"I repeat that the treaty in no way interferes with your supremacy," replied the Count of Champagne; "but what was I to do? The Emperor was on the point of concluding an alliance with England against you; ought I to have permitted such a contract to be signed?"
The King made no answer to this crafty observation of his courtier; but it was not without its effect, for it was the fear of this very alliance between Frederic and the English monarch, which had made him, in the first instance, open the negotiations.
"And how is Barbarossa preparing for our alliance?" asked Louis, who was seeking a new pretext for his ill-humor. "Is he not on our very frontiers, at the head of a powerful army? Is not that, of itself, a threat?"
As if in answer to the question, a loud flourish of trumpets rang out in the palace-yard.
"What is that?" said the King.
He approached the window. A troop of knights had halted before the palace, and a chamberlain came up to announce the arrival of Frederic's envoys.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
THE SPY.
The Chancellor Rinaldo and the Count Palatine Otho de Wittelsbach were at the head of the embassy which had been sent by Frederic to congratulate the French King. Whilst their retinue dispersed through the town, the marshal of the palace introduced the two German nobles into the royal apartments.
The reception-hall took up the entire length of the palace, and resembled a market-house, rather than a room, for the accommodation of persons of distinction. The bare walls were destitute of hangings, and ornamented only with trophies of arms, among which was a collection dating back to the time of the Franks. The sunlight dimly penetrated through the narrow loopholes; the ground was coarsely floored, and stone benches along the walls were the only furniture. The Count Palatine examined, with some curiosity, the armor, and particularly an ancient shield, which, it was said, had once be longed to Charlemagne. Rinaldo placed himself in the recess of a window where he could converse freely with the Count of Champagne. At last Louis appeared; he was richly dressed and followed by a numerous retinue of French nobles, among whom could be remarked his brother Henry, Archbishop of Rheims and primate of France,--a prelate of great distinction and a devoted adherent of Alexander III.