night
after night, for years, this has been the aim of all my actions, ay,
even the limit of my aspirations. Once to be king--oh! ever since I
first clutched a lance I panted for it! In love, in sickness, in peace,
in war, I never forgot that one surpassing object--the crown! Hear me
on! It is now within my reach--I can touch it--and you ask me to resign
it?--"

The duke paused a minute, his eagle eye flashing fire; then, with a
vehemence almost appalling, he resumed: "You ask me to resign it--and I
_would_, without a pang--gladly, cheerfully--this very instant! Yes--I
swear to you--here in presence of my Creator, that I no longer covet the
crown I have well-nigh worshipped; that, but for Germany and the Church,
I would rather place it on Henry's perjured head than wear it on my
own!"

"Then you will resign it?" said the missionary, eagerly.

Rodolph slowly shook his head and fixed his eyes upon the floor.

"Let no fears for the Church and your country restrain you," pursued the
priest; "they both demand your refusal, not your acceptance."

Still Rodolph sternly shook his head.

"Then as you value honor, defer your decision until the appointed
time--our Holy Father may still be with us--it is treacherous to deprive
him of the opportunity of interfering, by thus anticipating by a month
the day on which we invited him to meet us."

"It is too late for interference now," replied the duke, "and of what
avail is it to pause on the brink when all the avenues from Carpineta
are closed by Henry's minions?"

"Have confidence, I conjure you," exclaimed the other, passionately, "in
the virtue and wisdom of His Holiness. Rest assured that he will find
some means to avert bloodshed and yet preserve his See and the empire."

"War is inevitable!"

"Obey the Pope and trust in God. Beware how you take upon yourself to
plunge the nation in war--to tear down the sacred barriers of peace--and
open the floodgates for a thousand evil passions to deluge Germany with
crime and blood! Can you foresee what may occur--what a month may
develop--what new political combination the master mind of Gregory may
devise for our preservation?"

"I must rather beware," returned the noble, "how I sacrifice the last
hope of my country and the main support of religion by procrastination
and criminal hesitation. If I refuse the crown, I disband my party. Men
will leave us, and say we tremble, and before long we are at the tender
mercies of the tyr