easures. Thus strengthened Matthias, who was so pliant and
humble in Hungary, assumed the most haughty airs of the sovereign in
Austria. He peremptorily ordered the Protestants to be silent, and to
cease their murmurings, or he would visit them with the most exemplary
punishment.

North-east of the duchy of Austria, and lying between the kingdoms of
Hungary and Bohemia, was the province of Moravia. This territory was
about the size of the State of Massachusetts, and its chief noble, or
governor, held the title of margrave, or marquis. Hence the province,
which belonged to the Austrian empire, was called the margraviate of
Moravia. It contained a population of a little over a million. The
nobles of Moravia immediately made common cause with those of Austria,
for they knew that they must share the same fate. Matthias was again
alarmed, and brought to terms. On the 16th of March, 1609, he signed a
capitulation, which restored to all the Austrian provinces all the
toleration which they had enjoyed under Maximilian II. The nobles then,
of all the States of Austria, took the oath of allegiance to Matthias.

The ambitious monarch, having thus for succeeded, looked with a covetous
eye towards Transylvania. That majestic province, on the eastern borders
of Hungary, being three times the size of Massachusetts, and containing
a population of about two millions, would prove a splendid addition to
the Hungarian kingdom. While Matthias was secretly encouraging what in
modern times and republican parlance is called a filibustering
expedition, for the sake of annexing Transylvania to the area of
Hungary, a new object of ambition, and one still more alluring, opened
before him.

The Protestants in Bohemia were quite excited when they heard of the
great privileges which their brethren in Hungary, and in the Austrian
provinces had extorted from Matthias. This rendered them more restless
under the intolerable burdens imposed upon them. Soon after the armies
of Matthias had withdrawn from Bohemia, Rhodolph, according to his
promise, summoned a diet to deliberate upon the state of affairs. The
Protestants, who despised Rhodolph, attended the diet, resolved to
demand reform, and, if necessary, to seek it by force of arms. They at
once assumed a bold front, and refused to discuss any civil affairs
whatever, until the freedom of religious worship, which they had enjoyed
under Maximilian, was restored to them. But Rhodolph, infatuated, and
un