"Right and reason," replied Rinaldo, "have but little chance of success against fraud and dissimulation."
"Well answered," cried Otho; "I am glad to hear such sentiments proclaimed. We must draw the sword, and prove to these insurgents that they owe obedience and respect to their sovereign."
"You are right, my lord Count," said Rinaldo, glancing at the Emperor. "After vainly trying mildness and conciliation, it would be rank cowardice not to use the sword."
At the close of their frugal repast, the Emperor directed his chancellor to read to him, until it was time to mount again; and Rinaldo, taking a book which was brought to him by the young knight Erwin, opened it at a marked page, while Otho, too thorough a soldier to care much for literature, withdrew on one side.
"We have learned the ideas of His Holiness as to the origin of all power," said the Chancellor to the Emperor, who was seated on the pedestal of a fallen column. "The following letter from Pope Gregory VII. will fully explain what these ideas mean, and to what they tend.
"'The Church is our common Mother, the source and origin of all light and vitality. It is on this account that all emperors and kings, princes and archbishops, bishops and prelates, are her vassals. Thanks to the power of the Apostolic keys, she can make and unmake them, for the power which she delegates is not for a passing fame, but for a holy eternity. To her, then, they all owe a respectful and modest obedience.'"
Until then, the Emperor had listened in silence, although his features betrayed the violent emotions of his inner self. Suddenly interrupting the Chancellor, he exclaimed,--
"By my faith, the reasoning is highly logical! The Church rules all! She can make and depose both emperors and princes!--All must passively obey her mandates!--What arrogance!--Princes are naught but simple vassals of the Pope!"
"Absolutely nothing else," replied Rinaldo; "the Pope is the sun, the Emperor the moon, who receives from His Holiness light and brilliancy and power."
"Enough! enough!" cried Frederic, angrily; "mark the place and close the book--the reading of such enormities is an insult to the Imperial dignity." A crafty smile played around the Chancellor's lips as he replied,--