"He is a child of Satan!"
"A worthy successor of Nero!"
"An infamous tyrant!"
"Curses upon him! may he die unabsolved!"
"Long live our Holy Father the Pope! May God save Alexander!"
"Yes, long live the Pope! may God protect him!" resumed Pandolfo, who was charmed with the enthusiasm which he had excited. "The sovereign Pontiff is the rampart of liberty, the only real defence against Imperial despotism. Why is it that Barbarossa has turned all his rage against Alexander? It is because he knows that he can never accomplish his perfidious ends so long as the Christian world shall retain him whom God himself has appointed to be the guardian of right, and morality, and liberty. The Pope suffers and struggles in our cause; let us unite with him, let us bravely flock to freedom's standard. Raise your right hands, and swear allegiance to the Lombard league."
Instantly a hundred hands were stretched forth in breathless silence. A heavy cloud overshadowed the sun and seemed to threaten the roofless cloister. A violent wind rushed through the dismantled windows and shook the parasitic plants upon the crumbling walls.
"As it is better to die gloriously than live in shameful slavery," cried Pandolfo, whose clear voice rang through the ruined building, "we promise obedience and fidelity to the principles of the Lombard league. We swear to devote our property and our lives to our faith and our country, to the Church, and to liberty. We take God as witness to our loyalty; may He doom us to eternal torments if we violate our oath!"
"We swear it;" and the oath unhesitatingly pronounced by a hundred voices was repeated by the echoes of the surrounding hills. The assembly then broke up, and the conspirators separated; on their features might be read the thoughts which filled their minds, and the noble resolutions to which they had subscribed. Less than a quarter of an hour afterwards the ruins had become once more silent and deserted.