as continued for six months, but Frederick at
last abandoned it on learning that an army of the league was about to
descend on his weakened forces. He burned his besieging implements,
his catapults, battering rams, and movable towers, and retreated to
Pavian territory.

The forces of the allied cities were sufficient to alarm Frederick,
but they did not follow up their advantage. One is surprised to find
negotiations for a peace begun at a time when a decisive battle seemed
imminent. What preliminary steps were taken, or why the Lombards
should have been the first to take them, is not clear; although some
slight successes gained by Christian of Mayence at this juncture in
the neighborhood of Bologna may have been not without effect.

A commission of six men was appointed to draw up the articles of
treaty, three being chosen from the cities, three appointed by the
Emperor. The consuls of Cremona were to decide on disputed
points--points, namely, as to which it was impossible to arrive at a
mutual agreement. A truce to all hostilities was meanwhile declared,
and at Montebello both sides bound themselves to concur in whatever
arrangement should be made by the commission and the consuls. The
Lombards meanwhile went through the form of a submission, knelt at the
Emperor's feet, and lowered their standards before him. Frederick
thereupon received them into favor and dismissed the greater part of
his army, the league doing likewise.

Naturally enough the disputed points were the most important ones, and
had to be referred to the consuls of Cremona. But the rage and
disappointment of the Lombards went beyond bounds when the different
decisions, which, indeed, were remarkably fair, at last were made
known. The Emperor was to exercise no prerogatives in Northern Italy
that had not been exercised in the time of Henry V; he was also to
sanction the continuance of the league. But no arrangement was made
for a peace between the heads of Christendom, although the league had
made this its first demand. Then, too, Alessandria, which Frederick
considered to have been founded in scorn of himself, was to cease to
exist, and its inhabitants were to return to their former homes.

The report of the consuls roused a storm of indignation; in many cases
the document embodying it was torn in shreds by the mob. The Lombards
altogether refused to be bound by the terms of the treaty, and
reopened hostilities. Frederick hastily gathered what forc