"My personal safety forbids it," he said. "I have done all I could; I supported the Emperor; but it would be madness in me to give the English King a pretext for seizing my domains. For the time being, I can only be a secret ally of Frederic." "What! Count, you think to serve two masters?" cried Dassel, furiously. "How can you be at the same time the friend and the enemy of the Emperor?" The Count admitted the dilemma, but no entreaties could change his determination. "It cannot be, my lord; I must no longer delay my return to Laon. Farewell; present my homage to the Emperor." He sprang into the saddle and rode towards the city. "Ah! these falsehearted Frenchmen!" said the Chancellor; "but it is well; our arms will teach them honor and conscience." "That is my advice too," said the fighting Bishop Werner; "German honesty, which more than once has been the dupe of its own rectitude, is well known. Let us go to the camp at once, raise our standards, and reap a new harvest of laurels in the heart of France." The nobles returned to the Imperial camp, where they found their sovereign surrounded by his princes and bishops. The startling intelligence of the change in the French policy, and the movements of the English King, amazed every one. A few, among whom were the fierce Otho of Wittelsbach and the schismatical bishops of the Empire, were in favor of crossing the frontier at once. But the Dukes of Austria, Saxony, and Bavaria, and some others, who were secret partisans of Alexander, took the matter with the greatest coolness. Barbarossa remained calm in appearance, although the flash of his eyes and the contraction of his features gave unmistakable evidence that he with difficulty controlled his rage and disappointment. With a slight inclination of the head to the assembly, he beckoned to Rinaldo and left the tent, which had now become the scene of an animated discussion. Hastily divesting himself of the sumptuous costume with which he had thought to dazzle the King of France and his great vassals, Barbarossa seated himself before the Chancellor. "The solution of the question can now only be arrived at in the field," said Dassel, with the insinuating manner of a serpent creeping on his prey. "We must attack Louis before his troops are thoroughly organized. You have been insulted, and every man, even to the meanest serf in our army, feels the outrage done you by the King of France; let us profit by the opportunity." "If you had observed my faithful vassals, you would scarcely call the present a good opportunity," replied Barbarossa. "Besides, I do not wish to trust all to the fortune of war. We are not strong enough yet to engage the united forces of France and England. But," he added, "is the result of this ecclesiastical meeting very certain?"