upon
the greed of prelates. The wearisome strife went on till the very
peasants had to be guarded at their work by knights, sent out from
towns to see that they were not taken captive. It was the day of the
robber, and all things lay to his hand if he were bold enough to grasp
them. Prisoners of war suffered horrible tortures, being hung up by
their feet and hands in the hope that their friends would ransom them
the sooner. Villages were burned down, and wolves howled near the
haunts of men, seeking food to appease their ravening hunger. It was
said that fierce beasts gnawed through the walls of houses and devoured
little children in their cradles. Italy was rent by a conflict which
divided one province from another, and even placed inhabitants of the
same town on opposite sides and caused dissension in the noblest
families.

The Flagellants marched in procession through the land, calling for
peace but bringing tumult. The Emperor's party made haste to shut them
out of the territory they ruled, but they could not rid the people of
the terrible fear inspired by the barefooted, black-robed figures, with
branches and candles in their hands and the holy Cross flaming red
before them.

One defeat after another brought the House of Hohenstaufen under the
control of the Church they had defied so boldly. Frederick's own son
rebelled against him, and Frederick's camp was destroyed by a Guelf
army. The Emperor had lived splendidly, making more impression on
world-history than any other prince of that {18} illustrious family,
but he died in an hour of failure, feeling bitterly how great a triumph
his death would be to the Pope who had conquered.

It was late in the year 1250 when the tidings of Frederick II's death
travelled slowly through his Empire. Many refused to believe them, and
declared long years afterwards that the Emperor was still living,
beneath a mighty mountain. The world seemed to be shaking yet with the
vibration of that deadly struggle. Conrad and Conradin were left, and
Manfred, the favourite son of Frederick, but their reigns were short
and desperate, and when they, too, had passed the Middle Ages were
merging into another era. The "two swords" of Papacy and Empire were
still to pierce and wound, but the struggle between them would never
seem so mighty after the spirit had fled which inspired Conradin, last
of the House of Swabia.

This young prince was led to the scaffold, where he asserted s