to
be present at an assembly which is to condemn him?--And I am to aid in
this!--Is that in the treaty?"

"Yes, Sire," answered Henry.

"No! by all the saints, it shall not be!" exclaimed the monarch, with
increased passion. "Shame on you, Count, for signing an agreement which
dishonors us! The Head of the Church has sought refuge within our
territory, and we are to act against him so disloyally?--We are to use
violence to force him before a tribunal composed of the Emperor's
creatures! No! by Saint Denis! we would sooner lose our crown and our
life!"

The courtier waited until the storm had passed, and when the King had
become more calm, he said,--

"Allow me, Sire; you make a grave mistake in this interpretation of the
treaty. There is nothing said about violence. You are merely to use
your influence to persuade Alexander to be present at the plenary
council. If he be innocent, if he be the lawful Pope, he will be
charmed with this opportunity of asserting his rights."

"Very good!--You have exceeded your powers, and the treaty is invalid.
Alexander can do what he pleases; and we, whatever appears to us to be
just and proper. Are we then nothing but the Emperor's vassals? Have we
no longer liberty to act in accordance with our own ideas?"

"I repeat that the treaty in no way interferes with your supremacy,"
replied the Count of Champagne; "but what was I to do? The Emperor was
on the point of concluding an alliance with England against you; ought
I to have permitted such a contract to be signed?"

The King made no answer to this crafty observation of his courtier; but
it was not without its effect, for it was the fear of this very
alliance between Frederic and the English monarch, which had made him,
in the first instance, open the negotiations.

"And how is Barbarossa preparing for our alliance?" asked Louis, who
was seeking a new pretext for his ill-humor. "Is he not on our very
frontiers, at the head of a powerful army? Is not that, of itself, a
threat?"

As if in answer to the question, a loud flourish of trumpets rang out
in the palace-yard.

"What is that?" said the King.

He approached the window. A troop of knights had halted before the
palace, and a chamberlain came up to announce the arrival of Frederic's
envoys.

_CHAPTER XXXVII_.

_THE SPY_.

The Chancellor Rinaldo and the Count Palatine Otho de Wittelsbach were
at the h