Rodolph of Suabia was scarcely less anxious to see the Lord of Hers, than the latter had been to acquaint the duke with Gregory’s rigorous measures.  He felt assured that the infamous conventicle at Worms must have been already met by the Pope, and he thirsted for news from Rome.  He knew that the Lord of Hers would be first in possession of the facts, from his position along the Rhine; and anxious not to lose a moment in executing his plans, which were to be regulated by the action of the Holy See, he could scarcely be prevailed upon to defer till daylight his return to Zurich by the Castle of Hers.

The baron’s envoy had not accomplished half the distance between the rival castles, before he met the duke, unattended, as was his wont, bearing rapidly down upon him.  He was no stranger to the lordly bearing of the duke, for he had watched him in battle, when the strife was warmest and the fight most dubious.  The moment he recognized him, he sprang from his horse, and uncovering his head and kneeling down, presented the parchment as Rodolph advanced.  Without dismounting, the duke received the missive, and eagerly unrolling it, began to read.  The instrument contained a narrative of the proceedings of the council and a transcript of the sentence of excommunication.  The noble’s eagle eye flashed at it scanned the page, and his broad bosom heaved.  He struck his breast in his excitement, and brandishing the parchment in the air, exclaimed aloud, in a deep, tremulous voice:  “Well done, thou noble Pontiff!  Now, my brother Henry, the time has come, and heaven be the judge between us!”

With these meaning words Rodolph galloped on, unmindful of the soldier behind him.  Yet it would seem he had not entirely forgotten the messenger, for when alighting at the Castle of Hers, he threw the man a largess such as had never fallen to his lot before.

The duke could not but smile when he saw Gilbert, and taking him aside, he whispered in his ear:  “You will soon have an opportunity to display upon the battle-field the gallantry of the Bohemian harp-bearer, and to couch a lance for Suabia and the Lady Margaret!”

“But how can I thank you for—­”

“Thank that generous priest and that noble girl!” said Rodolph, interrupting the youth; “I ran no risk in interposing:  the Baron of Stramen was but cancelling an old debt; I intercepted a battle-axe that was descending upon him at Hohenburg, and I asked mercy for you, in requital.”

After a long interview, the duke and Albert of Hers resolved to assemble the chiefs of the ducal party at Ulm, and to fix the fifteenth of October for a general meeting, at Tribur, of all who would take up arms against the king.