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Page 52
The generous soldiers, who had hitherto received upon their defenceless
bodies the blows aimed at Gilbert, were almost all beaten down, and in a
few minutes more he would have been exposed comparatively unaided to the
fury of the populace. His sword was shivered to the hilt, and though he
drove back a giant who attempted to close with him, by dashing the guard
in his face, he must have fallen beneath a club that swung over his
head, had not a tall knight, completely clad in armor, striding before
him, intercepted the blow, and dashed the assailant to the earth. A
shower of blows saluted the youth's deliverer, but he bore them
unflinching, and, vigorously plying his two-handed sword, cleared a
space around the exhausted Gilbert. The two other knights arriving at
this moment, the contest became more equal. But the mob were now
displaying deadlier weapons, and Rodolph reluctantly resolved to
command his chivalry to disperse the rabble, when his soldiers arrived
with their arms. Inflamed by the loss of their comrades, the now
formidable troops threw themselves upon the citizens, and pursued them
with great slaughter to their homes. When the knights were left without
an enemy, Gilbert advanced to embrace his deliverer. But the knight of
the black plume stepped back a pace, and raising his visor, disclosed
the features of Henry of Stramen, cold, haughty, and showing just the
traces of a smile of disdain.
Gladly at that moment would Gilbert have fallen into his arms and
entreated him to forget the past; but there were too many eyes to
witness a repulse. He contented himself by saying:
"Sir, you have preserved my life, and with the grace of God you shall
not repent it."
Henry made no reply, and they parted.
Gilbert was far too generous to regret an incident which laid him under
such deep obligations to Henry of Stramen. He rejoiced that it had
occurred, for it might remove the mortification produced by their late
encounter, and diminish the mortal hatred with which he was regarded. He
was also well disposed to welcome any accident that might give him a
pretext for conciliating the house of Stramen. Henry perhaps secretly
exulted that he had conferred a favor upon Gilbert that would gall his
heart, while it poured a balm upon his own. Still he did not hold the
youth in the same utter detestation as before.
On the next day, Rodolph, following an ancient custom, began a tour
through his dominions.
Germany now presented the spectacle of a country claimed by two kings.
To Gregory the party of the old king was heretical and odious--that of
the new king pure and orthodox. Though all his sympathies were with the
latter, he still openly blamed and deplored the conduct of his legates,
and refused to acknowledge Rodolph as king. The Pope well knew what a
delicate undertaking it was to depose a sovereign whom he had
consecrated, and how fraught with danger such a precedent must be. His
interest evidently called him to receive Rodolph at once into his arms,
and had he done this, the result of the contest would have been very
different. In the behavior of Gregory we discover, in addition to an
insuperable aversion to countenance civil war, a disposition to endure
the last extremity rather than dethrone a legitimate monarch, and
perhaps a preference of Henry, for his parents' sake, to his rival.
Both kings prepared vigorously for the struggle which could not be long
postponed. Henry's measures were admirably calculated to increase his
power. He scattered rich benefices lavishly among the clergy, lured on
the soldiers of fortune with tempting bribes, and granted enviable
privileges to the seaboard towns. The citizens of Augsburg, after
tasting his bounty, braved the menaces of his antagonist. Hordes of
brigands from Bohemia were attracted to his camp by brilliant largesses
and the prospect of an easy booty. The German cities, and particularly
those along the Rhine, had always, pursuant to the policy of his
ancestors, been the object of his peculiar favor, and the merchants of
Worms were relieved from all imposts. The population of these cities
was soon ranged under the banner of Henry, whose ranks increased so long
as gold could buy, and the promise of license and plunder attracted.
Rodolph's policy served to diminish instead of swelling his numbers. He
devoted himself, at the sacrifice of everything else, to gain the Pope
to acknowledge him as king. He appeared the inflexible chastiser of
simony and ecclesiastical corruption. The very day of his coronation he
had obtained the dismissal of a simoniacal deacon. Everywhere he
compelled the nominees of Henry to fly, and filled their places with
zealous champions of the canonical discipline. At Constance and Zurich
he drove the irregularly appointed bishops from their sees: he placed
Lutold, a zealous champion of the Pope, over the monastery of St. Gall,
which had been devoted to his rival. Many, frightened by these
severities, deserted his standards, and others recoiled from the
presence of so rigorous an enforcer of spiritual purity.
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