"Very true!" said Alexander; "but, in that case, would we not seem to deprive the German princes of their rights in order to gratify our own personal spite? The wisdom of our predecessors has for ages placed the crown on German princes, and should we from purely personal motives presume to abrogate the acts of their wisdom? No, my lord Cardinal! may God preserve, keep, and enlighten the Emperor Frederic."
"Perhaps it would be well," said the Cardinal William of Pavia, "to request aid from the English king. His Camp is only ten miles from here, and a simple request from your Holiness will be sufficient to have his troops put at your orders."
This proposal awakened the Pope's astonishment; his irritated glance was fixed upon the Cardinal.
"We take refuge at the English Court!--we trust to a man who has violated the bonds of matrimony, and whose cruelty never hesitates in shedding innocent blood!--We put ourself in the power of one who acknowledges no laws, who has nothing of human in his constitution, who tramples underfoot divine and ecclesiastical laws and precepts!--But we should be in a position still more degraded than that which poor Victor occupies with the Emperor."
The Cardinal had nothing to reply to this and bent his head in silence.
"Perhaps Spain is the only country in which your Holiness can find an asylum?" said Maurice of Pavia.
But Alexander interrupted him at once.
"Spain!---oh! poor Spain," said the Pope sadly. "You have not yet learned, my dear brothers, the news which reached me yesterday. The Moors have mustered all their forces; they have summoned from the deserts of Africa their countless hordes of savage bandits, who will throw themselves upon Spain like the sands of the desert. And to think," continued the Pope, "that the Emperor, instead of fighting against the Crescent, encourages the enemies of our holy religion by his own impious struggles against the Apostolic See. My brethren, these are bitter trials!--May God preserve the faithful from persecution, prison, and death!--May Christendom be not divided by schism!--May we remain at the helm to guide our bark through the troubled sea."
He was silent and with bent head forgot his own situation in reflecting on that of the Church. On their part, the prelates remained speechless with emotion.
At last Alexander raised his head, and his look was calm though dejected, as he declared his unalterable determination not to seek to escape by flight from the danger which now threatened him.