thing. He doubtless intended to fulfill his promise, but subsequent
troubles arose which absorbed all his remaining feeble energies, and
obliterated past engagements from his mind.

Matthias was watching all the events with the intensest eagerness, as
affording a brilliant prospect to him, to obtain the crown of Bohemia,
and the scepter of the empire. This ambition consumed his days and his
nights, verifying the adage, "uneasy lies the head which wears a crown."

CHAPTER XIV.

RHODOLPH III. AND MATTHIAS.

From 1609 to 1612.

Difficulties as to the Succession.--Hostility of Henry IV. to the House
of Austria.--Assassination of Henry IV.--Similarity in Sully's and
Napoleon's Plans.--Exultation of the Catholics.--The Brothers'
Compact.--How Rhodolph Kept It.--Seizure of Prague.--Rhodolph a
Prisoner.--The King's Abdication.--Conditions Attached to the
Crown.--Rage of Rhodolph.--Matthias Elected King.--The Emperor's
Residence.--Rejoicings of the Protestants.--Reply of the
Ambassadors.--The Nuremburg Diet.--The Unkindest Cut of All.--Rhodolph's
Humiliation And Death.

And now suddenly arose another question which threatened to involve all
Europe in war. The Duke of Cleves, Juliers, and Berg died without issue.
This splendid duchy, or rather combination of duchies, spread over a
territory of several thousand square miles, and was inhabited by over a
million of inhabitants. There were many claimants to the succession, and
the question was so singularly intricate and involved, that there were
many who seemed to have an equal right to the possession. The emperor,
by virtue of his imperial authority, issued an edict, putting the
territory in sequestration, till the question should be decided by the
proper tribunals, and, in the meantime, placing the territory in the
hands of one of his own family as administrator.

This act, together with the known wishes of Spain to prevent so
important a region, lying near the Netherlands, from falling into the
hands of the Protestants, immediately changed the character of the
dispute into a religious contest, and, as by magic, all Europe wheeled
into line on the one side or the other, Every other question was lost
sight of, in the all-absorbing one, Shall the duchy fall into the hands
of the Protestants or the Catholics?

Henry IV. of France zealously espoused the cause of the Protestants. He
was very hostile to the house of Austria for the assistance it had lent
to that cele