tates consulted their own honor rather than Rhodolph's
merits, in treating him with great magnanimity. Though Rhodolph had
lost, one by one, all his own hereditary or acquired territories,
Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, he still retained the imperial crown of
Germany. This gave him rank and certain official honors, with but little
real power. The emperor, who was also a powerful sovereign in his own
right, could marshal his own forces to establish his decrees. But the
emperor, who had no treasury or army of his own, was powerless indeed.

The emperor was permitted to occupy one of the palaces at Prague. He
received an annual pension of nearly a million of dollars; and the
territories and revenues of four lordships were conferred upon him.
Matthias having consolidated his government, and appointed the great
officers of his kingdom, left Prague without having any interview with
his brother, and returned to his central capital at Vienna, where he
married Anne, daughter of his uncle Ferdinand of Tyrol.

The Protestants all over the German empire hailed these events with
public rejoicing. Rhodolph had been their implacable foe. He was now
disarmed and incapable of doing them any serious injury. Matthias was
professedly their friend, had been placed in power mainly as their
sovereign, and was now invested with such power, as sovereign of the
collected realms of Austria, that he could effectually protect them from
persecution. This success emboldened them to unite in a strong,
wide-spread confederacy for the protection of their rights. The
Protestant nobles and princes, with the most distinguished of their
clergy from all parts of the German empire, held a congress at
Rothenburg. This great assembly, in the number, splendor and dignity of
its attendants, vied with regal diets. Many of the most illustrious
princes of the empire were there in person, with imposing retinues. The
emperor and Matthias both deemed it expedient to send ambassadors to the
meeting. The congress at Rothenburg was one of the most memorable
movements of the Protestant party. They drew up minute regulations for
the government of their confederacy, established a system of taxation
among themselves, made efficient arrangements for the levying of troops,
established arsenals and magazines, and strongly garrisoned a fortress,
to be the nucleus of their gathering should they at any time be
compelled to appeal to arms.

Rhodolph, through his ambassadors, appeared