ich were to be regulated by the action of the
Holy See, he could scarcely be prevailed upon to defer till daylight his
return to Zurich by the Castle of Hers.

The baron's envoy had not accomplished half the distance between the
rival castles, before he met the duke, unattended, as was his wont,
bearing rapidly down upon him. He was no stranger to the lordly bearing
of the duke, for he had watched him in battle, when the strife was
warmest and the fight most dubious. The moment he recognized him, he
sprang from his horse, and uncovering his head and kneeling down,
presented the parchment as Rodolph advanced. Without dismounting, the
duke received the missive, and eagerly unrolling it, began to read. The
instrument contained a narrative of the proceedings of the council and a
transcript of the sentence of excommunication. The noble's eagle eye
flashed at it scanned the page, and his broad bosom heaved. He struck
his breast in his excitement, and brandishing the parchment in the air,
exclaimed aloud, in a deep, tremulous voice: "Well done, thou noble
Pontiff! Now, my brother Henry, the time has come, and heaven be the
judge between us!"

With these meaning words Rodolph galloped on, unmindful of the soldier
behind him. Yet it would seem he had not entirely forgotten the
messenger, for when alighting at the Castle of Hers, he threw the man a
largess such as had never fallen to his lot before.

The duke could not but smile when he saw Gilbert, and taking him aside,
he whispered in his ear: "You will soon have an opportunity to display
upon the battle-field the gallantry of the Bohemian harp-bearer, and to
couch a lance for Suabia and the Lady Margaret!"

"But how can I thank you for--"

"Thank that generous priest and that noble girl!" said Rodolph,
interrupting the youth; "I ran no risk in interposing: the Baron of
Stramen was but cancelling an old debt; I intercepted a battle-axe that
was descending upon him at Hohenburg, and I asked mercy for you, in
requital."

After a long interview, the duke and Albert of Hers resolved to assemble
the chiefs of the ducal party at Ulm, and to fix the fifteenth of
October for a general meeting, at Tribur, of all who would take up arms
against the king.

While the Lord of Hers was engaged in persuading the Duke of Bohemia and
the bishops of Wuertzburg and Worms to repair to Ulm without delay,
Gilbert was polishing his armor and exercising his barb. The stirring
spirit of the tim