OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

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“ impose conditions on your master; you re-“ quire oaths: if the conditions are just, an oath“ is superfluous; if unjust, it is criminal. Can“ you doubt my equity? It is extended to the“ meanest of my subjects. Will not my sword“ be unsheathed in the defence of the capitol?“ By that sword the northern kingdom of Den-“ mark has been restored to the Roman empire.“ You prescribe the measure and the objects of“ my bounty, which flows in a copious but a“ voluntary stream. All will be given to pa-“ tient merit; all will be denied to rude impor-“ tunity.” “ Neither the emperor nor the senatecould maintain these lofty pretensions of domi-nion and liberty. United with the pope, andsuspicious of the Romans, Frederic continuedhis march to the Vatican : his coronation wasdisturbed by a sally from the capitol; and if thenumbers and valour of the Germans prevailed inthe bloody conflict, he could not safely encampin the presence of a city of which he styled him-self the sovereign. About twelve years after-wards, he besieged Rome , to seat an antipope inthe chair of St. Peter; and twelve Pisan gallieswere introduced into theTyber; but the senateand people were saved by the arts of negociationand the progress of disease; nor did Frederic orhis successors reiterate the hostile attempt.Their laborious reigns were exercised by thepopes, the crusades, and the independence of

" Otlio Krising. de Gestis Frederici 1, 1. ii, c. 22, p. 720-721.These original and authentic acts I have translated and abridged withfreedom, yet with fidelity.

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