de by it and prepared for further
resistance.

Frederick had not been idle all the time these schisms were raging; on
the contrary, he had made a third expedition to Italy, from which he had
been compelled to return, leaving the flower of his army lying dead,
stricken down with pestilence. The next six years were spent in settling
various disputes and complications which had arisen in Germany during
his absence; in causing his son Henry, a child of only five years of
age, to be crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle; and in keeping some sort of check
on his vassal, Henry the Lion, who, now that he had increased his power
by a marriage with Matilda, daughter of Henry II. of England, was no
unimportant person in the empire, and moreover one extremely liable to
become sulky and unmanageable if he had a chance, or the smallest
grievance to complain of.

The news now spread through Europe of the reconquest of Jerusalem by
Saladin. These tidings effaced every other thought; the new Pope, Urban,
forgot the thunders of the Church which he had been keeping, like a
second sword of Damocles, suspended over Frederick's head; the emperor
buried his resentment; a general peace was concluded, and Barbarossa,
then in his seventieth year, gave the regency of his dominions to his
son Henry, and joyfully taking up the cross--accompanied by his son
Frederick, the flower of German chivalry, and an army of 100,000
men--marched by way of Vienna to Presburg, and thence through Hungary,
Servia, and Roumelia.

Isaac Angelus, the Greek emperor, who had promised to furnish the German
troops with provisions and assist Frederick in all ways, with the
proverbial duplicity of his nation, broke his word, harassed him on his
march, and threw Count von Diez, his ambassador, into prison; which
treachery greatly incensed the emperor, and caused him to give
permission to his soldiers to plunder; the results being that the
country soon bore sad traces of their passage, and that the two
important towns of Manioava and Philippopolis were completely destroyed.
This reduced Isaac, professedly, to a state of contrition; and when
Barbarossa advanced toward Constantinople, the Greek emperor, anxious to
conciliate him, placed his entire fleet at his disposal for the
transport of the German army. Scarcely had they entered Asia Minor
before Isaac's good resolutions abandoned him, and leaguing himself with
another faithless ally of Frederick, the Sultan of Iconium, they beset