HER SECOND MARRIAGE. 167 She was without much trouble, and often warfare. unfriended-seeking protection from the emperor in this very connexion; but Adelaide's was not the only union celebrated in the little country church of Colombier; for, within a very short period afterwards, Bertha gave her own hand, in second marriage, to Hugh king of Italy, one of the most unprincipled and unpopular monarchs of Europe! “The queen was fondly attached to her daughter, and could not bear the idea of their separation— Bertha hoped to strengthen her power of resistance to the emperor-she considered it a duty to her people-the Transjurane was now scarcely governed by her she shrunk from letting her lovely daughter go alone at so tender an age away from her maternal care." Such are the excuses or reasons thus offered for Bertha's second marriage; and, no doubt they had, each and all, great weight with her in deciding this important change in her situation. Her firstborn son was a sort of honourable prisoner in the court of the emperor; her youngest daughter had died at the castle of Chavornay, a few months before, of a fever; and Burcard was preparing for an ecclesiastical career in the monastery of St. Gall; Rudolph must soon quit her care to enter upon his education, and her deserted hearth, thus solitary, would have been melancholy indeed. Still a union with such a man was hazardous in the extreme; and detracted somewhat from the matronly dignity of her past carriage; contrasting too, very strongly, with that of her step-mother the Duchess of Swabia, still her father's widow. But between them there was no resemblance, excepting in their mutual widowhood. Hedwige sat at ease in her immense possessions, which comprehended a great part of Northern Helvetia: she had none to fear and none to conciliate. Her attention had been early turned to study and literature, by the necessity of applying herself to the Greek language, as a preparative for becoming Empress of Constantinople; her union with the Duke of Swabia had brought small interruption to her classical pursuits; and, after his death, announcing her intention never to barter her independence in exchange for any future lord, she was suffered to enjoy it and her love of science together in unmolested tranquillity, or, at least, she was not subject to the tender importunities of lovers, sighing either after herself or her enormous wealth; for Hedwige, nine hundred years ago, was not exempt from the sneers, or suspicions, or witticisms, that occasionally follow the footsteps of a learned lady. Bertha's very essence was love,-her being existed in that of others, her husband, her children, her people formed a portion of herself: all these ties were either broken or vanishing, and in the very desolation of her heart, she could not seemingly refuse the BERTHA'S SECOND MARRIAGE. 169 offer which gave back to her maternal arms the lovely and gifted daughter, from whom she was on the point of being separated for ever, and promised a renewal of the protection she felt she so much needed for herself and other children. No newspapers then existed to blazon forth the frailties of sovereigns as well as their subjects; and individuals would be fearful of circulating, too openly, the misdemeanours of such a delinquent. Hugh's character darkened after his assumption of the crown of Italy; and its worst features had, most probably, never been presented to her eyes. He was a man of extraordinary abilities, and cultivated education for the age, and fully shared with his sister Ermengarde, Marchioness of Ivrée, in those personal graces, accomplishments, and blandishments, which had overcome the dazzled senses of her beloved husband, Rudolph. Too juvenile to be married to Rudolph in 919, she might now not be more than forty- and a painful history attached to a young page is a too strong proof that she yet retained many of the personal charms which distinguished the spring of her life, whilst a natural consciousness of her claims to the love and respect of all around her, might, without vanity, induce the flattering persuasion, that she could affect a favourable change in whatever she found displeasing in the temper or habits of the King of Italy. Every precaution that a fond mother's anxious heart could suggest under such circumstances - every evil that might occur to the country in her apparent desertion, she anticipated and provided for. Her youngest son, Rudolph, was sent to the protecting walls of St. Gall, where he joined his elder brother, Burcard. She appointed to all places of trust in her Jurisdiction men of eminence and worth; and gave (say two chroniclers) many châteaux to her nobles, to engage them to preserve their fidelity towards her absent son, Conrad, whose interests she ever protected with maternal love and loyal solicitude. It was at this period that she most probably bestowed the castle of Vufflens on an Italian nobleman, simply termed by the old writers Duke Azzoni, who had followed the fortunes of Rudolph into Switzerland, perhaps, compromised by his attachment to Rudolph's cause in his native land; and a melancholy tradition hovers over one of the four towers surrounding the great centre citadel. A young brother of the duke's, page to Bertha, in his admiration of her personal charms and goodness, forgot, it is said, the gulf between the queen and the woman. If he did not aspire to the hand of his royal mistress, he at least permitted a misplaced attachment to rob him of his reason, and died insane, after many years of captivity, in this singular specimen of half Saracenic architecture. HEDWIGE, DUCHESS OF SWABIA. 171 There is a sort of corroboration of this sad tale, in the fact, that after Bertha's return to Switzerland, she never more inhabited this castle, residing principally at the château of Baldern, which she received from her father, the Duke of Swabia. As a portion of his hereditary property, and built by Bertha's cousin, the Princess Hildgarde, abbess of Zurich, he, perhaps, could not alienate it from her, in favour of Hedwige, to whose interests he sacrificed some of the usual pride of a father; "For at his death," says an old chronicler, "Hedwige inherited his vast domains, which comprehended a great part of Northern Helvetia, and his power as vicar-general of the empire, which gave her, in these countries, the right of judging, without appeal, all crimes, excepting those of leze-majesty." In tracing the history of Bertha, and whilst glancing over that of the Duchess of Swabia, one rather painful testimonial to the commonly accredited opinion that amity seldom exists between those so connected, has presented itself; and it would seem the relation of step-mother and step-daughter, too often (for many bright exceptions are found), rears a sort of invisible barrier between the hearts of the parties thus united by a conspicuous bond. No evidence, either chronological or traditional, points to their meeting as visitors in their respective dominions, or that during Bertha's solitary widowhood, when clouds and dark |