nergetic measures, sent ambassadors to do homage on their account. He
now seized the iron crown of Lombardy; was crowned at Pavia and again at
Monza, after which he entered into negotiations with Adrian IV. for the
performance of the coronation ceremony at Rome.

We now come to the second marriage of our hero, when Beatrix, the only
child and heiress of Reinold of Burgundy, became his bride; and an echo
of the old romantic halo which surrounds that incident in Barbarossa's
life reaches us, even in this prosaic age, as we picture to ourselves
the gallant, handsome Frederick riding off with his trusty knights to
deliver the fair heiress of Count Reinold from the gloomy prison in
which her uncle, Count William, had confined her in order to appropriate
the rich domains of "Franche-Comte." Over hill and dale sped the
chivalrous band till the grim castle was reached; a halt was ordered,
and an envoy sent to summon Count William to yield both his fortress and
the fair prisoner. At first the count meditated resistance, but on
looking out and investigating the number of Frederick's followers, he
decided to submit, and congratulated himself on his determination when
Frederick's messenger said, on behalf of his master, that if the castle
were not given freely it would be taken by force, the fair Beatrix
released, and her gloomy prison walls be prevented from hiding any other
like iniquity by being razed to the ground. Prudence, we hear, is the
better part of valor, and evidently Count William shared in the opinion,
for we learn that he promptly let down the drawbridge, over which
Frederick and his followers passed, and whence they presently issued,
bearing in their midst the quondam prisoner, the lovely Beatrix, whose
eyes, moist with tears of gratitude, looked trustingly in the handsome
face of her deliverer. So now, away, away to the old church at
Wurtzburg! deck the streets, ring the bells, bid priests don their
vestments and burghers their best, and fall in merrily with the gay
procession that comes to do honor to Barbarossa and his fair bride!

Thus far the little romance of our emperor and Beatrix; now to return to
the sober and solemn statement of facts. During 1157 and the next year,
Frederick busied himself with a campaign against Poland, and compelled
Boleslaw, the king, to acknowledge the supremacy of the head of the
German Empire, and to take the oath of fealty, barefoot and with his
naked sword hung round his neck; af