r pleasure. Lose no time here,
that your delay may not retard the destiny of your city."

_CHAPTER XXIX_.

_HUMILIATION_.

The Milanese had not doubted that their proposition would be at once
accepted. Frederic's refusal consequently was a matter of surprise, and
a majority of the most influential citizens felt confident that the
people would continue an energetic defence, rather than unconditionally
capitulate. They were mistaken. The Milanese refused to hear a word
spoken in favor of further resistance.

When this information was communicated to the monarch, his
satisfaction was unbounded, for he foresaw at once the results of his
victory;--with Milan fell the last support of Alexander III.

Frederic had driven the unfortunate Pontiff from Rome; and although
Genoa had offered him an asylum, this city could not hope to be able
long to serve as a refuge to the fugitive head of the Church; for with
the surrender of Milan, the resistance of the remaining cities of
Lombardy became unavailing.

"The chief bulwark of Alexander's faction is levelled, and his defeat
prepares a glorious future for you, Sire," said Rinaldo, entering the
Imperial chamber. "Your wish of itself will suffice to drive Roland
from Genoa. And where can he go then? Spain alone can support his
supremacy so long as she is not struggling against the Moors. As to
France, she cannot recognize this pretended pope, and England must
follow her example. I see nothing for him but to seek the aid of the
Saracens,--a strange alliance for His Holiness."

He was dreaming of the future; Frederic, on the other hand, was
occupied only with the present. He desired that the formal surrender of
Milan should take place in the style best calculated to strike the
imagination. He wanted a tragedy to mark the fall of this queen of
Lombardy, and he fixed the 6th of March as the date of the performance.

A platform, sufficiently vast to accommodate, at the same time, the
Emperor and all his nobles, was erected outside of the camp. It was an
amphitheatre, with fourteen tiers of seats for the nobility, whilst the
Imperial throne towered above in splendid magnificence, an emblem of
the supremacy of the sovereign. The platform was hung with scarlet
cloth, and costly carpets were spread in the immediate vicinity of the
monarch's stand, which was richly ornamented with garlands of flowers
and decked with the penn