A BRINDISI. ("The power of man lies in the intellect : You educate the sea with horses of wood: Then women are educated by the breath of man, I make a brindisi to all the company, 51 After this grand speech we finished our repast, and I went to find out what unknown flower I had seen from the castle windows, shining like a crown of gold in the sun, on a dark green stem; while my companions went to sketch. My flower, as I afterwards found out, was an asphodel,* and I only saw it near Castel del Monte, where the people call it "Arrusha," which is the Arab word for bride. The old guardian said he had heard something about it in relation with King Manfred; but as he had a sublime contempt for all "dicerie stupide del popolo" (stupid sayings of the people), he could not tell me what. He was almost angry when I inquired whether the great Emperor or his handsome son Manfred were never seen at night in the castle, or riding in gallant array with their hawks on their wrists on All Souls Eve. Such things were *Asphodelus luteus. only fit for poor peasants, not for educated people who could read, and I had better come and amuse myself with the visitors' book, and write down my name. Castel del Monte was destined to be the prison of the unfortunate sons of Manfred and Helen. When mere babies (the eldest, Henry, was only four years old) they were torn from their mother, and could only count the long dreary years by the increasing weight of their chains. They were clothed and fed like beggars; deserted and forgotten by all. After thirty-two years Charles II. seems suddenly to have remembered his father's unhappy captives, and a writing of his is still extant ordering that they should not be allowed to die of hunger. The following year, in June, 1299, they were transferred to the Castel dell' Ovo at Naples, where their sister Beatrice had been imprisoned for so long. The end of these unfortunate princes is shrouded in mystery; according to one account Frederick and Azzolino died before their eldest brother, and are buried at Canosa, where two plain slabs of stone, not far from the tomb of Bohemund, are shown as their graves. Another legend says that Frederick escaped from prison, and went to Egypt. Henry, the THE FATE OF MANFRED'S WIDOW. 53 eldest, was apparently still alive, and a prisoner in the Castel dell' Ovo in 1309, where he is Isaid to have died, blind and old, in the reign of King Robert. of Their mother was imprisoned in the castle Nocera, a town between Salerno and Castellamare. Charles of Anjou only allowed forty ounces of gold yearly for her maintenance, after despoiling her of Corfu and her own rightful possessions in Greece. Helen died in February, 1271, aged twenty-nine, and no trace of her grave is to be found at Nocera, while the castle, where the beautiful Queen lay a prisoner, is a heap of ruins. The inventory given to the King at Naples by Enrico della Porta, her gaoler, of the very small amount of clothes, jewels, and furniture she left, brings her misery vividly before us. Everything is marked as "consumptum et vetustum," worn and old. Barletta. CHAPTER V. BARLETTA. BARLETTA, the ancient Bariolum, is another milk-white town whose dirty streets do not correspond to one's first impression of gaiety and brightness. The Hohenstaufen often resided there, and Frederick II., after the Empress Iolanthe's death at Andria, summoned all the barons of the kingdom to Barletta to hear his commands before he started FREDERICK'S COMMANDS. 55 for the crusade proclaimed by him in 1228. He declared his son Henry heir of the Empire and of the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily; in case of his dying without heirs, the newlyborn Conrad was to succeed him; and Reginald, Duke of Spoleto, was appointed Bailiff of the realm. Gregory IX. had excommunicated the Emperor the year before for not starting for the Holy Land; now he excommunicated him because he went, and sent messengers to forbid the crusade. Frederick paid no attention to the interdict, and, as is well known, his expedition ended in his crowning himself with his own hands in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre as King of Jerusalem.* * Hermann von Salza, Grand Master of Frederick's favourite Teutonic Order, a German of the best type, says, "We dissuaded him (from having the service celebrated at Jerusalem)" acting like one who is zealous for the exaltation of both Church and Empire, because we saw no advantage either to Frederick or to the Church in the project. So he did not hear Mass, following our advice, but simply took the crown from the altar, without any consecration, and carried it to his throne, as is the custom. The Archbishops of Palermo and Capua, and many other nobles, were present; rich and poor were there. He bade us speak both in Latin and German on his behalf." Hermann von Salza, the noblest man of his time, was the devoted friend of Frederick II.--v. Raumer, Geschichte der Hohenstaufen." 66 |