led the way with lanterns, and thus, through the inundated and storm-swept defiles of the mountains, they fled with their helpless sovereign through the long hours of the tempestuous night, not daring to stop one moment lest they should hear behind them the clatter of the iron hoofs of their pursuers.  What a change for one short month to produce!  What a comment upon earthly grandeur!  It is well for man in the hour of most exultant prosperity to be humble.  He knows not how soon he may fall.  Instructive indeed is the apostrophe of Cardinal Wolsey, illustrated as the truth he utters is by almost every page of history: 

  “This is the state of man; to-day he puts forth
   The tender leaves of hope, to-morrow blossoms,
   The third day comes a frost, a killing frost;
   And when he thinks, good easy man, full surely
   His greatness is a ripening—­nips his root,
   And then he falls as I do.”

The fugitive emperor did not venture to stop for refreshment or repose until he had reached the strong town of Villach in Carinthia, nearly one hundred and fifty miles west of Innspruck.  The troops of Maurice soon entered the city which the emperor had abandoned, and the imperial palace was surrendered to pillage.  Heroic courage, indomitable perseverance always commands respect.  These are great and noble qualities, though they may be exerted in a bad cause.  The will of Charles was unconquerable.  In these hours of disaster, tortured with pain, driven from his palace, deserted by his allies, impoverished, and borne upon his litter in humiliating flight before his foes, he was just as determined to enforce his plans as in the most brilliant hour of victory.

He sent his brother Ferdinand and other ambassadors to Passau to meet Maurice, and mediate for a settlement of the difficulties.  Maurice now had no need of diplomacy.  His demands were simple and reasonable.  They were, that the emperor should liberate his father-in-law from captivity, tolerate the Protestant religion, and grant to the German States their accustomed liberty.  But the emperor would not yield a single point.  Though his brother Ferdinand urged him to yield, though his Catholic ambassadors intreated him to yield, though they declared that if he did not they should be compelled to abandon his cause and make the best terms for themselves with the conqueror that they could, still nothing could bend his inflexible will, and the armies, after the lull of a few days, were again in motion.  The despotism of the emperor we abhor; but his indomitable perseverance and unconquerable energy are worthy of all admiration and imitation.  Had they but been exerted in a good cause!

CHAPTER IX.

CHARLES V. AND THE TURKISH WARS.

From 1552 to 1555.