ffensive operations, but was
compelled to prepare for defense against the attacks with which he was
threatened on every side.

Again, the kaleidoscope of political combination received a jar, and all
was changed. The King of France died. This so embarrassed the affairs of
the confederation which Francis had organized with so much toil and
care, that Charles availed himself of it to make a sudden and vigorous
march against the Elector of Saxony. He entered his territories with an
army of thirty-three thousand men, and swept all opposition before him.
In a final and desperate battle the troops of the elector were cut to
pieces, and the elector himself, surrounded on all sides, sorely wounded
in the face and covered with blood, was taken prisoner. Charles
disgraced his character by the exhibition of a very ignoble spirit of
revenge. The captive elector, as he was led into the presence of his
conqueror, said--

"Most powerful and gracious emperor, the fortune of war has now rendered
me your prisoner, and I hope to be treated--"

Here the emperor indignantly interrupted him, saying--

"I am _now_ your gracious emperor! Lately you could only vouchsafe me
the title of Charles of Ghent!"

Then turning abruptly upon his heel, he consigned his prisoner to the
custody of one of the Spanish generals. The emperor marched immediately
to Wittemberg, which was distant but a few miles. It was a well
fortified town, and was resolutely defended by Isabella, the wife of the
elector. The emperor, maddened by the resistance, summoned a court
martial, and sentenced the elector to instant death unless he ordered
the surrender of the fortress. He at first refused, and prepared to die.
But the tears of his wife and his family conquered his resolution, and
the city was surrendered. The emperor took from his captive the
electoral dignity, and extorted from him the most cruel concessions as
the ransom for his life. Without a murmur he surrendered wealth, power
and rank, but neither entreaties nor menaces could induce him in a
single point to abjure his Christian faith.

Charles now entered Wittemberg in triumph. The great reformer had just
died. The emperor visited the grave of Luther, and when urged to
dishonor his remains, replied--

"I war not with the dead, but with the living. Let him repose in peace;
he is already before his Judge."

The Landgrave of Hesse Cassel, now the only member of the Protestant
league remaining in arms, was i