After her came a long line of other women, each bending beneath
the heavy burden of her husband, or some dear relative among the
condemned citizens.
Never had such a spectacle been seen. So affecting an instance of
heroism was it, and so earnest and pathetic were the faces appealingly
upturned to him, that the emperor's astonishment quickly changed to
admiration, and he declared that women like these had fairly earned
their reward, and that each should keep the treasure she had borne.
There were those around him with less respect for heroic deeds, who
sought to induce him to keep his original resolution, but Conrad, who
had it in him to be noble when not moved by passion, curtly silenced
them with the remark, "An emperor keeps his word." He was so moved by
the scene, indeed, that he not only spared the men, but the whole city,
and the doom of sword and brand, vowed against their homes, was
withdrawn through admiration of the noble act of the worthy wives of
Weinsberg.
A KING IN A QUANDARY.
From an old chronicle we extract the following story, which is at once
curious and interesting, as a picture of mediaeval manners and customs,
though to all seeming largely legendary.
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