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 accomplished mechanism of diplomacy, with its menaces, its bribes, and its artifice were employed to thwart the movements of Matthias and his friends.

There was still another very great difficulty.  Matthias was very ambitious, and wished to be a sovereign, with sovereign power.  He was very reluctant to surrender the least portion of those prerogatives which his regal ancestors had grasped.  But the nobles deemed this a favorable opportunity to regain their lost power.  They were disposed to make a hard bargain with Matthias.  They demanded—­1st, that the throne should no longer be hereditary, but elective; 2d, that the nobles should be permitted to meet in a diet, or congress, to deliberate upon public affairs whenever and wherever they pleased; 3d, that all financial and military affairs should be left in their hands; 4th, that although the king might appoint all the great officers of state, they might remove any of them at pleasure; 5th, that it should be the privilege of the nobles to form all foreign alliances; 6th, that they were to be empowered to form an armed force by their own authority.

Matthias hesitated in giving his assent to such demands, which seemed to reduce him to a cipher, conferring upon him only the shadow of a crown.  Rhodolph, however, who was eager to make any concessions, had his agents busy through the diet, with assurances that the emperor would grant all these concessions.  But Rhodolph had fallen too low to rise again.  The diet spurned all his offers, and chose Matthias, though he postponed his decision upon these articles until he could convene a future and more general diet.  Rhodolph had eagerly caught at the hope of regaining his crown.  As his messengers returned to him in the palace with the tidings of their defeat, he was overwhelmed with indignation, shame and despair.  In a paroxysm of agony he threw up his window, and looking out upon the city, exclaimed,