A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Itha
The war, however, was still carried on by his brother Guelph, who, with his principal followers, were besieged in the castle of Weinsberg; and having sustained great loss in a sally, were obliged to surrender at discretion. The emperor, however, instead of using his good fortune with rigour, granted the duke and his chief officers permission to retire unmolested. But Itha, suspecting the lenity of Conrad, with whose enmity against her husband she was well acquainted; and trusting more to the romantic and capricious notions of honour in the age, than to simple generosity, begged that she and the other women in the castle, might be allowed to come out with as much as each of them could carry, and be conducted to a place of safety. The request was granted, and the evacuation immediately performed; when the emperor and his army, who expected to see every one loaded with jewels, gold, and silver, beheld, to their astonishment, the duchess and her fair companions, staggering beneath the weight of their husbands. The tears ran down Conrad's cheeks; he applauded their conjugal tenderness, and an accommodation with Guelph and his adherents was the consequence of this act of female heroism. This affecting incident happened in the year 1141.