their release, threatening Black Henry with all the penalties decreed by
empire and church for those who raised their hands against a prince.

The shrewd captor readily promised all that was asked of him. He would
release his captives without delay. Yet he had no intention to keep his
word, for he knew that Rome and Ratisbon were too far from Danneberg to
give him serious cause for alarm, especially as the other nobles of
northern Germany were prepared to help him in keeping their common enemy
in prison.

As for Denmark itself, the people were infuriated and eagerly demanded to
be led to the rescue of their beloved king; yet Valdemar's sons were
still young, all the kinsmen of the royal family had been banished or
were dead, and there was no one with the power and right to take control
of public affairs.

For some time, indeed, the fate of the king remained unknown to the
people. Valdemar's nephew Albert, Count of Orlamunde, was on his way to
Rome when the news of the king's capture reached him. He immediately
turned back, collected an army, and gave battle to the German princes who
were helping Count Henry to defend Danneberg. But his hasty levies were
defeated and he taken prisoner, to be thrown into the same dungeon as the
royal captive.

Finally King Valdemar, seeing no other hope of release, agreed to the
terms offered by Black Henry, which were that he should pay a ransom of
45,000 silver marks, give him all the jewels of the late Queen Berangaria
not already bestowed on churches and monasteries, and send him a hundred
men-at-arms, with horses and arms for their use. For assurance of this he
was to send his three younger sons to Danneberg to be kept in prison with
Count Albert until the money was paid.

These terms agreed to, the king and prince were set free. Valdemar at
once hastened to Denmark, which he found in a fearful state from its
having been three years without a head. Humbled and crushed in spirit,
finding all his dominions in Germany set free from their allegiance and
all the kingdoms won by his valor lost to Denmark, he scarcely knew what
steps to take. The ransom demanded he was unable to pay and he grieved at
the thought of subjecting his young sons to the fate from which he had
escaped. In his misery he wrote to the Pope, asking to be released from
the oath which had been exacted from him to let his children go into
captivity.

The Pope, full of pity for him, sent a bishop to Count Henry, t