Heaven they may escape the serpent’s bite.”  The Prince was well aware, therefore, of the plots which were weaving against him.  He had small faith in the great nobles, whom he trusted “as he would adders fanged,” and relied only upon the communities, upon the mass of burghers.  They deserved his confidence, and watched over his safety with jealous care.  On one occasion, when he was engaged at the State Council till a late hour, the citizens conceived so much alarm, that a large number of them spontaneously armed themselves, and repaired to the palace.  The Prince, informed of the circumstance, threw open a window and addressed them, thanking them for their friendship and assuring them of his safety.  They were not satisfied, however, to leave him alone, but remained under arms below till the session was terminated, when they escorted him with affectionate respect to his own hotel.

The secret envoy arrived in Vienna, and excited the ambition of the youthful Matthias.  It must be confessed that the offer could hardly be a very tempting one, and it excites our surprise that the Archduke should have thought the adventure worth the seeking.  A most anomalous position in the Netherlands was offered to him by a slender and irresponsible faction of Netherlanders.  There was a triple prospect before him:  that of a hopeless intrigue against the first politician in Europe, a mortal combat with the most renowned conqueror of the age, a deadly feud with the most powerful and revengeful monarch in the world.  Into this threefold enterprise he was about to plunge without any adequate resources, for the Archduke possessed no experience, power, or wealth.  He brought, therefore, no strength to a cause which was itself feeble.  He could hope for no protection, nor inspire any confidence.  Nevertheless, he had courage, pliability, and a turn for political adventure.  Visions of the discomfited Philip conferring the hand of his daughter, with the Netherlands as her dowry, upon the enterprising youth who, at this juncture, should succeed in overturning the Spanish authority in that country, were conjured up by those who originated the plot, and he was weak enough to consider such absurdities plausible, and to set forth at once to take possession of this castle in the air.

On the evening of October 3rd, 1577, he retired to rest at eight o’clock feigning extreme drowsiness.  After waiting till his brother, Maximilian, who slept in another bed in the same chamber, was asleep, he slipped from his couch and from the room in his night apparel, without even putting on his slippers.  He was soon after provided by the companions of his flight with the disguise of a servant, arrayed in which, with his face blackened, he made his escape by midnight from Vienna, but it is doubtful whether Rudolph were as ignorant as he affected to be of the scheme.