and Christians—­were lying dead or wounded on the banks of a nameless little stream which flows into the Theisa, and the commanders-in-chief of both armies were running away as fast as horses could carry them.  Each army believed itself hopelessly defeated, and abandoning tents, baggage, artillery, ammunition, the remnants of each, betook themselves to panic-stricken flight.  Generalissimo Maximilian never looked behind him as he fled, until he had taken refuge in Kaschan, and had thence made his way, deeply mortified and despondent, to Vienna.  The Prince of Transylvania retreated into the depths of his own principality.  Mahomet, with his principal officers, shut himself up in Buda, after which he returned to Constantinople and abandoned himself for a time to a voluptuous ease, inconsistent with the Ottoman projects of conquering the world.  The Turks, less prone to desperation than the Christians, had been utterly overthrown in the early part of the action, but when the victors were, as usual, greedily bent upon plunder before the victory had been fairly secured, the tide of battle was turned by the famous Italian renegade Cicala.  The Turks, too, had the good sense to send two days afterwards and recover their artillery, trains, and other property, which ever since the battle had been left at the mercy of the first comers.

So ended the Turkish campaign of the year 1596.  Ancel, accordingly, fared ill in his negotiations with Germany.  On the other hand Mendoza, Admiral of Arragon, had been industriously but secretly canvassing the same regions as the representative of the Spanish king.  It was important for Philip, who put more faith in the league of the three powers than Henry himself did, to lose no time in counteracting its influence.  The condition of the holy Roman empire had for some time occupied his most serious thoughts.  It seemed plain that Rudolph would never marry.  Certainly he would never marry the Infanta, although he was very angry that his brother should aspire to the hand which he himself rejected.  In case of his death without children, Philip thought it possible that there might be a Protestant revolution in Germany, and that the house of Habsburg might lose the imperial crown altogether.  It was even said that the emperor himself was of that opinion, and preferred that the empire should “end with his own life.”  Philip considered that neither Matthias nor Maximilian was fit to succeed their brother, being both of them “lukewarm in the Catholic faith.”  In other words, he chose that his destined son-in-law, the Cardinal Albert, should supersede them, and he was anxious to have him appointed as soon as possible King of the Romans.