Scarcely had he spoken, when his words were repeated by the crowd.
"The plague! the plague!" was cried out on all sides.
"God help us! the pestilence is in Rome!" exclaimed the people, as they fled tumultuously through the doors to escape from the infected atmosphere.
At first the Emperor's face flushed with anger, for he imagined that it was a scheme concocted by the malevolence of his adversaries; but when the crowd began to scatter in disorder, and the terrible cry, "the pestilence is among us," was heard, a mortal dread fell upon the Imperial retinue. The bishops grew pale, and many a remorseful conscience whispered,--
"It is the vengeance of an offended God."
Still Frederic gave no signs of fear or agitation; his dauntless spirit was a stranger to any such sentiments. He merely regretted the interruption of the ceremony, that was all. He had erected his triumphal throne in the Church of St. Peter, in the very heart of Christendom, and his eyes gleamed with menace and discontent, as though he would have forced the pestilence itself to recoil before his frown. But death fears no mortal man, not even him who, seated on the topmost pinnacle of successful ambition, thinks to rival God.
Already the plague had struck down some of Frederic's own retinue.
Count Ludolf of Dassel, the Chancellor's brother, had fallen dead, at a few steps from the throne; and his neighbor, the Bishop Alexander of Lodi, a few moments after, shared his fate. The prelates looked with stupid wonder at these corpses, all bearing distinctive marks of the scourge. Not one among them had the courage to stoop down and perform the last duties which the Church enjoins. These men had none of the noble sentiments of their calling; they had the vices and the passions of the court, hands fitted only to wield the sword, and guilty hearts which scarcely now began to be touched by repentance.
Many wished to follow the example set them by the Romans, but the Emperor's voice forbade.
"What means this, my lords? What, Bishop of Luttich, you, one of the most valiant swords in my army, would you too be one of the first to fly from danger? If God sends us a misfortune, we will bear it with becoming resignation."