The knights and burghers of Suabia were now assembling at Ulm.  Scarce a man could be seen between the Danube and the Lake of Constance:  mothers were working in the fields, with their children about them, and here and there some old or infirm vassal was seated at his cabin door.  Little did the Lady Margaret dream, as she gazed from her lattice over the beautiful country, dipping down into the river, dotted all over with thriving cottages, from which the quiet smoke of peace was curling—­little did she think, as she watched the green fields struggling through the melting snow, and fixed her eyes upon the Church of the Nativity, how soon those Cottages would flame, those fields be red with human gore, and that church be polluted by a hireling soldiery.  Little did she think, when praying for the safety of her father and brother, that her own paternal castle would be the first victim of the war.

CHAPTER VII

  The wild dog
  Shall flesh his tooth in every innocent. 
  O my poor kingdom, sick with civil blows!

  HENRY IV.

Shut out from Augsburg by the treachery of the emperor, Gregory VII retired to Canossa, where he resolved to let the affairs of Germany shape themselves for a time, while he awaited a more favorable moment for action.  Nor was his gigantic mind occupied with Germany alone, and the movements there which menaced his life and the liberty and purity of the Church.  Dalmatia, Poland, and England claimed his constant attention.  With the most powerful monarch in Europe plotting his downfall, he contrived to win the love and obedience of Zwonomir, to force the rebellious Boleslaus from his throne, and to purify England still more from simony and incontinency.

As Henry’s submission to the Pope had disgusted the bold who were ready to assist him, and repelled the timid who waited but a second call, so his shameless perjury and fearless defiance of Gregory at Augsburg reassembled his professional adherents, and inspired with new courage those who secretly clung to his cause.  The mitres of Luinar, Benno, Burchardt of Lausanne, and Eppo of Ceitz again sparkled around him, and Eberhard, Berthold, and Ulric of Cosheim displayed their lances to confirm his resolution.  In every country and in every age there must exist a large and powerful party prone to pleasure and license, which is easily arrayed against virtue, when the indulgence of their criminal passions is threatened.  This party is ever formidable, especially when supported by a powerful king, nobly descended, and legally invested with the crown.  A natural sympathy, too, had been awakened for the emperor, as numbed with cold he besought the pity of the Pontiff; and, with proverbial fickleness, men, in ascribing humility to the king, imputed arrogance to the Pope.  Owing to these causes, it was not long before Henry found himself stronger than ever.  Inflamed with new ardor, he loudly lamented his submission at Canossa, and cursing the hours of misery passed there, swore speedy vengeance against the presumptuous son of Bonizo the carpenter.