not ask permission of the
Pontiff when, upon the pretext of consanguinity, you repudiated
Adelaide and married Beatrice. Think you that the Pope Victor will
hesitate to annul the Duke's marriage, if the Emperor so orders it?"

"Measure your words, my lord Chancellor! If I still hesitate, it is
because of the crying injustice of which poor Clemence would be the
victim. She is a noble woman!"

"Doubtless, and I pity her sincerely; but are the tears of a woman to
baffle your projects for glory and dominion?"

This remark terminated the discussion. The proud aspirations of
Barbarossa for universal Empire smothered every other feeling. He loved
power and fame, and to them he sacrificed every other sentiment.

"But the Duke's assent to our projects is by no means certain," said
he, less to discuss the subject than as & mark of his discontent.

"I will take care of that," said the Chancellor; "the Lion must be
speedily influenced to an open rupture!"

_CHAPTER IX_.

_FILIAL DEVOTION_.

The oftener Bonello saw his daughter, the more unwilling he became to
die. Alas! what will become of her, poor orphan, he thought. Then
again, at times, he turned to his project of her marriage with Nigri,
and felt reassured. But Pietro had so deeply wounded her feelings by
his violent and inconsiderate outburst, that he no longer desired that
union for his child. She might perhaps seek shelter in a convent! Yet,
in those times of civil strife, the walls of a cloister were but an
insecure protection! Whilst he lamented in the bitterness of his
thought, Pietro Nigri recommenced his wild harangue on the subject of
the expected pardon.

"I should be sorry, sir knight, to allow Frederic to suppose for an
instant that I feared death."

"Our positions are very different, young man," replied Bonello. "The
cares and sentiments of a father are often more potent than the
chivalrous heroism of a youth!"

"You should be able to master your emotions," said Nigri. "The ties of
mere human affection should be as nothing compared with the duties
which we owe to our country. If we fear the rope and the scaffold,--if
the approach of death is to excite our tears,--we will deserve, by our
weakness, to bear the German yoke."

"You really do yourself injustice, Pietro!" said the prisoner, glancing
towards the window where his daughter stood, anxiously awaiting the
return of the Abbot. At l