ntiousness, put her under arrest.
Sigismond was sixty-three years of age, in very feeble health, and daily
expecting to die.

He summoned a general convention of the nobles of Hungary and Bohemia to
meet him at Znaim in Moravia, near the frontiers of Austria, and sent
for Albert and his daughter to hasten to that place. The infirm emperor,
traveling by slow stages, succeeded in reaching Znaim. He immediately
summoned the nobles to his presence, and introducing to them Albert and
Elizabeth, thus affectingly addressed them:

"Loving friends, you know that since the commencement of my reign I have
employed my utmost exertions to maintain public tranquillity. Now, as I
am about to die, my last act must be consistent with my former actions.
At this moment my only anxiety arises from a desire to prevent
dissension and bloodshed after my decease. It is praiseworthy in a
prince to govern well; but it is not less praiseworthy to provide a
successor who shall govern better than himself. This fame I now seek,
not from ambition, but from love to my subjects. You all know Albert,
Duke of Austria, to whom in preference to all other princes I gave my
daughter in marriage, and whom I adopted as my son. You know that he
possesses experience and every virtue becoming a prince. He found
Austria in a state of disorder, and he has restored it to tranquillity.
He is now of an age in which judgment and experience attain their
perfection, and he is sovereign of Austria, which, lying between Hungary
and Bohemia, forms a connecting link between the two kingdoms.

"I recommend him to you as my successor. I leave you a king, pious,
honorable, wise and brave. I give him my kingdom, or rather I give him
to my kingdoms, to whom I can give or wish nothing better. Truly you
belong to him in consideration of his wife, the hereditary princess of
Hungary and Bohemia. Again I repeat that I do not act thus solely from
love to Albert and my daughter, but from a desire in my last moments to
promote the true welfare of my people. Happy are those who are subject
to Albert. I am confident he is no less beloved by you than by me, and
that even without my exhortations you would unanimously give him your
votes. But I beseech you by these tears, comfort my soul, which is
departing to God, by confirming my choice and fulfilling my will."

The emperor was so overcome with emotion that he could with difficulty
pronounce these last words. All were deeply moved; some