with little thin shields and paltry lances, and to the increased magnificence of the procession, mostly barefoot. The courtiers, who accompanied the Emperor through this shoeless multitude, wore great robes of state which ⚫ were threadbare and tattered with age. It would have been better if they had come in their every-day clothes, for there was not one whose dress was not old when his grandfather had it. No one was adorned with gold or precious stones, except Nicephorus himself, whom the imperial regalia, made for the persons of his ancestors, rendered all the more hideous. As this phenomenal retinue crept forward, the singers set up a clamor: "Behold, the Morning Star ! Eous rises, and darkens with his gaze the beams of the sun! The pale death of the Saracens! Nicephorus, the King!" and in the midst of such flattering paans, for which Liutpraud would have substituted far different expressions, the Emperor entered the church. Here the two young princes whose rights he had usurped bowed to the earth and received the kiss of peace. What religious services took place the Bishop fails to say. His report turns at once to the court dinner which immediately followed, and to which he was invited for the first time. In the royal hall he found the feast spread upon a long, narrow table, which was covered for only about the width of a plank, and for half its length had no cloth at all. With none of his followers present, nor even at call in the palace, Liutpraud, Bishop of Cremona, Man of Letters, and Ambassador Extraordinary of both Ottos, was shown to a seat at the fifteenth remove from the Emperor, and entirely beyond the consolations of the table-cloth. To add to the enjoyment of the tedious meal, which reeked with oil, fish gravy, and obscenity, Nicephorus plied the Bishop with questions about his native country, and when answered, promptly told him he lied. He remarked among other things that the clumsy Franks could not fight in their heavy armor, and were brave any way only when drunk. would come presently with a host like the waves of the sea and swallow them up. They were no Romans; they were nothing but Lombards. At this the doughty prelate could contain himself no longer. Not heeding the Emperor's motion to be silent, he pitched into the Romans, from the fratricide Romulus down. They had never been anything but robbers and fugitive slaves, said he, compounded of all vices, and a by-word to the noble race of Germans. Come over and he would find out what kind of fighters these were. This kind of talk was of course highly delightful to the would-be father-in-law. He succeeded at length in calling a halt, however, and brought the festivities to a close. Two days later the ambassador, overcome with vexation and heat, fell sick. His quarters left much to be desired. The house was in the first place so far removed from the royal palace that the Bishop, deprived of his horse, exhausted all his patience and breath in getting to court, and when he came wearily home, found rest for his episcopal person not on hay, nor straw, nor even the earth, but on a couch of hard marble with stones for pillows. Sufficient good water could not be bought for money, while the Greek wine was almost undrinkable for mixtures of pitch, resin, and gypsum. Their daily necessities were supplied by a guardian of the house, whose like for charges, thievery, and other inflictions Liutpraud thought could only be found in Inferno. The company saw lingering starvation and alien graves slowly open before them, but at length by a heavy bribe the household persecutor, was induced to carry a petition to the Chancellor that the embassy be allowed to go home. A Venetian ship was about to sail, and the Bishop would like, at least, that his body might reach his native soil. He was told to present himself at court in four days. On making his appearance he found a company of the most learned men of the realm gathered together to discuss the royal proposal of marriage. After some preliminary He talk, they said it was an unheard of thing, for a princess born in purple to a father born in purple to marry a foreigner, but the matter could be arranged if the right price was paid. They named Ravenna and Rome with all the territory between, up to the borders of their provinces, as sufficient remuneration. The bold envoy scouted the idea, and struck right and left into their royal purple and their royal claims on Rome. Other strangers had married their daughters, and if Nicephorus cared so much for the Church why did he not give her back the possessions he had stolen? He would do that when Rome was obedient to him, would he? Once there was a man who prayed the Lord to avenge him on his enemies. The Lord said, "I will do it in that day when I reward every one according to his works." Alas," the poor man sighed, "how late!" At this everybody laughed except the Chancellor. That lean and pious fraud broke up the interview, and Liutpraud, conducted back to his leaky house and ravenous family was kept under guard for the rest of the month. The feast of the Apostles having arrived, the Bishop, although in ill condition, was summoned to celebrate the day, and to dine again at the royal board. He found himself once more at the bare end of the table, and to his inexpressible disgust, below a newly arrived Bulgarian ambassador. This creature, gotten up like a barbarian, unwashed and unshaven, wore only an iron chain about his neck and, as the Bishop more than suspected, had never been baptized. To come after this unchristened heathen was too much. It was an insult, of course, not so much to him, Liutpraud, as to the Emperor Otto. He rose and left the table. As he angrily withdrew, the Chancellor and others hastened after and endeavored to explain. According to an ancient marriage contract, they said the Bulgarian ambassador was given precedence over all others at the court of Constantinople. If it was so very unpleasant, they begged him to go to a public house with some of the attendants, as he would not be allowed to go hoine. Too mad to answer, he followed where they proposed, and the Emperor, to soothe him, sent tid-bits from his own table. A piece of fat kid, for instance, from which he he had himself eaten, stuffed with garlic, onions, and leeks, and besmeared with fish sauce, was a delicacy which the sarcastic Bishop wished his master might live to enjoy. A week later, as though he set great store upon the honor, the invitation was repeated. On this occasion, they speared him with religious questions. But he was ready for them, and thanks to the inspiration of the hour answered everything "eleganter." The same day, as the Bishop was laboring up to the palace again in the afternoon, his haggard appearance awakened much feminine sympathy among the populace. Heretofore, the women on the street had stopped their work to admire his stately appearance, and he had heard them call out to one another, "Look, mother, look!" But now pity filled their eyes; they beat their breasts and cried, "Poor man! Poor man !" Unutterable things he called down from high heaven that day upon Nicephorus, the author of his miseries, yet could but laugh to himself, when the little, insignificant Emperor made his appearance on a very large and frisky horse, looking for all the world like one of the dolls which in Germany the Slavs used to tie to a colt to make it caper. Three long exasperating weeks now passed in which the sick and hungry embassy saw no signs of their promised departure. The Emperor tried to make the ambassador concede the disputed boundary questions, but Liutpraud refused to go beyond his written instructions. He begged only to be allowed to go home. But as day after day went by, and no dismission came, the Bishop began to lose some of his boldness. He no longer assumed the lofty carriage and resolute demeanor which the representative of a vigorous western power should sustain at the court of a crumbling monarchy, but descended to diplomacy and even attempted the politic. When at one interview Nicephorus, hav ing expatiated upon the obedience due him, said at last, "Go home to your master, inform him of these things, and if he complies, come hither again yourself," the delighted ambassador replied, "Let your sacred Majesty but arrange that I return at once to Italy, for I am convinced that my lord will do just as you wish, and I shall come back to you rejoicing." He bowed himself to the earth and was reverently departing, but alas! the Emperor had noticed the irony. He smilingly nodded, and — invited the envoy to dinner! As usual, Nicephorus spiced the ill-scented meal with sport at the expense of the Franks. Among other things he demanded of Liutpraud where the bishopric might be. "Cremona, said he, "near the Po, one of the greatest rivers of Italy. Since your highness thinks of sending a fleet thither, I hope it may be my fortune to see and know you there. Grant peace to the place, that through you it may flourish, since it is not able to resist you." The Emperor lowered his eyes as though he had noticed no sarcasm, and swore with his hand on his heart to send him back at once with the fleet to Ancona. But the unhappy Bishop discovered that the Greek could be ironical also. During the next four days he received no supplies whatever, and there was such a famine in Constantinople that three large gold pieces could scarcely obtain a single meal for the company. On the fifth, the Chancellor, summoning the envoy into his presence, announced that the Emperor was on his way to Arabia with the army, and asked if he yet harbored the desire to see his majesty, and had anything new to communicate. The disgusted prelate replied that he had no desires of that kind. See the king? The only thing he did want to see was the much promised harbor of Ancona. Whereupon the Chancellor swore by the head of the Emperor, by his own life, by the lives of his children-Liutpraud noticed that the Greeks were always ready to swear away the heads of their fellow citizens that the thing should be done. But the Lord Chancellor lied; for a few days later the Bishop was ordered to meet the Emperor at a point about eighteen miles from the city, and laboriously reached it only to hear the same old demands renewed. It was on this occasion that he was taken to see the royal preserves and the wonderful herds of wild asses. The Greeks had lauded these pets very highly, and he was anxious to view them himself. The park was very large, very hilly, and full of underbrush, so the ambassador rode. He had just got into hot water with an attendant on account of this unlawful proceeding, when a drove of deer with a number of asses approached. The Bishop could not for the life of him see how they differed from the tame beasts of Cremona, but like a true diplomat, exclaimed, “I really never saw such animals as those in Saxony!" This was enough. His Greek companion said at once that if the Emperor Otto would only submit, Nicephorus would give him a whole lot of those donkeys to keep. It would be no small honor to possess what his forefathers had not even seen. The inducement was not sufficient, but the polite words of the envoy having been reported to the Emperor, he was rewarded with a brace of venison and another permission to leave. Before he reached Constantinople, however, he was informed that it would be impossible to forward him home at present as the Saracen pirates then held the sea, and the Huns blocked the land passage, both of which statements were egregiously false. Placed once more in the bosom of his raging family, guards were so stationed that neither the Bishop nor any of his companions could go out, nor could outsiders approach. Even beggars, who received alms in response to their broken Latin supplications, were beaten and thrown into prison. Not even the interpreter was allowed to make purchases in the market. The cook might go, but speaking no Greek could only make signs and pay four prices for supplies. When friends attempted to send in food or delicacies, their gifts were thrown away and their messengers thanked with cudgels. Under woes thus daily accumulating, the spirits of the embassy sank daily to lower depths of despair. But the crowning misfortune was yet to come. In a mood to endure almost any humiliation to gain their release, they, doubtless, would have been willing to worship the Emperor by whatever title he chose to name, if it would have brought them the free air of Italy. At this point messengers suddenly arrived from the Pope, with a letter addressed to "The Emperor of the Greeks," advising him. to join in parental and fraternal relations with his dear spiritual son, Otto, "Emperor of the Romans." Heavens! What a bomb in the camp of the languishing Franks! They could see their last hopes shatter in blast which this insult would fuse. "Grecian Emperor!" cried the court. "The barbarian, the poverty-stricken Roman! That he should have the face to call the August, the Mighty, the Ruler of the Universe, the only Nicephorus, an Emperor of the Greeks'!" How the unhappy bearers of the message escaped immediate death, the Bishop could scarce understand. "What shall we do with these vile creatures?" raged the Greeks. "They are nothing but low-born menials, and if we kill them we but soil our hands in their blood. Oh that one were a bishop, or the other a marquis, that we might give them a taste of the lash, pull their beards out, sew them up in sacks, and sink them in the sea!" They were thrown into prison instead, while the unlucky Bishop, trembling in his captivity, saw no escape but by the gate of the gallows. At home he regarded himself a poor man, but after the arrival of this papal embassy, whose poverty had been their only safeguard, he felt like a Croesus. The letter was forwarded to the camp of the Emperor, and the company, filled with exasperating uncertainty, awaited the return of the courier. A month having dragged its weary length through the heat of summer, an answer from Nicephorus finally arrived. Liutpraud was summoned into the presence of the Viceroy. "The Pope of Rome," said this official, "if such a person ought to be called Pope, who has given aid and comfort to an adulterous and apostate vassal of ours, has written a letter as worthy of him self as it is unworthy of our Emperor, in which he calls him 'Emper or of the Greeks,' and not of the Romans, and there is no doubt but that he did this at the suggestion and request of your master." "My time has come," thought the Bishop. "This road leads to the block." "But we know you will say," continued the Greek, "that the Pope is the greatest fool on earth, and we agree with you there." "Not I," exclaimed the Bishop, suddenly recovering. "This "Hear me," resumed the Viceroy. stupid, idiotic Pope does not know that Constantine brought the imperial scepter, the whole senate and military force of Rome to Constantinople, and left behind nothing but fishermen, candy-peddlers, bird-catchers, bastards, and slaves. He never would have written this letter, if your lord had not put him up to it. They will both find out what perils overhang them, if they do not soon. come to their senses." The Bishop was nothing if not courageous, and could scarcely listen to these slanders. But his experience of Oriental hospitality was beginning to teach him a little discretion, and he now brought into play all his hoarded astuteness. He replied, that the Pope was, in reality, distinguished for candor and sincerity, and had written this letter to praise rather than disparage the Emperor. For, although he knew that Constantine had built this city, yet he recognized that with their eastern customs and speech, the name Roman was as little suitable for them as for their times. "But in future," and this he regarded as his masterpiece of subtlety,-"the address of his letters shall be, John, Pope of Rome, to Nicephorus, Constantine, and Basilius, great and mighty Emperors of the Romans." He calculated that unless a letter were thus ceremoniously directed, it would be un likely to reach the Emperor at all, and intended to counsel the Pope to be polite on the outside of his next epistle, but to fill the inside with thunders and threatenings, to arraign Nicephorus for his crimes, and hurl the anathema at his wicked head. For once the Greeks did not notice the stratagem. They rejoiced at such a great concession, and told the Bishop that he was the only Frank they loved, adding, that when he came back to Constantinople he should be richly rewarded. But the next minute Liutpraud nearly upset the whole pottage, when they asked him if his master really desired to join in a treaty of friendship and marriage. The seventeen weeks of hungry captivity, the indignities put upon his rank and precedence, the taunts of the Greeks, all trooped in procession through the mind of the ambassador. Although he had not heard a single word from his sovereign since arriving in Constantinople, and Otto might be coming across the country on his knees to sue for his bride for all he knew, yet he answered loftily, "That was, indeed, the desire of my lord when I first came here. But since on account of your meanness he has been unable to get letters from me all this long time, he thinks I am held captive and in chains, and rages like a lioness robbed of her young, waiting for the hour of vengeance. Marriage he now abhors. He would sooner empty the vials of wrath on your heads." The Greeks replied, briefly, that if he attempted any such measures, they would hire all the nations of Europe, and "smash him" like a potter's vessel. Furthermore, by the way, they understood he had purchased numerous eastern costumes which he intended to carry away. He would please bring them in for inspection and such as were found suitable for him to keep would be marked with a leaden seal. The others would be taken away and the price returned, as foreign people were not permitted to wear the Grecian purple. The Bishop was outraged. The Emperor had given him permission. No matter; the Emperor had forgotten the law. But Italian merchants sold this clothing freely and it could be seen any day on minstrels and abandoned women. He The traffic should be stopped at once. would please exhibit whatever purple he had acquired either by gift or by purchase; - and in spite of the wrath of the prelate, ambassador of the glorious emperors, Otto, father and son, the wicked Greeks went through the episcopal baggage and took away five costly robes which he had designed for the church at Cremona. A letter, written in gold, from Nicephorus was then entrusted to the ambassador for his royal master, and for the Bishop of Rome, who was not considered worthy of an imperial answer, an epistle in silver from the Lord Chancellor, which was thus sent back by Liutpraud instead of the menial commissioners, in order that Gregory might better perceive that unless he mended his ways he was a lost Pope. Whereupon, with much kissing, which to the Bishop was especially sweet and delightful, they bade him farewell, almost forgetting to say, as he left, that under the circumstances horses would be provided for the company but not for the baggage. Our worthy minister succeeded, however, by means of an enormous bribe in getting his impediments forwarded, and having first vented his spite in twenty lines of ponderous Latin verse upon the walls of the house in which these one hundred and twenty unhappy days had been spent, set out for sunny Italy. After many vicissitudes he arrived at his destination and made the report from which we have gathered this tale. Four years later, through the efforts of a new embassador, a wedding took place, in which Theophano and Otto were the principal figures. Liutpraud doubtless wondered to the end. of his days how the business was managed. John Martin Vincent. |