a resolution in which he was supported by Siegfried, Archbishop of
Mayence, who offered to assist him in getting a divorce. At a diet held
at Worms, Henry demanded a separation from his wife, to whom he
professed an unconquerable aversion. His efforts, however, were
frustrated by the pope's legate, who arrived in Germany during these
proceedings, and the licentious monarch, finding himself foiled in these
legal steps, sought to gain his end by baser means. He caused beautiful
women and maidens to be seized in their homes and carried to his palace
as ministers to his pleasure, while he exposed the unhappy empress to
the base solicitations of his profligate companions, offering them large
sums if they could ensnare her, in her natural revulsion at his
shameless unfaithfulness.

But the virtue of Bertha was proof against all such wiles, and the story
goes that she turned the tables on her vile-intentioned husband in an
amusing and decisive manner. On one occasion, as we are informed, the
empress appeared to listen to the solicitations of one of the would-be
seducers, and appointed a place and time for a secret meeting with this
profligate. The triumphant courtier duly reported his success to Henry,
who, overjoyed, decided to replace him in disguise. At the hour fixed he
appeared and entered the chamber named by Bertha, when he suddenly found
himself assailed by a score of stout servant-maids, armed with rods,
which they laid upon his back with all the vigor of their arms. The
surprised Lothario ran hither and thither to escape their blows, crying
out that he was the king. In vain his cries; they did not or would not
believe him; and not until he had been most soundly beaten, and their
arms were weary with the exercise, did they open the door of the
apartment and suffer the crest-fallen reprobate to escape.

This would seem an odd means of gaining the affection of a truant