ised, one can hardly refrain from an emotion of
sympathy in view of this new blow which fell upon him. A deputation sent
from the electoral college met him in his palace at Prague. Mercilessly
they recapitulated most of the complaints which the Protestants had
brought against him, declined rendering him any pecuniary relief, and
requested him to nominate some one to be chosen as his successor on the
imperial throne.

"The emperor," said the delegation in conclusion, "is himself the
principal author of his own distresses and misfortunes. The contempt
into which he has fallen and the disgrace which, through him, is
reflected upon the empire, is derived from his own indolence and his
obstinacy in following perverse counsels. He might have escaped all
these calamities if, instead of resigning himself to corrupt and
interested ministers, he had followed the salutary counsels of the
electors."

They closed this overwhelming announcement by demanding the immediate
assembling of a diet to elect an emperor to succeed him on the throne of
Germany. Rhodolph, not yet quite sufficiently humiliated to officiate as
his own executioner, though he promised to summon a diet, evaded the
fulfillment of his promise. The electors, not disposed to dally with him
at all, called the assembly by their own authority to meet on the 31st
of May.

This seemed to be the finishing blow. Rhodolph, now sixty years of age,
enfeebled and emaciated by disease and melancholy, threw himself upon
his bed to die. Death, so often invoked in vain by the miserable, came
to his aid. He welcomed its approach. To those around his bed he
remarked,

"When a youth, I experienced the most exquisite pleasure in returning
from Spain to my native country. How much more joyful ought I to be when
I am about to be delivered from the calamities of human nature, and
transferred to a heavenly country where there is no change of time, and
where no sorrow can enter!"

In the tomb let him be forgotten.

CHAPTER XV.

MATTHIAS.

From 1612 to 1619.

Matthias Elected Emperor of Germany.--His despotic Character.--His Plans
thwarted.--Mulheim.--Gathering Clouds.--Family Intrigue.--Coronation of
Ferdinand.--His Bigotry.--Henry, Count of Thurn.--Convention at
Prague.--The King's Reply.--The Die cast.--Amusing Defense of an
Outrage.--Ferdinand's Manifesto.--Seizure of Cardinal Kleses.--The
King's Rage.--Retreat of the King's Troops.--Humiliation of
Ferdinand.--The Diffic