СНАР. XI. 1235-1239. after this year do we find the Provençals serving under the banner of the Empire. Frederick was equally attentive to affairs in the East of Italy. He put an end to a dispute that had been raging between his loyal friend the Patriarch of Aquileia, and certain feudatories in Friuli and Istria. The siege had now fairly begun. As if to make the odds against them even greater, the Brescians had not fortified their trenches with palisades, when Frederick came before their city. But he found walls of stone and hearts of iron awaiting him. The townsmen were ready for the worst; their Archimedes came to them from an unexpected quarter. Eccelin was sending into his master's camp a Spanish engineer named Calamandrino, who was reckoned especially skilful in handling trebuchets and bricolets. This man was however taken by the Guelfs and sent into Brescia. On being questioned by the chiefs, who were conducting the defence, he did not deny his errand; he owned that he had come to construct machines for the Emperor. He was given his choice between instant death or the post of headengineer to the Brescians. He chose the latter alternative, and received a wife and a house, on promising to do his best for the besieged. About 100 knights of the city took the Ghibelline side, and joined Frederick; their houses and towers were pulled down by their angry countrymen. The month of August passed away, and Brescia was still holding out. All hope of succour from her allies was at an end. Lancia, aided by the Bishop elect of Valence, the companion of De Trubleville, and also by the Seneschal of Dauphiny, routed the men of Piacenza, who had made an inroad into the XI. 1235-1239. Cremonese country. In September, Frederick had CHAP. recourse to a cruel device, sanctioned indeed by the custom of war in that age, and by a precedent set by his grandfather at the siege of Crema. Taking the advice of Eccelin, he sent for the Brescian captives seized at Montechiari in the previous year. Conrad of Concisa, and the others, their hands having been first tied behind their backs, were fastened upon the wooden castles of the besiegers. It was hoped that this expedient would abate the showers of arrows, stones, and torches, which were being hurled from the walls. The prisoners were promised life and honour, if they would only cause the city gates to be opened; but they harangued their countrymen as follows: Brescians think what shame will accrue to you, if your city be conquered! Defend your freedom and honour, and the League you have sworn, as long as you can! Do not yield! Prefer your country's honour to your own safety!' Ardizzone Losco, who had held the castle of Carpe when Montechiari was taken, saw his own son bound on one of the besieger's castles. Undismayed by the sight, he ordered an attack upon it with arrows and torches, he himself, setting the example. Happily the rain came on and put an end to the unnatural strife. Frederick was very wroth with his dauntless prisoners, and uttered many threats against them; their national annalist extols their constancy as surpassing that of Manlius or Scœvola. So great was the skill of Calamandrino, so nice was his aim in hurling a stone from his engines, that he could pick out and hit one out of three captives bound on the same wooden castle. The Brescians revenged themselves on the Emperor, by letting down his partizans from the top of the walls, in places CHAP. XI. where the wretches must be hit by his missiles; they were bound on crosses, so that they could not stir in 1235-1239. self-defence. The townsmen had recourse to a system of constant sallies, which caused great loss to the besiegers; pitched battles were carefully shunned. Towers and bulwarks were built all round the walls, constructed of huge beams. Mangonels and trebuchets were also made, one of which knocked over the Emperor's tent. The Brescians again assailed without pity the enemy's castles, on which their countrymen were tied; very few of these victims escaped. Still, in the month of September, the town seemed ready to surrender; the greater part of the citizens were getting weary of the war, and welcomed Frederick's envoy, who came with terms of peace. This man was a Parmesan, whose name was Bernard Orlando Rosso, a gossip of the Emperor. The traitor was more than once able to ruin the fortunes of his superior, and to turn the tide of war against him. On this occasion, he advised the Brescians to hold out, saying that Frederick could not afford to remain any longer before their walls. I bring you,' said the treacherous envoy, the proposals of one who wishes you ill.' He gained his object and went back to his employer, declaring that the Brescians were obstinate, and that he had been unable to do anything. At the end of September, a fearful storm, accompanied by violent blasts of wind, overthrew great part of the ramparts of the city. As soon as there was a lull, the Ghibellines made a rush at the walls, but were beaten off by the heroic Brescians, who flew to the spots now left undefended by turrets. On the CHAP. XI. 7th of October, the men of Bergamo endeavoured to fill up the trench before the city, twentythree yards in width, sheltering themselves behind 1236-1239. a machine called a Hog. This however was set on fire by the Brescians. Two days afterwards, the besiegers were making merry in their camp; no one suspected that a sally would be made from the town; the Germans were overcome with wine and sleep. At midnight, the Brescians broke into the tents of the enemy, where they remained up to daybreak, wounding and slaughtering numbers of the Imperialists; they narrowly missed taking captive Frederick himself.* A few of his soldiers bore the brunt of the onset, blowing trumpets to stir up their sluggish allies. The retreat of the Brescians was cut off, as it seemed, by the host that flocked to the rescue when day dawned; but the daring assailants contrived to fight their way back into the city. After this, it was hopeless to linger any longer before the walls. Frederick turned loose the horses and oxen which had become of small value; he burnt his tents and machines, and retreated from Brescia, after having wasted two months and six days before that stubborn city. This was the break-water which at length beat back the tide of his overwhelming force; henceforward, all idea of his invincibility was at an end; the Guelfs recovered their drooping spirits; the Milanese forthwith began an attack upon Pavia, which they forced to unite with them, and they afterwards made forays on the lands of Bergamo ; This was probably the occasion when the English so distinguished themselves. For the siege of Brescia see the Chronicon, Malvecius, and XI. 1235-1239. CHAP. they had now something which they could set against their late disaster at Cortenuova. The Pope would soon be ready to stand openly at the head of their party. The author of Gregory's life gives all honour to Brescia, which was not moved by the rage of the Germans, or the cunning of the Apulians, or the throng of Lombards from different parts.' Frederick dismissed his army, being only anxious to keep the Germans; he marched by way of Soncino to Cremona. At this time he knighted his gallant son Enzio, who thenceforward became his right-hand. A brilliant career of little more than ten years was now opening for this ill-fated youth. Enzio was sent into Sardinia with a body of knights, there to marry Adelasia, the heiress of that Kingdom.* Her former husband, Ubaldo, the Judge of Gallura, had done homage to Rome, acknowledging that he held his rights, and those of his wife, from the Apostolic See. Enzio was not likely to be so compliant. The Pope had earlier in the year forbidden the lady to remarry without his special license; it was most important, he said, that Sardinia should not fall into the power of any one who was not devoted to the Church; and Adelasia's new husband scarcely answered this requirement. The Emperor afterwards alleged that one of the chief causes of the enmity borne to him by Rome was his refusal to accept the hand of the Pope's niece for Enzio. The Romish annalist is wroth at the bare notion of a daughter of the House of Conti stooping to marry a bastard, even though that bastard were the son of an Emperor.§ * Chronicon. † Raynaldus. |