Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 5.djvu/118

 C8 WORKMEN AND HEROES from the gloomy prison in which her uncle, Count William, had confined her in order to appropriate the rich domains of " Franche-Comte." Over hill and dale sped the chivalrous band till the grim castle was reached ; a halt was ordered, and an envoy sent to summon Count William to yield both his fortress and the fair prisoner. At first the count meditated resistance, but on looking out and inves- tigating the number of Frederick's followers, he decided to submit, and congrat- ulated himself on his determination when Frederick's messenger said, on behalf of his master, that if the castle were not given freely it would be taken by force, the fair Beatrix released, and her gloomy prison walls be prevented from hiding any other like iniquity by being razed to the ground. Prudence, we hear, is the better part of valor, and evidently Count William shared in the opinion, for we learn that he promptly let down the drawbridge, over which Frederick and his followers passed, and whence they presently issued, bearing in their midst the quondam prisoner, the lovely Beatrix, whose eyes, moist with tears of gratitude, looked trustingly in the handsome face of her deliverer. So now, away, away to the old church at Wurtzburg ! deck the streets, ring the bells, bid priests don their vestments and burghers their best, and fall in merrily with the gay procession that comes to do honor to Barbarossa and his fair bride ! Thus far the little romance of our emperor and Beatrix ; now to return to the sober and solemn statement of facts. During 1157 and the next year, Fred- erick busied himself with a campaign against Poland, and compelled Boleslaw, the king, to acknowledge the supremacy of the head of the German Empire, and to take the oath of fealty, barefoot and with his naked sword hung round his neck ; after which he bestowed the kingdom upon Wladislaw of Bohemia, whom he had appointed regent of the German states during his absence, and whom he now took this opportunity to reward. New disputes began to arise between Pope Adrian and Frederick ; and when at Besancor* some indiscreet remarks oi His Holiness as to having "conferred the imperial crown " on, and " accorded it by favor " to Frederick, were mentioned, that monarch waited no longer, but col lected a fresh army, and marched into Italy to chastise the pontiff, who, on hear ing of his approach, and scared at the prospect of such a calamity, hastened to explain away his words as best he might. The emperor accepted his excuses, but as he was so far on the road, determined to attack Milan, whose inhabitants had increased the anger he already felt for them by rebuilding Tortona (which, as we know, he had totally destroyed), and expelling the inhabitants of Lodi from their dwellings for having called him to mediate on the subject of their wrongs. With 100,000 men (for almost all of the Lombard cities had, either willingly or by force, contributed their militia) and 15,000 cavalry, he advanced toward Milan and laid siege to it. The inhabitants made a most obstinate resistance, and were at length only vanquished by the impossibility of finding food for the vast population within the walls. A capitulation was effected, by which the em- peror contented himself with very moderate conditions, the most severe being that which condemned the city to the loss of her privileges ; but when the chief nobles came to deliver the keys, barefooted and with every token of humility, he