Barbarossa

“ Barbarossa was confused by such language. The old man's frankness, his calmness and dignity, obliged him to listen. There was no animation in his manner, but his clear voice sorrowfully expressed his feeling of duty. ”

“ The Count of Champagne leaned with a gloomy air against a tree, and the savage William of Nevers, smiling ironically, approached him.
"The Burgundian," he said, "speaks as though he meant to dispute Barbarossa's claim to the Empire."
"You seem jovial, my lord," replied Henry.
"And why should I not be? The heroic soul of the Duke of Burgundy will inspire the King. Our valiant sovereign will not keep his promise. As Alexander will not come, Barbarossa will be obliged to bring Victor. Ah! there is a worthy man for you; he thinks it no crime to rob a rich convent! ”

“ Barbarossa was dead-beat, and threw himself on a sofa, where he sank back heavy-eyed and exhausted; and I, almost feared that he would drop into a coma, as the penalty of overstraining nature, until the sight of a pack of cards restored him as if by a spell to his normal wakefulness. ”

“ Whilst Rinaldo spoke, Barbarossa seemed lost in thought; every word of the crafty statesman produced its effect, for it answered the ambitious cravings of his own nature, which had long aimed at the subjection of the spiritual to the temporal power. Could his dreams be realized, the Emperor would reign supreme, and the Church, shorn of all her prerogatives, would remain, as she had existed during the dark ages, the source of all faith, but a mere fief of the Empire. ”

“ And all the others are the mere dolls, puppets, wooden horses, armorbearers, and bloodhounds of one man, named Barbarossa. Mix up all these creatures together, pound them into a paste, and put it under a press; you will not extract the least action of independence, energy, or generosity. ”

“ Whilst you are still forced to tremble before the minions of tyranny, and escape by stealth, to meet here, we defy Barbarossa's prefects, for we are now powerful, and strength gives us courage. Fear not for the interests of our sacred cause. ”

“ Barbarossa was an illustrious prince and a valiant soldier; and it must, therefore, have been a moment singularly strange when this crowned man stood before the crowned corpse of Charlemagne—the one in all the majesty of empire, the other in all the majesty of death. The soldier overcame the shades of greatness; the living became the despoliator of inanimate worth. The chapel claimed the skeleton, and Barbarossa the marble chair, which afterward became the throne where thirty-six emperors were crowned. ”

“ You are in good order, soldiers, and therefore you shall take your part in this glorious day, which is just dawning for our whole Christian armada. We will attack Barbarossa, soldiers. Do you not already hear the drums and fifes in the camp? Do you see him advancing yonder to meet the emperor? ”

“ Barbarossa shook his head with an incredulous and discontented air.
"The Emperor of the East has no Pope," he replied, "and yet he reigns peacefully."
"You are again in error, Sire! Mark attentively what is going on in Byzantium. What do you see there? An exhausted and dying kingdom, a weak and corrupt clergy, a host of ecclesiastics knowing no law but the Imperial will; an effeminate people without morals, and puffed up with vanity and servile ideas. Is this the state to which you would reduce your brilliant Empire?" ”

“ Silently the band of warriors rode along the waves; not a sound, not a footstep broke the stillness; thus they turned to the shore, and the horses clambered up the rocky bank.
There Barbarossa and his silent warriors halted on the height. For a moment the Emperor's glance rested on the slumbering army, he held out his hand as if blessing them in a last farewell, then he shook the reins, and horse and rider, freed from the laws of earthly gravity, swept onwards to the beloved Fatherland. ”

“ Stay, ride off immediately towards the German troops, who are on their march, and bid the princes hasten their arrival!"
"May God preserve us!" said Rinaldo, perceiving that the Emperor wished to keep him out of danger. "I am ready to die with my sovereign."
"Your fidelity needs no such act of heroism to prove its value," said Barbarossa. "Besides, I have by no means decided, as yet, to leave this world for another! But a truce to this discussion. Seek the princes, salute them in my name, and bid them march at once upon Milan!" ”

“ Barbarossa seeks to unite in his own person the spiritual and the temporal power; but we have seen others, as bold and powerful as he, fail in the like attempt."
"You are right," replied Gherardo; "no power can subdue the Church. ”

“ Barbarossa aspires to universal dominion. He seeks to hold in his own grasp all control of rights and liberties; he wishes to make paltry villages out of our independent cities. Everything must give way before his Imperial supremacy; all must bow at the footstool of the conqueror. Religion, the Church, all that which we look upon as holy, are in his eyes mere machines of government. Such is Frederic's gigantic dream of power ”

“ And it is the more to be regretted that many refuse to see their peril. Genoa, through jealousy of Milan, is wilfully blind and will not reflect that the time may come, when she too will feel the yoke. Barbarossa is skilful in taking advantage of these dissensions between us Lombards. His policy is to destroy, one by one, our cities; so that Italy may count none but insignificant villages, submissive to his Imperial supremacy. ”

“ You have brave men in plenty; why not lead them to the attack?”
The patience of the veteran gave way at last; none who knew Barbarossa had ever seen him shrink from fighting—to this his whole career bore witness. He had delayed the issue from the soundest of strategical reasons, which those under his command were too stupid and too prejudiced to understand: what cared they for reason in their blind valour?—they wished only to do or die heedless of the fact that their lives might be spent in vain. ”

“ Think you that the Pope Victor will hesitate to annul the Duke's marriage, if the Emperor so orders it?"
"Measure your words, my lord Chancellor! If I still hesitate, it is because of the crying injustice of which poor Clemence would be the victim. She is a noble woman!"
"Doubtless, and I pity her sincerely; but are the tears of a woman to baffle your projects for glory and dominion?"
This remark terminated the discussion. The proud aspirations of Barbarossa for universal Empire smothered every other feeling. He loved power and fame, and to them he sacrificed every other sentiment. ”

“ If you search the world through, read the curse upon Barbarossa, and all the volumes of anathema, you will never find such a blasting accusation as the man spoke when he saw the monstrance in my hand. ”

“ The gendarmes obtained reinforcements, the razzia into the mountains began anew, but not with much better success. At that time Barbarossa seemed to be everywhere and nowhere, terrible as a basilisk, and slippery as an eel, and far and wide mothers quieted their screaming children by saying: Zitto, Barbarossa is coming! But other stories were told too, more to his credit; how he behaved to the poor and defenceless like a knight in a legend, intent mainly on righting the defective justice of the world, though every now and then robbing the egregiously wealthy just to supply his own needs. ”

“ May God protect him! His enemies give him no rest. He was forced to fly from Italy, and with difficulty can obtain an asylum in France."
"With difficulty? Are the French, partisans of Pope Victor?"
"God preserve us from it!" said Severinus; "but we fear the fierce Barbarossa, who has taken it into his head that Victor must be Pope, whether or no!"
Erwin smiled at the dread which his godfather inspired,
"This Barbarossa is a cruel man, and they tell dreadful stories about him," continued the monk. "It appears that he wants to be Pope and Emperor at the same time, and this desire is unchristian. ”

“ Hastily divesting himself of the sumptuous costume with which he had thought to dazzle the King of France and his great vassals, Barbarossa seated himself before the Chancellor.
"The solution of the question can now only be arrived at in the field," said Dassel, 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." ”

“ Do you call such a one a holy man, a father?--He is a tyrant, a destroyer!"
Guerrazzi at last had carried his point; the crowd was rampant with sedition.
"Death to Alexander! Down with the tyrant!"
"Forward!" resumed the tailor, violently,--"brave people, rise in your might, break your chains, and go to meet your Augustus!"
He sprang to the ground, for his task was accomplished, and the fire of sedition was spread rapidly through the masses. Rinaldo's emissaries urged on the revolt, and soon nothing was heard but wild panegyrics of Barbarossa, and curses against the Pope. ”

“ The papacy is eternal,--as immovable as the rock on which it is built, and which, God has promised, shall endure forever. But, alas! dear Guido, what fearful disasters must result from the strife which is now preparing!"
"It would be easy to prove," said Galdini Sala, "that the Church has never had an enemy so dangerous to her peace as this same Barbarossa. From the times of Nero until the conversion of Constantine, the bloody tyrants strove only to tear away her members. Frederic does not tear away; he stifles! his deadly work is the more dangerous, that it is wrought in silence. ”

“ No; but your cousin owns property in that part of the country. It is there a fearful, mortal struggle against Alexander will take place; there, the bishops of England, Germany, and France will assemble, at Barbarossa's request, to restore peace to the Church: it is there, that Louis will meet Frederic; it is also in that direction that the Count of Champagne and his daughter are going. ”

“ The Emperor rose: the ambassadors made a profound obeisance, and left the hall accompanied by Otho of Wittelsbach, the Counts of Andechs and of Bogen, and their suites.
"My imperial cousin," said Henry the Lion, "knows marvellously well how to sow dissension between France and England."
"You are right," replied Barbarossa; "Louis will never be able to get rid of the English, if he undertakes to protect Alexander; and, on the other hand, the Englishman will lose every foot of soil which he now holds in France, should he presume to oppose the organization of the Imperial Church." ”

“ The Emperor granted me only eight days' leave of absence, and I must not exceed them."
"You have no cause for such haste," resumed the Lombard, sadly. "Milan is well supplied with everything, and her fortifications are strong. Months may elapse before Barbarossa can take the city."
"The Emperor's will is energetic," replied Erwin.
"Oh! I well know that iron will!" said Guido. "Frederic will destroy the works, and reduce the citadel by famine; but still before this happens, many weary days will pass. Some months hence, you will still be in time for the fighting. Stay with us. ”

“ He drove out Barbarossa, a penniless, discredited fugitive; and his soldiers slaughtered thirty thousand citizens of Tunis to console them for the pirate’s late atrocities.
Poor old Barbarossa, past seventy years of age, had lost a horde of fifty thousand men, his kingdom of Tunis, fleet and arsenal; but he still had fifteen galleys left at Bona, his kingdom of Algiers to fall back upon, and his Moorish seamen, who had no trade to win them honest bread except as pirates. ”

“ And Bartholomew started off again in the direction of the Castle of Saint Angelo.
"He is right in the main," said Gervase; "not a man in Rome has a doubt who is the lawful Pope, but what could we do? the terrible Barbarossa would have demolished Rome, as he did Milan, without the slightest scruple." ”

“ The knights halted for rest in vain, however, for the enemy, elated by their seeming victory, rushed forward and the Christians were forced back toward their camp. The brothers, unprepared for battle, were suddenly surrounded in the mêlée and were in imminent danger of capture. Their critical position appealed to the heroic soul of the old Barbarossa, and he determined to give battle anew. In thunder tones he shouted to his knights: “Comrades-in-arms, help to defend my protégés. Let me not be guilty of breaking faith with the dying!” ”

“ Europe was now breaking up slowly but surely into the great nations of modern times, and was inevitably losing a good deal of her consciousness of unity in the process. Even Frederick Barbarossa, filled as he was with his dreams of reviving the power of Rome, had been, as we saw, obliged to adopt a different policy in Germany and Italy, and had attained his greatest successes in proportion as he acted most fully as a German national king. ”

“ After eight days of fighting, Barbarossa lost an arm, and the siege was given up, but he took away with him a large Genoese ship. In 1516 Barbarossa changed his headquarters to Jijil, and took command of an army of 6,000 men and sixteen galliots, with which he attacked and captured the Spanish fortress of Algiers, of which he became Sultan. Barbarossa was by now vastly rich and powerful, his fleets bringing in prizes from Genoa, Naples, Venice, and Spain. ”

“ But there was no appeal, and pointing to a tree, he said,--
"Let them die!"
Undismayed by the approach of death, the Lombards met their fate in silence. None asked for pardon. They died martyrs to the holy cause of freedom, and in the defence of the most sacred rights of their native land. But their last glance was one of implacable hatred for the tyrant.
"Count Palatine, take possession of the fortress of Cinola at once, before the Milanese can strengthen themselves in the works," said Barbarossa. "We will wait here for Goswin, and then follow with the wounded." ”