"Alas, with how little reason! He who, when seized by Cencius and his
armed assassins at the altar of St. Mary Major--bruised, and dragged by
the hair to the castle of his assailant--yet remained calm and unmoved,
with the face of an Angel, neither imploring mercy nor attempting an
ineffectual resistance--cannot be accused of a want of firmness. The
matchless benevolence--the heart which melts at the first symptom of
repentance--the clemency which led him, while his wounds were yet fresh,
to pardon Cencius, prostrate at his feet--have also induced him to
hearken to the promises of King Henry and accept his contrition."

"But is it not almost folly to trust the royal hypocrite to whom Suabia
pays so heavy a tribute? I wish that when his infant majesty fell in the
Rhine, there had been no Count Ecbert nigh to rescue him!"

"Is it not rather an exalted charity, of which you have no conception,
and a Christian forgiveness which puts to shame your last ungenerous
wish?"

"I can have no sympathy or pity for him who has loaded with insult a
princess alike distinguished for beauty and virtue."

"You mean the queen, his wife. But tell me, when he endeavored to
procure a divorce from Bertha, who prevented the criminal separation?
Was it the boasted chivalry of Suabia? No! Peter Damian, the Pope's
legate, alone opposed the angry monarch, and told him, in the presence
of all his courtiers, that 'his designs were disgraceful to a
king--still more disgraceful to a Christian; that he should blush to
commit a crime he would punish in another; and that, unless he renounced
his iniquitous project, he would incur the denunciation of the Church