It was then (1832) offered to and accepted by Prince Otho of Bavaria, a minor; and thirty-five hundred Bavarian soldiers maintained order during the three years of the regency, which, though it developed great activity, was divided in itself, and conspiracies took place to overthrow it.

But retribution was destined full soon enough to seek out Otho in his turn, as he at once learned.

The vassal of Otho had reduced the successor of Otho to vassalage.

How Otho with his dagger took his own life (chapters 14, 15).

CRESCENTIUS, a patrician of Rome who, in the 10th century, sought to destroy the imperial power and restore the republic; on this he was defeated by Otho III., to whom he surrendered on promise of safety, but who hanged and beheaded him; Stephano, his widow, avenged this treachery by accepting Otho as her lover, and then poisoning him.

"Ah," said the Bishop again, "so then the power of Holy Church may not be the only restraint upon Duke Otho by to-morrow at this time!"

Similar barbarities were said to have been inflicted by King Otho on prisoners in Greece, even on British Ionian subjects!

Contemporary historians put the army of Otho at one hundred thousand, and that of Philip Augustus at from fifty to sixty thousand men; but amongst modern historians one of the most eminent, M. Sismondi, reduces them both to some fifteen or twenty thousand.

"What twice-condemned drunken roysterer may you be, that hath mistaken the prison of Duke Otho for a trull-house?