The uninterrupted continuity of German narrative, consequent upon the uninterrupted continuity of the contest between Philip and Otho for the Empire, has necessarily suffered the condition of the non-German world to fall into arrear. Even the history of the Sicilian kingdom, under the rightful heir of the Norman and the Swabian dynasties, blended in Frederic Roger, has perforce been thus neglected: and still, ere this important part of the subject of these volumes can be brought down to the epoch of Philip's assassination, other transactions claim attention. During these ten years a Crusade, in result the most memorable of any, except the first, had not only been organized, but run its course.