Nerved by such a spirit, Ferdinand was prepared to endure all things rather than yield the slightest point.  Hour after hour his situation became more desperate, and still he remained inflexible.  Balls from the batteries of Count Thurn struck even the walls of his palace; murmurs filled the streets, and menaces rose to his ears from beneath his windows.  “Let us put his evil counselors to the sword,” the disaffected exclaimed; “shut him up in a convent; and educate his children in the Protestant religion.”

At length the crisis had apparently arrived.  Insurrection was organized.  Clamorous bands surged through the streets, and there was a state of tumult which no police force could quell.  A band of armed men burst into the palace, forced their way into the presence of Ferdinand, and demanded the surrender of the city.  At that moment, when Ferdinand might well have been in despair, the unexpected sound of trumpets was heard in the streets, and the tramp of a squadron of cavalry.  The king was as much amazed as were the insurgents.  The deputies, not knowing what it meant, in great alarm retreated from the palace.  The squadron swept the streets, and surrounded the palace.  They had been sent to the city by the general who had command of the Austrian forces, and, arriving at full speed, had entered unexpectedly at the only gate which the besiegers had not guarded.

Their arrival, as if by heavenly commission, and the tidings they brought of other succor near at hand, reanimated the king and his partisans, and instantly the whole aspect of things within the city was changed.  Six hundred students in the Roman Catholic institutions of the city flew to arms, and organized themselves as a body-guard of the king.  All the zealous Catholics formed themselves into military bands, and this encouraged that numerous neutral party, always existing in such seasons of uncertainty, ready to join those who shall prove to be the strongest.  The Protestants fled from the city, and sought protection under the banners of Count Thurn.

In the meantime the Catholics in Bohemia, taking advantage of the absence of Count Thurn with his troops, had surrounded Prague, and were demanding its capitulation.  This rendered it necessary for the Bohemian army immediately to strike their tents and return to Bohemia.  Never was there a more sudden and perfect deliverance.  It was, however, deliverance only from the momentary peril.  The great elements of discontent and conflict remained unchanged.

It was very evident that the difficulties which Ferdinand had to encounter in his Austrian dominions, were so immense that he could not hope to surmount them without foreign aid.  He consequently deemed it a matter important above all others to secure the imperial throne.  Without this strength the loss of all his Austrian possessions was inevitable.  With the influence and the power which the crown of Germany would confer upon him he could hope to gain all.  Ferdinand