"

"Your Highness is certainly the best judge of your own affairs,"
replied Dassel, cautiously, as if he felt himself in the presence of an
unchained lion; "still I must observe that matters are already pretty
far advanced."

"Well, turn them back again. That must be an easy matter for you; you
have experience in such things."

"May I venture to inquire the reasons which have influenced your
Highness to this sudden change?"

"The reasons!" he cried angrily; "the reasons! because it would be
infamous! Why do you stare at me thus? Look there!"

And he pointed to where, at the extremity of the garden, Clemence, half
hidden by the rose-trees, was kneeling before an image of the Madonna.
Near her stood the little Adelaide with clasped bands, gazing
alternately at the image and at her weeping mother. Rinaldo saw the
mother and the child; he understood the Duke's anger; he resolved to
complete his infernal work.

"She is a pious woman," he said; "a model for her sex! The separation
will be most painful to her. I understand it well; but it is also
painful for a valiant prince to witness the extinction of his race."

"Oh! the pangs of separation, the grief which they cause a loving
heart, may be healed in time," said Henry; "but, my dear Count, this
action will be not only cruel and pitiless, but it will be criminal in
the sight of God."

"Criminal in the sight of God! this is a new phase to give to the
affair. The Pope annuls your marriage; he knows his privileges, and is
responsible for the consequences."

"Yes, your Pope," replied Henry, with an angry sneer. "Tell me, can the
act of that puppet of the Emperor make an evil act a good one?"

"This is certainly a grave point for a timid conscience," said Dassel,
ironically.

"But yourself, my dear Count? Years ago, the Emperor put that
archiepiscopal ring on your finger; tell me, how it happens that you
have not yet been consecrated? All that is needed is your request.
Victor will be delighted. But--and it is natural enough--you despise
the consecration of the Anti-Pope! And yet you pretend that his
intervention ought to be sufficient for me?"

"There is no hurry about my consecration," replied Rinaldo, quickly;
"but your Highness makes a mistake in being influenced by such scruples
of conscience, which are, to say the least, exaggerated."

"Exaggerated!"

"Certainly! Is it not the Emperor's prerogative to appoint the Bishop
of Rome? The history of the Empire