nobles
chose Stephen Bathori, a Transylvanian prince, King of Poland; and to
strengthen his title, married him to Anne, sister to Sigismond Augustus,
the King of Poland who preceded the Duke of Anjou. Maximilian thus
aroused, signed the articles of agreement, and the two rival monarchs
prepared for war. The kingdoms of Europe were arraying themselves, some
on the one side and some on the other, and there was the prospect of a
long, desperate and bloody strife, when death stilled the tumult.

Maximilian had long been declining. On the 12th of October, 1576, he
breathed his last at Ratisbon. He apparently died the death of the
Christian, tranquilly surrendering his spirit to his Saviour. He died in
the fiftieth year of his age and the twelfth of his reign. He had lived,
for those dark days, eminently the life of the righteous, and his end
was peace.

"So fades the summer cloud away,
So sinks the gale when storms are o'er
So gently shuts the eye of day,
So dies a wave along the shore."

CHAPTER XII.

CHARACTER OF MAXIMILIAN II.--SUCCESSION OF RHODOLPH III.

From 1576 to 1604.

Character of Maximilian.--His Accomplishments.--His Wife.--Fate of his
Children.--Rhodolph III.--The Liberty of Worship.--Means of
Emancipation.--Rhodolph's Attempts against Protestantism.--Declaration
of a higher Law.--Theological Differences.--The Confederacy at
Heilbrun.--The Gregorian Calendar.--Intolerance in Bohemia.--The Trap of
the Monks.--Invasion of the Turks.--Their Defeat.--Coalition with
Sigismond.--Sale of Transylvania.--Rule of Basta.--The Empire captured
and recaptured.--Devastation of the Country.--Treatment of Stephen
Botskoi.

It is indeed refreshing, in the midst of the long list of selfish and
ambitious sovereigns who have disgraced the thrones of Europe, to meet
with such a prince as Maximilian, a gentleman, a philosopher, a
philanthropist and a Christian. Henry of Valois, on his return from
Poland to France, visited Maximilian at Vienna. Henry was considered one
of the most polished men of his age. He remarked in his palace at Paris
that in all his travels he had never met a more accomplished gentleman
than the Emperor Maximilian. Similar is the testimony of all his
contemporaries. With all alike, at all times, and under all
circumstances, he was courteous and affable. His amiability shone as
conspicuously at home as abroad, and he was invariably the kind husband,
the tender father, the indulgent