At this announcement Herman and the knight sprang to their feet, while their looks expressed their horror and surprise. But Father Omehr kept his seat, and said calmly:

"Will your highness inform us more fully?"

The duke resumed: "A messenger, post haste from Goslar, brought me the news this morning at Zurich. Henry refused to meet the Pope in council to take measures for the purification of Milan, Firmano, and Spoleto, and has thus replied to the threat of excommunication. The nominee is Hidolph, who is attached to his own chapel, a man of no merit whatever, but devoted to the emperor; and whose princ.i.p.al endeavor it has been to remedy by art the unprepossessing exterior which nature has given him."

"I know him," said Father Omehr. "Is he yet consecrated?"

"No! All Germany is indignant at the choice, and the people of Cologne are imploring the monarch to make another appointment."

"It will serve but to confirm the nomination," said the priest of Stramen.

"What remains to His Holiness?" inquired Rodolph.

Slowly and solemnly the missionary p.r.o.nounced the single word:

"Excommunication!"

"Henry is preparing for it!" exclaimed the duke, rising and addressing the Lord of Hers; "he convened at Goslar all who respected his summons--among whom was the Duke of Bohemia: and he has liberated Otto of Nordheim, my adversary at Hohenburg, and received him into his most secret councils. It must _come_, my friend," he added, grasping the baron's hand; "we shall not be separated here; and, if I mistake not, we have in Gilbert one who is not to be awed by the lion of Franconia!"

Father Omehr beheld with sorrow the meaning glances of the proud n.o.bles, as they eagerly joined hands; and he read in the animated features of the hero of Hohenburg that the impending excommunication would be the signal for a revolt. He rose, and, exchanging a few words in an undertone with Herman, explained the necessity he was under of returning at once to the Castle of Stramen.

"I will accompany you," said the duke, "if you will delay your departure a few minutes."

Father Omehr expressed his a.s.sent, and retired to the chapel with Herman, leaving the two knights in close converse. Gilbert ran to order the best horse for the duke, and to see that his venerable benefactor should want nothing to carry him safely over the intervening hills.

After exchanging many kind adieus, Rodolph and the missionary, near the close of twilight, started for the Castle of Stramen.

CHAPTER IV

_...Simonis leprosam Execrate haeresim, Sacerdotum simul atque Scelus adulterii, Laicorum dominatus Cedat ab ecclesiis._

ST. PETER DAMIAN.

The King of Arles and the missionary rode along without an escort, and felt none of the fears that the traveller of the times is often made to entertain for his personal safety. They did not apprehend any violence, and their only preparation for the expedition had been a recommendation to G.o.d through Our Lady and the Saints. It is as purely imaginative in historians and novelists--and it is difficult indeed to distinguish the one from the other--to surround every castle with a wall of banditti, as to station in Catholic countries of the present day, a robber or an a.s.sa.s.sin behind every tree. In the Middle Ages, the stranger could wander from castle to castle with as little danger as the nature of the country permitted; even in times of war, the blind, the young, the sick, and the clergy were privileged from outrage, though found on hostile territory. And in war, peace, or truce, the pilgrim's shallop was a pa.s.sport through Christendom; he was under the special protection of the Pope, and to thwart his pious designs was to incur excommunication.

Even amid the terrors of invasion, the laborer was free to pursue his occupation, and his flocks and his herds were secure from molestation; for it was beneath the dignity of the man-at-arms to trample upon the person or property of the poor unarmed peasant. Such were the principles recognized even in the eleventh century; and though we witness frequent departures from these admirable provisions, we must be careful not to mistake the exception for the rule, or to impute to the spirit of the age a violence and contempt of authority common to all times, and found alike in Norman and Frank, American and Mexican. To balance these infringements of regular warfare or "blessed peace," we often meet with instances as beautiful as the march of Duke Louis, the husband of St.

Elizabeth, into Franconia, in 1225, to obtain reparation for injuries inflicted on a _peddler_.

"I hope the Baron of Stramen has lost none of his vigor," said the duke; "we were together at Hohenburg, and I may need him at my side again. His son Henry, too, whom I knighted before the battle, and who won his spurs so n.o.bly, how is he?"

"They were both well," replied Father Omehr, "when I saw them last, and were anxiously expecting a visit from their liege."

"And the Lady Margaret, from whom not a knight can boast a token, though all are striving to obtain one?"

"She has not altered since you saw her," answered the priest; "she was always rather frail, but I do not see that she grows weaker."

"You cannot imagine," interposed Rodolph, "how much it grieves me to be unable to reconcile these two families whom I so dearly love, and who, in the camp or in the chamber, have proved themselves so devotedly attached to me. I cannot even ask of one in the hearing of the other, without giving offence or receiving a bitter answer. In all things else, they are obedient as this horse to his rein; but the moment I speak of reconciliation, the stubborn neck is arched, and will not relax either for threats or entreaties."

"Your grief cannot equal mine," returned the missionary, "and I confess, that without the hope of obtaining a.s.sistance from heaven, I should despair of ever softening the determined animosity of the Baron of Stramen. The Lord of Hers, perhaps, might be induced to throw enmity aside, if his adversary relented; but he cannot be persuaded to sue for peace, especially when his supplication might be unavailing."

"I cannot believe," continued the duke, "that my friend of Hers could have killed Robert of Stramen, since he most positively denies it. It is true that their relations were anything but amicable, yet Albert of Hers would scorn to take a knight at a disadvantage, and would not attempt to conceal the result of a mortal struggle. If Robert of Stramen fell by his hand, it must have been in fair combat; and if in a fair tilt, there is no motive for concealment."

"But the circ.u.mstances are strong enough to amount to conviction in an angry brother's eyes. A woman, who has since lost her mind, named Bertha, her father, and her husband, all swore to have seen Sir Albert ride away from the spot a short time before the body was found; and the scarf of the Lord of Hers was clutched convulsively in the dead man's hand. The wound upon the head resembled that produced by hurling a mace, and was of such a character that the head could not have been protected by any steel piece. I do not consider this conclusive against the Lord of Hers, or even incapable of explanation; but real and unequivocal guilt itself could not justify the untiring malignity of the Baron of Stramen. His brother's soul would be much better honored by his prayers, than by imprecations and the clash of steel; we cannot avenge the dead, for their bodies are dust, and their souls absorbed in things eternal; and Sandrit de Stramen is but making his brother's misfortune the occasion of his own temporal, and perhaps eternal injury. I wish, indeed, this criminal work of vengeance could be stopped."

"Yes," replied the duke, "they had better husband their energies, for if I read the future aright, Suabia will have need of every nerve."

Rodolph paused here; and as his companion did not reply, they rode on in silence.

"I have a plan," exclaimed the duke, with singular vivacity. "But tell me first, has that young Gilbert seen the Lady Margaret?"

In reply the missionary briefly narrated the events of which the reader is already in possession. "Then," pursued the King of Arles, eagerly, "I have strong hopes of success. Listen to me, holy Father: the maiden is beautiful and virtuous, the youth fair and knightly, and I can so represent one to the other, as to create an attachment strong enough to insure to filial love a victory over parental hate. It is fair, I think, to employ the bodily graces of these young persons against the mental deformity of their parents--to array the child against the father, when we seek the triumph of innocence over sin."

"Your highness is inclined to be romantic," rejoined the priest.

"Only the circ.u.mstances are romantic, and they seem to have shaped themselves; my plan is practical enough. Tell me--what think you of it?"

"Briefly, then, I think your project impracticable."

"Impracticable! You cannot know, Father, all that love and youth will dare; but I, whose earthly life has given me experience in such matters, have seen the impossibilities of sober minds yield to the irresistible energy of two plighted hearts. Oh, no; it is not impracticable."

"I will grant you," replied the missionary, "that these two young persons might be brought to love each other, that they might marry in spite of family opposition, but the result would make your romance a tragedy."

"How so?" inquired the duke. "May we not deem without impiety that G.o.d, in His mercy, has designed them for the extirpation of this miserable feud, and has drawn out of the stern parents themselves the instruments by which their hearts may be softened?"

"It is impossible," said Father Omehr, "for us to discover by any human means what the mercy of G.o.d may appoint; all we can do is to ask for light to guide our steps, and to exercise the reason with which He has endowed us. I have good ground to believe that any approach to tenderness, on the part of the children, would widen the breach between the fathers. And were such the case, the consummation of your plan would give only a new and horrible feature to the present discord, by severing the bond between child and parent. For, unless I am much deceived, the lords of Hers and Stramen would turn away in disgust from children whom they would consider, not only to have disobeyed them, but to have proved faithless to their race. In this view, I can not suppose that heaven indicates the path to final reconciliation through fresh dissension. The hearts of the parents can not be softened in the way your highness proposed, and that must be the first step in your plan. Besides, I have little confidence in the agency of a human and selfish love to reach an end that ought to be gained by purer motives. I have discovered, from observation, what the power you spoke of will dare; I know its greatness and its littleness."

"I must tax my ingenuity for a more auspicious scheme," resumed Rodolph of Suabia, "for I begin to be distrustful of my first. I was a little romantic, I confess; but it is thus we give the rein to some solitary impulse of youth, lingering, like a firebrand, among our more matured resolves."

They had ridden slowly, and were now on the brink of the ravine, three miles from the Castle of Stramen. The waning moon and the bright starlight showed them a white figure standing in the road, a few paces from the mouth of the gorge.

"Who is that before us?" asked the n.o.ble.

"Bertha, the poor crazy woman, who swore to the presence of the Lord of Hers at the spot where Robert de Stramen was found," whispered the priest, and he advanced to where she stood.

"I heard your horse's hoofs, Father," she said, "and I came to get your blessing."

"And you shall have it, Bertha," he answered, extending his hands over her head. "Good night," he added, seeing that she did not move.

"Who is this you have brought us?" continued the woman, pointing to the duke.

"That," replied Father Omehr, "is Rodolph, Duke of Suabia, and King of Arles."

Bertha approached the duke, knelt down, and kissed his hand. She then walked slowly up the ravine.

"A singular being," exclaimed the duke, as they gave their horses the spur, for it was growing late. "I have not seen any one thus afflicted for many years, and it is always a painful sight."

The two hors.e.m.e.n were now at the church, but they pa.s.sed it and kept on to the castle; and hearty was the welcome of the n.o.ble duke to the halls of Stramen castle. Sir Sandrit's eyes gleamed with delight as he saluted his liege; Henry's cheek flushed with pleasure when Rodolph, the flower of German chivalry, spoke of his youthful prowess at Hohenburg; the Lady Margaret loved the duke for the praises he heaped upon her brother. Nor were the domestics gazing idly on; but kept gliding to and fro, and hurrying here and there until the genial board was spread, and the fish, fresh from the Danube, smoked, and the goblet gleamed.