"Io pianeta minore! e non risplendo
Che per la luce tua!"

"I inferior!

A planet shining in a borrowed light!"

The pontiff is obliged to abandon the obnoxious simile. He replies to the above cited words of Frederick:

"Viene da Cristo

In chi tien le sue veci: io sono il vero,
Tu sei la forza; e se da me ti parti
Cieco rimani, ed io divengo inerme.
Siamo uno alfine; e il paragon si taccia
Che all' ira ti destò. Česare e Pietro
Sono i monti di Dio."

"She comes from Christ,
In whom she holds her way: I am the truth,
Thou art the power; and if from me thou part,
Blind dost thou wander, I remain disarmed.
Let us at last be one; suppressing all

That rouses thee to anger. Mounts of God
Are Cæsar and Pietro."

He then goes on to speak of Arnold, and tells the emperor to learn from the example of him

Upon this subject "Cæsar" and "Peter" are in perfect concord. The pontiff tells how Arnold had been rescued from his power. Mark, reader, in the words which follow, the manifestation of one of Rome's most habitual and most unpardonable iniquities. "Arnold has been taken out of my power," says Adrian.

"A holy zeal for God Inflames thee in his cause."

This amiable accord is destined to be shortly again broken. There is still behind the grievance of the omitted stirrup-holding, which Adrian cannot make up his mind to forego. In fact, it was not altogether such a puerility as it might at first sight appear. For this service was a recognized act of vassalage; and the performance of it by the emperor to the pope might be, and when a fit occasion should offer, no doubt would be, cited as a proof of the emperor's having admitted that the empire was held under the pope, as a feudal superior. Upon this sore subject Frederick again breaks out into passion: and on Otho of Frising joining them, Adrian quits them, leaving, he says, to the German bishop the task of bringing the stubborn emperor to a better frame of mind. And in fact, Otho, by urging political considerations, and citing the example of preceding emperors, does at last, with much difficulty, succeed in persuading his proud nephewfor such was his relationship to the emperor-to consent to perform this act of homage. He accordingly goes through the necessary form in the presence of his army with a sufficiently bad grace, and much to the disgust of the German soldiery who witness this degradation of their monarch. Adrian, well pleased, says

"In ver tu sei

Destro e pronto scudiero, e m' hai tenuta
Fortemente la staffa: abbiti, o figlio,

Il bacio della pace: i tuoi doveri
Ben adempito or hai."

"In truth thou art

A feat and prompt esquire, deftly hast held
My stirrup; receive now the kiss of peace,-
Thy duties thou hast well discharged, my son."

Frederick, however, who had kept in his breast a scheme for the consolation of his wounded pride-(the incident is historical) -replies

Adrian's rage and mortification are great; but he deems it prudent to dissemble them. And the envoys which the republican party in Rome had sent on their part also to meet the emperor being now announced, Adrian leaves him to receive them. To the pope's parting charge to him to quell the rebellious Romans, Frederick replies in verses which we must quote, as well for their own power, as for the sake of the true representation they give of the feelings which animated the emperor of Germany both towards the pope and towards Rome.

"Basta; compresi . . . . Se anche a me ribelli
Non fossero i Romani, il lor gastigo
Chiesto mi avresti indarno: i re non sono
Un carnefice vil che mova il brando

Dei sacerdoti al cenno . . . . A che rinnovo
Questa lite fra noi? T'affida, o Padre,
Nella giustizia mia: tu sei Britanno,
Ed io nacqui Tedesco; abbiam comune
L'odio di Roma. A Cristo e a noi fan guerra
Gl' idoli suoi pagani, e il più tremendo,
L'antica Libertà, chè il suo veleno
Per l'Italia è diffuso, e nomi, e leggi,
E tumulti destò. L'opra compisci
Dei pontifici antichi, e di superbi
Marmi s' accresca ogni cenobio umile;
Fa che possano tutte in Vaticano
Le memorie perir del Campidoglio;
Lo adegua al suol: quella città superba
Un sepolcro divenga, in cui si prostri
Il Romano pentito, e chiegga a Dio
Perdono della gloria e dei delitti."

"Enough; I see it-were not thy Romans
Rebels to me, their chastisement in vain

Thou hadst required. Thine executioners
Kings cannot be, nor will they bare the brand
For priestly bidding-why do I renew
The strife between us? Confide thee, Father,
In my justice; thou art a Briton born,
And I a German-we unite in hate

Of Rome. On us and Christ the idols old
Make war; chiefest amid them all we dread
That ancient Liberty; her poisonous power,
Through Italy diffused, awakens names,
And laws, and tumults.

Each mean lonely cell
Pile thou with honors: from the ancient time

Sink deep the memory of the Capitol

Entombed in the Vatican! To earth
Reduce it, make that city, proud in power,
Become a sepulchre in which the Roman
May weeping call, prostrate before his God,
For pardon for his faults as well as fame."

The reception which awaits the envoys of the republican party, now at the entrance of the emperor's tent, may be easily anticipated. We wish that we could afford space to quote the whole of a long speech of Frederick's, in which he empties the phials of his wrath upon the heads of the unhappy Romans. No insult, which their fallen state could render most bitter, no taunt which could be drawn from the disparity between their condition and their pretensions, is spared them. "Stolto romore ascolto," he

says

"Di tumidi parole: ognun conosce
Le vostre glorie antiche, e se perita
Fosse la lor memoria, in voi sarebbe
L'onta minore: le virtù degli avi
Ricorda sempre chi da lor traligna,

E chiama suo quel ch' ei non fece. Ah cessi
Questo vano garrir: folle Romano,
Deh pensa alfine a ciò che sei."

"Rumours vain
Of swelling words I hear; the world well knows
Your ancient glories, were their memory lost,

Your shame would then be lessen'd: of his sires
He who belies them ever holds high memory,
And calls that his which he has not achieved.
Ah cease this empty boast: weak Roman, think
Not on thy past, but on thy present state."

Of Italy he tells them,—

"Omai provincia è fatta E retaggio a Germania, e il re le impone

Che elegge a sè; retro al suo carro è tratta
Con eterno trionfo. Otton le pose
Una catena che talor s' allunga,
Ma frangersi non può : perchè risuona
Liberi vi credete? io questo inganno
Farò che cessi, e saran muti i ceppi
Dal brando mio rifissi. Italia spera
Ai Tedeschi sottrarsi? Aver non puote
Nulla di suo, neppur tiranni; e pensi
Ai suoi destini antichi.

Voi senza cor, senz' armi, e pria derisi
E spenti poi, timide belve, immonde
A cui tombe e ruine eran covile,
Nati alla fuga, e a sollevar la polve
In antico deserto, e sol difesi
Dalle preghiere del sovran Pastore,
Fatti ribelli a lui, sperar potete
La signoria del mondo, e già sognate
Affacciarvi dall' Alpi ?"

"A province now
And German appanage is Italy;

The King whom Germany elects rules Italy.
Back at his chariot wheels she's dragged along
In everlasting triumph. Otho placed on her
A chain that, though it lengthens, never breaks :
Think you its clank is freedom? This lament
I'll dispel,-mute-voiceless shall be the links.
United by this sword. Can Italy

Hope Freedom from the German? Her very Kings
Are strangers; she can call nothing her own,
And yet can think on antient destiny.

But you, a heartless, armless, first scorned,
And then extinguished people; timid beasts,
To whom foul tombs and ruins form a lair
Born but for flight to raise the circling dust
In your old desert, alone defended
By the entreaties of your sovereign Priest;
Rebels to him-and dare you even hope
For lordship over earth; and dream again
Of gazing down from Alps."

He concludes with saying, in answer to the proposal the envoys had made that Rome should again become the capital of the empire, in reality

"Selve d'Ardenna, e pure

Onde del Reno, io vi abbandoni, e sieda