w wretched years the youthful queen lived with the monster,
when his death released her from that bondage. She then returned to
Vienna, a young and childless widow, but twenty years of age. She built
and endowed the splendid monastery of St. Mary de Angelis, and having
seen enough of the pomp of the world, shut herself up from the world in
the imprisonment of its cloisters, where she recounted her beads for
nineteen years, until she died in 1592.

Margaret, the youngest daughter, after her father's death, accompanied
her mother to Spain. Her sister Anne soon after died, and Philip II.,
her morose and debauched husband, having already buried four wives, and
no one can tell how many guilty favorites, sought the hand of his young
and fresh niece. But Margaret wisely preferred the gloom of the cloister
to the Babylonish glare of the palace. She rejected the polluted and
withered hand, and in solitude and silence, as a hooded nun, she
remained immured in her cell for fifty-seven years. Then her pure spirit
passed from a joyless life on earth, we trust, to a happy home in
heaven.

Rhodolph, the eldest son, succeeded his father, and in the subsequent
pages we shall record his career.

Ernest, the second son, was a mild, bashful young man, of a temperament
so singularly melancholy that he was rarely known to smile. His brother
Rhodolph gave him the appointment of Governor of Hungary. He passed
quietly down the stream of time until he was forty-two years of age,
when he died of the stone, a disease which had long tortured him with
excruciating pangs.

Matthias, the third son, became a restless, turbulent man, whose deeds
we shall have occasion to record in connection with his brother
Rhodolph, whom he sternly and successfully opposed.

Maximilian, the fourth son, when thirty years of age was elected King of
Poland. An opposition party chose John, son of the King of Sweden. The
rival candidates appealed to the cruel arbitration of the sword. In a
decisive battle Maximilian's troops were defeated, and he was taken
prisoner. He was only released upon his giving the pledge that he
renounced all his right to the throne. He rambled about, now governing a
province, and now fighting the Turks, until he died unmarried, sixty
years of age.

Albert, the youngest son, was destined to the Church. He was sent to
Spain, and under the patronage of his royal uncle he soon rose to
exalted ecclesiastical dignities. He, however, eventually r