I stood by his side in the bloody battle of Benevento, and we made a holocaust of oui* enemies ; but a fatal spear pierced his brain ! The implacable d'Anjou would have the poor excommunicated corpse remain unburied, but the French soldiers, less barbarous than their master, brought each a stone, and so reared him a tomb." "Tell me no more horrors," exclaimed the queen, with a look of painful emotion. " Ah ! lady," said the artful Procida, sadly, satisfied that his recital had so moved his royal auditor, " thou art grieved at the very hearing of these atrocities, but bethink thee of the misery of the poor daughter of Frederic, wife of the Duke of Saxony. "When the family fell, the duke repented of his alliance with the house of Suabia. From cold neglect and scorn, he proceeded to violence—he bru-tally struck her. She, unhappy woman, thinking he sought her life, endeavored to escape. The castle rose upon a rock overhanging the Elbe. A faithful servant kept a boat upon the river, and by a rope, she could let herself down the precipitous descent. An agonizing thought stayed her footsteps. Her only son lay asleep in the cradle. She would once more fold him to her breast. She would im-print her last kiss upon his cheek. "With a maddening pang she closed her teeth in the tender flesh, and fled, pur-sued, by the screams of her wounded child. The treach-erous rope eluded her grasp, and the frantic mother fell, another victim from the doomed race of Hohenstaufen. " The little Corradino, who should have been King of Je-rusalem, had also a mother, tender and fond, who would fain have detained him from funereal Paly, where all his family had found a sepulehre ; but ere he attained the age of manhood the Ghibelline cities called to him for aid, and no entreaties could withhold the valiant youth. Accompa-nied by his dearest friend, Frederic of Austria, and a band of knights, he passed the Alps to claim his inheritance. There was a battle—there was a defeat—there was a prison-er—The Vicar of Christ, showed he merey ? He wrote to d'Anjou, ' Corradino's life is Charles's death.' Judges 434 HEROINES OF THE CRUSADES.