many a lustrum, and burying one of my clearest, ripest, most sacred
hopes."

Here the startled Queen interrupted him: "That would surely, inevitably
be the evil fruit which would grow from such a treaty. It would deliver
to the Pope, with fettered hands, this very Council which your Majesty so
confidently expected would remove or diminish, in orderly methods, the
abuses which are urging so many Christians to abandon the Catholic
Church. How often I have heard even her most faithful sons acknowledge
that such abuses exist! But if you make the alliance, the self-interest
of the hierarchy will know how to prevent the introduction of even a
single vigorous amendment, and, instead of the conqueror of the hydra of
abuse, your Majesty will render yourself its guardian."

"And," added the Emperor affectionately--he still retained his seat at
the writing table--"this alliance, moreover, would force me to the
painful necessity of opposing the earnest wish of the dearest, fairest,
and wisest of my sisters."

"Because it would render war with the evangelical princes inevitable,"
cried the Queen excitedly. "Oh, your Majesty, you know that the heretical
movement, which is making life a burden to me in my provinces, is going
much too far for me, as well as for you here in Germany; nay, that it is
hateful to me, because I value nothing more than our holy Church, her
greatness and unity. But would it really redound to her welfare if the
schism now existing, and which you yourself expected to heal through the
Council, should by this very Council be embittered and even perhaps
perpetuated? For a long time nothing has seemed to me more execrable than
this war. Your Majesty knows that, and therefore my lord and brother can
not be vexed with me if I remind him of the hour when, a few months ago,
he promised to avoid it and do all in his power to bring what relates to
religious matters in these German countries to a peaceful conclusion."

The Emperor looked his sister full in the face, and, while struggling to
his feet, said with majestic dignity:

"And I have never given your Highness occasion to doubt my word." Then,
changing his tone, he continued kindly: "No means--I repeat it--shall
remain untried to preserve peace. I am in earnest, child, though there
are now many reasons for breaking the promise. I put them together on the
long list yonder, and the Spaniards at the court add new ones every hour.
If you care to know them----"

Her