to proceed with great pomp to the cathedral where the council was to be held, a letter with the seal of the Abbey of Cluny was handed to him.

"From Cluny! Who brought this?" he asked.

"A strange horseman," said the chamberlain. Barbarossa hastily ran it over, while Rinaldo examined his expression, with eager curiosity.

"Pshaw! it is scarcely worth talking about," said Frederic, laying the letter aside; "at least, we have no time to meddle with it. Still if you would like to know," he added, seeing Da.s.sel's curiosity, "Count Rechberg informs us that he is going on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

That is all; the young man could do nothing better in order to escape the bonds in which a sage statesman would have tied him. Let us hope that he will come back completely cured. My lord Chancellor, you may give the signal for our departure now."