ring aid. Matthias immediately started eight thousand Hungarians on
the march. As they entered Bohemia with rapid steps and pushed their way
toward Prague they were joined every hour by Protestant levies pouring
in from all quarters. So rapidly did their ranks increase that Leopold's
troops, not daring to await their arrival, in a panic, fled by night.
They were pursued on their retreat, attacked, and put to flight with the
loss of two thousand men. The ecclesiastical duke, in shame and
confusion, slunk away to his episcopal castle of Passau.

The contemptible Rhodolph now first proposed terms of reconciliation,
and then implored the clemency of his indignant conquerors. They turned
from the overtures of the perjured monarch with disdain, burst into the
city of Prague, surrounded every avenue to the palace, and took Rhodolph
a prisoner. Soon Matthias arrived, mounted in regal splendor, at the
head of a gorgeous retinue. The army received him with thunders of
acclaim. Rhodolph, a captive in his palace, heard the explosion of
artillery, the ringing of bells and the shouts of the populace,
welcoming his dreaded and detested rival to the capital. It was the 20th
of March, 1611. The nobles commanded Rhodolph to summon a diet. The
humiliated, degraded, helpless emperor knew full well what this
signified, but dared not disobey. He summoned a diet. It was immediately
convened. Rhodolph sent in a message, saying,

"Since, on account of my advanced age, I am no longer capable of
supporting the weight of government, I hereby abdicate the throne, and
earnestly desire that my brother Matthias may be crowned without delay."

The diet were disposed very promptly to gratify the king in his
expressed wishes. But there arose some very formidable difficulties. The
German princes, who were attached to the cause which Rhodolph had so
cordially espoused, and who foresaw that his fall threatened the
ascendency of Protestantism throughout the empire, sent their
ambassadors to the Bohemian nobles with the menace of the vengeance of
the empire, if they proceeded to the deposition of Rhodolph and to the
inauguration of Matthias, whom they stigmatized as an usurper. This
unexpected interposition reanimated the hopes of Rhodolph, and he
instantly found such renovation of youth and strength as to feel quite
able to bear the burden of the crown a little longer; and consequently,
notwithstanding his abdication, through his friends, all the most
acco