“At all events,” the emperor continued, after a moment’s pause, “this concentration will be brought about sooner or later by the very force of events.  The impulse is given, and I think that since my fall and the destruction of my system, no grand equilibrium can possibly be established in Europe except by the concentration and confederation of the principal nations.  The sovereign who in the first great conflict shall sincerely embrace the cause of the people, will find himself at the head of Europe, and may attempt whatever he pleases.”

Thus similar were the plans of these two most illustrious men.  But from this digression let us return to the affairs of Austria.  With the death of Henry IV., fell the stupendous plan which his genius conceived, and which his genius alone could execute.  The Protestants, all over Europe, regarded his death as a terrible blow.  Still they did not despair of securing the contested duchy for a Protestant prince.  The fall of Henry IV. raised from the Catholics a shout of exultation, and they redoubled their zeal.

The various princes of the house of Austria, brothers, uncles, cousins, holding important posts all over the empire, were much alarmed in view of the peril to which the family ascending was exposed by the feebleness of Rhodolph.  They held a private family conference, and decided that the interests of all required that there should be reconciliation between Matthias and Rhodolph; or that, in their divided state, they would fall victims to their numerous foes.  The brothers agreed to an outward reconciliation; but there was not the slightest mitigation of the rancor which filled their hearts.  Matthias, however, consented to acknowledge the superiority of his brother, the emperor, to honor him as the head of the family, and to hold his possessions as fiefs of Rhodolph intrusted to him by favor.  Rhodolph, while hating Matthias, and watching for an opportunity to crush him, promised to regard him hereafter as a brother and a friend.

And now Rhodolph developed unexpected energy, mingled with treachery and disgraceful duplicity.  He secretly and treacherously invited the Archduke Leopold, who was also Bishop of Passau and Strasbourg, and one of the most bigoted of the warrior ecclesiastics of the papal church, to invade, with an army of sixteen thousand men, Rhodolph’s own kingdom of Bohemia, under the plea that the wages of the soldiers had not been paid.  It was his object, by thus introducing an army of Roman Catholics into his kingdom, and betraying into their hands several strong fortresses, then to place himself at their head, rally the Catholics of Bohemia around him, annul all the edicts of toleration, crush the Protestants, and then to march to the punishment of Matthias.