"If your Majesty wishes to shield your Chancellor, we must obey," said Conrad; "but as some amends for the outrage, we request that you will release the consuls who were captured despite our word of honor as gentlemen and knights."
"It cannot be!" answered Barbarossa. "These consuls are the chiefs of the rebellion, the ringleaders of the conspiracy, which, for many years, has been plotting against us. It would be gross folly, on our part, to send away the promoters of the disorder. They must remain with us as captives, until the surrender of the fortress."
"But, Sire," added the Duke of Bohemia, with difficulty restraining his indignation, "the Milanese will say that we are disloyal felons, who desire, not the reduction, but the destruction of their city!"
"As for me," said Conrad, boldly, "my honor is at stake, and I will avoid all intercourse with the Chancellor.--To-morrow, I and my troops will return to our homes."
"Your term of service has expired, and we have no right to detain you," answered Barbarossa, calmly. "However, I shall expect you next spring, when you will return with more numerous and better disciplined troops. If, before that time, Milan shall have fallen, there will still remain enough to do in Italy, before we can restore the Empire to its ancient splendor."
Although these last words were prompted by a desire to flatter the nobles, they left his presence with a discontented and dissatisfied air.
Meanwhile Rechberg, Bonello, and Nigri were standing in front of the city gate, near which the consul's tent was pitched, and Erwin related the circumstances which had induced the order for his banishment from Italy. The sad and despondent tone of the young man moved Bonello's sympathy.
"If my daughter could esteem you more than she does already," he said, "this injustice would have that effect. I am confident, however, that she will now yield to my wishes and consent to leave Italy."
"You desire then to abandon your country?" asked Rechberg, with surprise.
"Yes, and perhaps forever!" replied Guido. "It is too painful to live in the vicinity of a struggle which threatens one's very existence, without being able to share in it. This, and some other motives, decide me to go to France, where I will remain until the storm is over."