eechless in the extremity
of his woe. Louis had the pride of magnanimity and endeavored to console
his captive.

"The battle is not lost by your fault," said he. "The Bavarians have
experienced to their cost that you are a valiant prince; but Providence
has decided the battle. Though I am happy to see you as my guest, I
sympathize with you in your sorrow, and will do what I can to alleviate
it."

For three years the unhappy Frederic remained a prisoner of Louis of
Bavaria, held in close confinement in the castle at Trausnitz. At the
end of that time the emperor, alarmed at the efforts which the friends
of Frederic were making to combine several Powers to take up arms for
his relief, visited his prisoner, and in a personal interview proposed
terms of reconciliation. The terms, under the circumstances, were
considered generous, but a proud spirit needed the discipline of three
years' imprisonment before it could yield to such demands.

It was the 13th of March, 1325, when this singular interview between
Louis the emperor, and Frederic his captive, took place at Trausnitz.
Frederic promised upon oath that in exchange for his freedom he would
renounce all claim to the imperial throne; restore all the districts and
castles he had wrested from the empire; give up all the documents
relative to his election as emperor; join with all his family influence
to support Louis against any and every adversary, and give his daughter
in marriage to Stephen the son of Louis. He also promised that in case
he should fail in the fulfillment of any one of these stipulations, he
would return to his captivity.

Frederic fully intended a faithful compliance with these requisitions.
But no sooner was he liberated than his fiery brother Leopold, who
presided over the Swiss estates, and who was a man of great capacity and
military energy, refused peremptorily to fulfill the articles which
related to him, and made vigorous preparations to urge the war which he
had already, with many allies, commenced against the Emperor Louis. The
pope also, who had become inimical to Louis, declared that Frederic was
absolved from the agreement at Trausnitz, as it was extorted by force,
and, with all the authority of the head of the Church, exhorted Frederic
to reassert his claim to the imperial crown.

Amidst such scenes of fraud and violence, it is refreshing to record an
act of real honor. Frederic, notwithstanding the entreaties of the pope
and the remons