, as soon as affairs in Germany would admit of his
absence; but there was much to be done first--many princes to be dealt
with, who, from different motives viewing his election with
dissatisfaction, would take immediate advantage of his departure to
bring all the horrors of civil war into his dominions. Bavaria, for
example, had been wrested from Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony, during
his minority, by Conrad III., and now he conjured Frederick, with tears
and threats, to restore it to him. This, by dint of much diplomacy,
Frederick effected, and the result was that for some years he gained a
stanch ally, instead of a designing enemy.

Having decided this quarrel and several others, into which we need not
enter, Frederick prepared for that first expedition into Italy which, as
we have seen, he had resolved on from the commencement of his reign.

At the head of a numerous army he passed into Switzerland, and encamped
near the lake of Constance; when, under the banner of Count von
Lenzburg, the inhabitants of the three "cents" or cantons of Schwyz,
Uri, and Unterwalden came to do homage and offer their feudal service in
the field. At the same time, and while still engaged in assembling the
forces with which to march into Italy, deputies from the city of Lodi
arrived, and throwing themselves at his feet, besought his interference
against the oppressions of the Milanese, who had declared for Adrian
IV., and whose town was indeed the very hot-bed of the papal faction.
The emperor instantly sent letters commanding the Milanese to make full
reparation to their unfortunate neighbors; but on perusal of his behests
they tore the missives in a thousand pieces, and flung them in the faces
of the messengers, sending back by them as their sole answer an open
defiance of his authority. Enraged at this insolence, Frederick crossed
the Alps, but, too prudent to risk an immediate attack on Milan,
strongly fortified and well garrisoned as it was, he sought rather to
weaken it through the other towns with which it was in league, and
accordingly besieged in turn Rosate, Cairo, and Asti, which all fell
into his hands, and ended with the total demolition of the city of
Tortona, which he reduced to ashes, afterward even levelling the ground
upon which it had stood. This last victory proved the accuracy of
Barbarossa's judgment, as regarded the remainder of the fifteen towns of
the so-called "Lombard League," most of which, intimidated by his
e