to read, and
accompanying the reading with his own commentaries. "The divorce is
declared null and void. The Lion is excommunicated and banished. By my
faith, these are the words of a true Pope! I must speak to the Duke on
the subject. I fear it will be labor in vain!"

"Your Highness will be faithful to the voice of the Holy Father,"
replied Sala. "Your Highness alone, among all the princes in the
Imperial camp, is worthy of the Pope's confidence, and he charges you
to protest against this sinful deed. It should be the Emperor's duty to
protect the unhappy Duchess, but Frederic is not opposed to the
divorce!"

"It is most true; it is a miserable measure of political expediency in
the interest of territorial aggrandizement," said Henry, warmly. "The
Emperor's villainous Chancellor has directed the whole business. My
cousin's daughter lived on the best possible terms with her husband,
before the interference of that felon. Ah! princes will not see to what
their ambition leads them, until the halter is around their necks."

"What has all this to do with the divorce?"

"You do not understand the plot," resumed Henry; "the repudiation of
Clemence must make trouble between Saxony and her relations; the union
of those two houses would have thwarted all Frederic's designs against
the liberties of the people, the clergy and the nobility."

"Frederic evidently seeks to assure his supremacy," said Galdini,
endeavoring to excite the Duke to a fuller confession.

"There is no doubt about it. Why does he not assign incumbents to the
vacant fiefs? He keeps them for himself. He owns already all the
territory from Rottemburg to Besancon. He sows discord among the
nobles, adds the fiefs to the crown, and has organized in the Church an
army of corrupt Bishops! Tell me, is not that one way of assuring his
Imperial supremacy?"

"It seems so to me."

"That is not all. The Empire is to be divided according to the old
Eastern system. One of my followers, who was with Barbarossa during the
last crusade, has heard him express his admiration for the Byzantine
Empire. Barbarossa needs a capital, another Constantinople, and he has
already made his selection. It is Mayence! Wait until he returns to
Germany, and you will see whether this city be not deprived of all her
liberties, as a punishment for Arnold's murder, and if he does not make
her his capital!"

"But why do you aid him with your troops?"

"Because I am alone in my way of th