his army, the league doing likewise.

Naturally enough the disputed points were the most important ones, and
had to be referred to the consuls of Cremona. But the rage and
disappointment of the Lombards went beyond bounds when the different
decisions, which, indeed, were remarkably fair, at last were made
known. The Emperor was to exercise no prerogatives in Northern Italy
that had not been exercised in the time of Henry V; he was also to
sanction the continuance of the league. But no arrangement was made
for a peace between the heads of Christendom, although the league had
made this its first demand. Then, too, Alessandria, which Frederick
considered to have been founded in scorn of himself, was to cease to
exist, and its inhabitants were to return to their former homes.

The report of the consuls roused a storm of indignation; in many cases
the document embodying it was torn in shreds by the mob. The Lombards
altogether refused to be bound by the terms of the treaty, and
reopened hostilities. Frederick hastily gathered what forces he could
and sent a pressing call to Germany for aid.

It was now that the greatest vassal of the Crown, Henry the Lion,
rewarded twenty years of trustfulness and favor by deserting Frederick
in his hour of need. The only cause that is known, a strangely
insufficient one, was a dispute concerning the town of Goslar, which
the Emperor had withdrawn from Henry's jurisdiction. The details of
the meeting, which took place according to one chronicle at
Partenkirchen, to another at Chiavenna, are but vaguely known to us,
but Frederick is said to have prostrated himself at the feet of his
mighty subject and to have begged in vain for his support.