The tale concerns itself with the fate of the unfortunate monarch Henry IV.  History relates that Henry was entirely unfit to wear the ermine, but weak as he was, and ignominious as was his reign, it was a bitter blow that his own son was foremost among his enemies.  At first the younger Henry conspired against his father in secret; outwardly he was a model of filial affection, so that he readily prevailed upon the weak monarch to appoint him as his successor.  After that, however, he openly joined himself to his father’s foes; and when the Pope excommunicated the monarch, gradually the Emperor’s following went over to the side of his son, who then caused himself to be invested with imperial honours.  The deposed sovereign, deprived of power and supporters, was compelled to go into exile; even his personal freedom was secured only as the price of his renunciation of the crown.  Broken and humiliated, feeling intensely the disgrace of his position, he determined to undertake a pilgrimage to Liege, accompanied only by his servant Kurt, who alone of all his train had remained faithful to him.  The pilgrimage was successfully accomplished, but ere he could enter upon the return journey the wretched Emperor died, in want and misery, utterly neglected by his kindred.  Even after death the Pope’s ban was effective, so that his corpse was not allowed interment for several years.  During that period the faithful Kurt kept guard unceasingly over his master’s coffin and would not suffer himself to be drawn therefrom.

At length, however, Henry V, under pressure from his princes and nobles, gave orders that his father’s remains be conveyed to Speyer and there interred in the royal vault with such honours as befitted the obsequies of a monarch.  The messengers found old Kurt still holding his vigil beside the Emperor’s body, and in recognition of his faithfulness he was permitted to follow the funeral cortege to Speyer.  There were in the town certain good and pious folk who were touched by the servant’s devotion, and by these he was kindly treated.  But all their kindness and attention could not repair the havoc which his weary vigil and long privations had wrought on his health, and a few months later he followed his master to the grave.

Strange to relate, as he expired all the bells of Speyer tolled out a funeral peal such as was accorded to an emperor, and that without being touched by human hands.  Meanwhile Henry V also lay dying.  All the luxury of his palace could not soothe his last moments; though he was surrounded by courtiers who assumed sorrow and walked softly, and though all his kindred were around him, he saw ever before him the image of his dead father, pointing at him with a grim, accusing finger.  Stricken with terror and remorse, and tortured by disease, he longed for death to end his torments, and at last it came.

Again the passing bell was tolled by invisible hands, but not this time the peal which announced the passing of an emperor.  The citizens heard the awful sound which told that a criminal had paid the law’s last penalty, and asked one another what poor wretch had been executed.  Awe and astonishment seized upon everyone when it was known that the Emperor had died, for they knew then that it was no earthly hand that had rung his death-knell.