You tasted there, probably for
the first time in your life, the intoxicating cup of popularity, yet it
affected you no more than if you had drunk of the fountain in the
Romerberg.
"Now, my Lords, here is what I ask of you, and it will show how much I
would have depended upon you had I been chosen to the position at first
proposed to me. I request you, my Lord of Treves, to remove your three
thousand troops to the other side of the Rhine."
"I shall do nothing of the sort," blurted Treves, amazed at the absurd
proposal.
Roland went on, unheeding:
"I ask you, my Lord of Cologne, to march your troops to Assmannshausen."
"You indeed babble like the boy you said you were!" cried the indignant
Cologne. "You show no grasp of statesmanship."
A faint smile quivered on the thin lips of Mayence at his colleagues'
ill-disguised fear at leaving him the man in possession so far as
Frankfort was concerned. The naive proposal which angered his two
brethren merely amused Mayence. This young man's absurdity was an
intellectual treat.
Pages:
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578
579
580
581
582