Luttich, you, one of the
most valiant swords in my army, would you too be one of the first to
fly from danger? If God sends us a misfortune, we will bear it with
becoming resignation."

He ordered the grand marshal to arrange the return to his camp. There
was no disorder. The people had left the church, and the square of St.
Peter was deserted; for the Romans, in the vain hope of escaping the
pestilence, had sought refuge within their dwellings. At first the
bugles sounded the march, but the joyous music met with no response;
there were no shouts of popular applause; the streets were empty, and
on all sides were seen the corpses of the victims. Princes and prelates
rode along with downcast eyes and looks expressive of grief and
apprehension. Suddenly a soldier fell dead from his horse; the
pestilence was among the men-at-arms. The bugles were silent, the
cavalcade halted for an instant, and then all was wild confusion; the
ranks were broken, and each man dashed madly forward to escape from the
infected air of the empoisoned city.

All order was lost; the return to camp was like a rout, and even
Barbarossa and his consort urged their horses to a gallop to regain
their tents.

_CHAPTER LV_.

_THE HAND OF GOD_.

The plague continued to rage as violently as it had broken out. Death
smote its victims without forewarning: some fell as they were putting
foot in stirrup to mount their steeds; others, by the side of the
friend whom they were placing in the grave, which had been dug for him
through charity.

"God chastises us for our behavior to the Pope," said the Romans.

This feeling spread even among the German soldiery. The tents were
emptied of their inhabitants who had fallen victims to the direful
contagion. In a few days, many thousands had perished, and among them
the Emperor's cousin, the Duke of Suabia, and Diepold of Bohemia; but
the bishops were attacked with marked virulence, and it seemed as
though not one of them was destined to return to his home. There was a
dead silence everywhere, unbroken even by the clash of arms, and naught
was heard but the creaking of the death-carts piled up with corpses
which were thrown together by hundreds into a common pit. But soon it
was no longer possible even to bury them, and the dead bodies lay
rotting in the sun; adding by their pestilential odors to the malignity
of the disease.

Even the horses were