as yet waiting for it with patience ; and as the lord the king behaves and conducts himself towards us. so will we answer him according to his merits. And, therefore, on this ground, everything was postponed till the day fortnight after the feast of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, before which time the nobles hoped that the king might be softened, and his heart inclined to wholesome counsels. And this would have taken place in a happy manner (as it is said), if his purpose had not been weakened by the objections of his counsellors, who feared that their domination would at once expire. Now, while Fortune was playing thus with human affairs, the people of Parma, who were surrounded with a miserable blockade on all sides, having summoned an assembly, happily humbled themselves before God and the blessed Roger, bishop of London (whom they had offended enormously, as it was said) ; and so the citizens hearing one day that their unwearied and insolent besieger and oppressor, Frederic, had gone away on some business, leaving the command of his army and the guardianship of the imperial treasure to Thaddœus, the judge of his palace, and to the other nobles who were present at the siege, having invoked the aid of the powers above, sallied out boldly against the army of Frederic, and making a sudden attack on it, triumphed according to their wish. The order of which circumstances this letter will more fully explain to any one who wishes to understand it. The Letter above mentioned. " To the vigorous and wise men, the lord Boniface of Salerno, and to the power, and knights, and people of Milan, Philip, the viceroy, and the power, and knights, and people of Parma, wish health, and glory, and honour. We give thanks to God the Father, and to his Son Jesus Christ, and to the Holy Ghost, the triple God and one Majesty, and to the glorious Virgin, who protects, defends, visits, and governs our city, not because our own merits require it, but on account of his own most merciful pity, as we manifestly behold in the triumphant victory which, m consequence of the intervention of his mother, God gave us on Tuesday, the twelfth of last February. For although fifteen hundred of our men had gone between Colorno and Bressello, and besides these, had two of their gates entire, and that raging dragon, who had for such a length of time been invading our country, was now expecting to swallow