cated a personage of
importance. This was Galdini Sala, Archdeacon of the Cathedral, and
destined, as Archbishop of Milan, afterwards to play an important part
in the history of his country. By nature taciturn and reflective,--his
eyes usually downcast,--Sala became animated and bold whenever it
became necessary to assert the rights of the Church, which alone could
resist human passion and the encroachments of Imperial despotism.
Consequently, Galdini's opposition to Barbarossa was more than violent.

"The circumstances are most serious," said Bonello; "but we must not
forget that God alone is the arbiter of human destiny. Barbarossa seeks
to unite in his own person the spiritual and the temporal power; but we
have seen others, as bold and powerful as he, fail in the like
attempt."

"You are right," replied Gherardo; "no power can subdue the Church. The
papacy is eternal,--as immovable as the rock on which it is built, and
which, God has promised, shall endure forever. But, alas! dear Guido,
what fearful disasters must result from the strife which is now
preparing!"

"It would be easy to prove," said Galdini Sala, "that the Church has
never had an enemy so dangerous to her peace as this same Barbarossa.
From the times of Nero until the conversion of Constantine, the bloody
tyrants strove only to tear away her members. Frederic does not tear
away; he stifles! his deadly work is the more dangerous, that it is
wrought in silence. The Pagans would have overthrown Christianity, in
order to prevent their own conversion; but this despot seeks to destroy
the order of things which has existed for centuries. The Roman Emperors
sought to protect and save their own paganism. Frederic would subvert
the Christian world, in order to build up, upon its ruins, his own
Imperial omnipotence."

"I am not well versed in history," said Count Biandrate, a secret
partisan of Barbarossa; "but I know of other emperors who were
decidedly hostile to the Papacy: Henry IV. for example."

"True," replied Sala; "but the Church has saved the world from
destruction. The military operations of Henry IV. against her were
terrible; his hatred for the Papacy, beyond all bounds; but Barbarossa
is still more to be feared. In him you see none of that cruelty which
marked Henry's conduct; on the contrary, he appears frank, and
generous, and brave, and he well knows how to surround himself with all
that can flatter the eyes. So far, he has not attacked the