would confirm the royal edict and give full security
for the maintenance of their civil and religious privileges. The
Protestants refused to disband, knowing that they could place no
reliance upon the word of the unstable monarch who was crowded by the
rising power of the energetic Ferdinand. The ambitious naturally
deserted the court of the sovereign whose days were declining, to enlist
in the service of one who was just entering upon the kingly power.

Ferdinand was enraged at what he considered the pusillanimity of the
king. Maximilian, the younger brother of Matthias, cordially espoused
the cause of Ferdinand. Cardinal Kleses, a Catholic of commanding
influence and of enlightened, liberal views, was the counselor of the
king. Ferdinand and Maximilian resolved that he should no longer have
access to the ear of the pliant monarch, but he could be removed from
the court only by violence. With an armed band they entered the palace
at Vienna, seized the cardinal in the midst of the court, stripped him
of his robes, hurried him into a carriage, and conveyed him to a strong
castle in the midst of the mountains of the Tyrol, where they held him a
close prisoner. The emperor was at the time confined to his bed with the
gout. As soon as they had sent off the cardinal, Ferdinand and
Maximilian repaired to the royal chamber, informed the emperor of what
they had done, and attempted to justify the deed on the plea that the
cardinal was a weak and wicked minister whose policy would certainly
divide and ruin the house of Austria.

The emperor was in his bed as he received this insulting announcement of
a still more insulting outrage. For a moment he was speechless with
rage. But he was old, sick and powerless. This act revealed to him that
the scepter had fallen from his hands. In a paroxysm of excitement, to
prevent himself from speaking he thrust the bed-clothes into his mouth,
nearly suffocating himself. Resistance was in vain. He feared that
should he manifest any, he also might be torn from his palace, a
captive, to share the prison of the cardinal. In sullen indignation he
submitted to the outrage.

Ferdinand and Maximilian now pursued their energetic measures of
hostility unopposed. They immediately put the army in motion to invade
Bohemia, and boasted that the Protestants should soon be punished with
severity which would teach them a lesson they would never forget. But
the Protestants were on the alert. Every town in th