X. 1552. That he might secure the Protestant religion, which was B OOK threatened with immediate destruction; That he might maintain the constitution and laws of the Empire, and save Germany from being subjected to the dominion of an absolute monarch; That he might deliver the Landgrave of Hesse from the miseries of a long and unjust imprisonment. By the first, he roused all the favourers of the Reformation, a party formidable by their zeal as well as numbers, and rendered desperate by oppression. By the second, he interested all the friends of liberty, Catholics no less than Protestants, and made it their interest to unite with him in asserting the rights and privileges common to both. The third, besides the glory which he acquired by his zeal to fulfil his engagements to the unhappy prisoner, was become a cause of general concern, not only from the compassion which the Landgrave's sufferings excited, but from indignation at the injustice and rigour of the Emperor's proceedings against him. Together with Maurice's manifesto, another appeared in the name of Albert Marquis of Brandenburg Culmbach, who had joined him with a body of adventurers whom he had drawn together. The same grievances which Maurice had pointed out are mentioned in it, but with an excess of virulence and animosity suitable to the character of the Prince in whose name it was published. ap THE King of France added to these a manifesto in his He is pow own name; in which, after taking notice of the ancient alli- erfully supported by ance between the French and German nations, both descend- the French ed from the same ancestors; and after mentioning the King, plications, which, in consequence of this, some of the most illustrious among the German Princes had made to him for his protection; he declared, that he now took arms to reestablish the ancient constitution of the Empire, to deliver some of its Princes from captivity, and to secure the privileges and independence of all the members of the Germanic body. In this manifesto, Henry assumed the extraordinary title of Protector of the Liberties of Germany, and of its captive Princes; and there was engraved on it a cap, the ancient symbol of freedom, placed between two daggers, in order BOOK to intimate to the Germans, that this blessing was to be acquired and secured by force of arms. X. 1552. in the field. Maurice's MAURICE had now to act a part entirely new, but his flexioperations ble genius was capable of accommodating itself to every situation. The moment he took arms, he was as bold and enterprising in the field, as he had been cautious and crafty in the cabinet. He advanced by rapid marches towards the Upper Germany. All the towns in his way opened their gates to him. He reinstated the magistrates whom the Emperor had deposed, and gave possession of the churches to the Protestant ministers whom he had ejected. He di rected his march to Augsburg, and as the Imperial garrison, which was too inconsiderable to think of defending it, retirApril 1. ed immediately, he took possession of that great city, and made the same changes there as in the towns through which he had passed *. The empe ishment and dis tress. No words can express the Emperor's astonishment and ror's aston- consternation at events so unexpected. He saw a great number of the German Princes in arms against him, and the rest either ready to join them, or wishing success to their enterprise. He beheld a powerful Monarch united with them in close league, seconding their operations in person at the head of a formidable army, while he, through negligence and credulity, which exposed him no less to scorn than to danger, had neither made, nor was in condition to make, any effectual provision, either for crushing his rebellious subjects, or resisting the invasion of the foreign enemy. Part of his Spanish troops had been ordered into Hungary against the Turks; the rest had marched back to Italy upon occasion of the war in the dutchy of Parma. The bands of veteran Germans had been dismissed, because he was not able to pay them; or had entered into Maurice's service after the siege of Magdeburg; and he remained at Inspruck with a body of soldiers hardly strong enough to guard his own person. His treasury was as much exhausted as his army was reduced. He had received no remit i Sleid. 549. Thuan. lib. x. 339. Mem. de Ribier, ii. 371. k Sleid. 555. Thuan. 342. X. 1552. tances for some time from the new world. He had forfeit- BO O K ed all credit with the merchants of Genoa and Venice, who refused to lend him money, though tempted by the offer of exorbitant interest. Thus Charles, though undoubtedly the; most considerable potentate in Christendom, and capable of exerting the greatest strength, his power, notwithstanding the violent attack made upon it, being still unimpaired, found himself in a situation which rendered him unable to make such a sudden and vigorous effort as the juncture required, and was necessary to have saved him from the present danger. vours to gain time by a nego ciation. In this situation, the Emperor placed all his hopes on ne- Endeagociating; the only resource of such as are conscious of their own weakness. But thinking it inconsistent with his dignity to make the first advances to subjects who were in arms against him, he avoided that indecorum by employing the mediation of his brother Ferdinand. Maurice confiding in his own talents to conduct any negociation in such a manner as to derive advantage from it, and hoping that, by the appearance of facility in hearkening to the first overture of accommodation, he might amuse the Emperor, and tempt him to slacken the activity with which he was now preparing to defend himself, readily agreed to an interview with Ferdinand in the town of Lintz in Austria; and having left his army to proceed on its march under the command of the Duke of Mecklenburg, he repaired thither. of the French MEANWHILE the King of France punctually fulfilled his Progress engagements to his allies. He took the field early, with a numerous and well-appointed army, and marching directly army. into Lorrain, Toul and Verdun opened their gates at his approach. His forces appeared next before Metz, and that city, by a fraudulent stratagem of the Constable Montmorency, who having obtained permission to pass through it with a small guard, introduced as many troops as were sufficient to overpower the garrison, was likewise seized without bloodshed. Henry made his entry into all these towns with great pomp; he obliged the inhabitants to swear allegiance to him, and annexed those important conquests to the X. BOOK French Monarchy. He left a strong garrison in Metz.. From thence he advanced towards Alsace, in order to attempt new conquests, to which the success that had hitherto attended his arms invited him1. 1552. The negociations between THE Conference at Lintz did not produce any accommodation. Maurice, when he consented to it, seems to have the empe- had nothing in view but to amuse the Emperor; for he ror and Maurice of no ef fect. Maurice towards made such demands, both in behalf of his confederates and their ally the French King, as he knew would not be accepted by a Prince, too haughty to submit, at once, to conditions dictated by an enemy. But, however firmly Maurice adhered during the negociation to the interests of his associates, or how steadily soever he kept in view the objects which had induced him to take arms, he often professed a strong inclination to terminate the differences with the Emperor in an amicable manner. Encouraged by this appearance of a pacific disposition, Ferdinand proposed a second interview at Passau on the twenty-sixth of May, and that a truce should commence on that day, and continue to the tenth of June, in order to give them leisure for adjusting allthe points in dispute. UPON this, Maurice rejoined his army on the ninth of advances May, which had now advanced to Gundelfingen. He put Inspruck. his troops in motion next morning; and as sixteen days yet remained for action before the commencement of the truce, he resolved, during that period, to venture upon an enterprise, the success of which would be so decisive, as to render the negociations at Passau extremely short, and entitle him to treat upon his own terms. He foresaw that the prospect of a cessation of arms, which was to take place so soon, together with the opinion of his earnestness to re-establish peace, with which he had artfully amused Ferdinand, could hardly fail of inspiring the Emperor with such false hopes, that he would naturally become remiss, and relapse into some degree of that security which had already been so fatal to him. Relying on this conjecture, he marched 1 Thuan. 349. 1552. directly at the head of his army towards Inspruck, and ad- B O O K vanced with the most rapid motion that could be given to so great a body of troops. On the eighteenth he arrived at Fiessen, a post of great consequence, at the entrance into the Tyrolese. There he found a body of eight hundred men, whom the Emperor had assembled, strongly intrenched, in order to oppose his progress. He attacked them instantly, with such violence and impetuosity, that they abandoned their lines precipitately, and, falling back on a second body posted near Ruten, communicated the panic terror with which they themselves had been seized, to those troops; so that they likewise took to flight, after a feeble resistance. castle of ELATED with this success, which exceeded his most san- Takes the guine hopes, Maurice pressed forward to Ehrenbergh, a Ehrencastle situated on an high and steep precipice, which com- bergh. manded the only pass through the mountains. As this fort had been surrendered to the Protestants at the beginning of the Smalkaldic war, because the garrison was then too weak to defend it, the Emperor, sensible of its impor tance, had taken care, at this juncture, to throw into it a body of troops sufficient to maintain it against the greatest army. But a shepherd, in pursuing a goat which had strayed from his flock, having discovered an unknown path by which it was possible to ascend to the top of the rock, came with this seasonable piece of intelligence to Maurice. A small band of chosen soldiers, under the command of George of Mecklenburg, was instantly ordered to follow this guide. They set out in the evening, and clambering up the rugged track with infinite fatigue as well as danger, they reached the summit unperceived; and at an hour which had been agreed on, when Maurice began the assault on the one side of the castle, they appeared on the other, ready to scale the walls, which were feeble in that place, because it had been hitherto deemed inaccessible. The garrison, struck with terror at the sight of an enemy on a quarter where they had thought themselves perfectly secure, immediately threw down their arms. Maurice, almost without bloodshed, and which was of greater consequence to him, without loss of time, took possession of a place, the reduction |