CHARACTER OF MAXIMILIAN II.--SUCCESSION OF RHODOLPH III.
From 1576 to 1604.
Character of Maximilian.--His Accomplishments.--His Wife.--Fate of his
Children.--Rhodolph III.--The Liberty of Worship.--Means of
Emancipation.--Rhodolph's Attempts against Protestantism.--Declaration
of a higher Law.--Theological Differences.--The Confederacy at
Heilbrun.--The Gregorian Calendar.--Intolerance in Bohemia.--The Trap of
the Monks.--Invasion of the Turks.--Their Defeat.--Coalition with
Sigismond.--Sale of Transylvania.--Rule of Basta.--The Empire captured
and recaptured.--Devastation of the Country.--Treatment of Stephen
Botskoi.
It is indeed refreshing, in the midst of the long list of selfish and
ambitious sovereigns who have disgraced the thrones of Europe, to meet
with such a prince as Maximilian, a gentleman, a philosopher, a
philanthropist and a Christian. Henry of Valois, on his return from
Poland to France, visited Maximilian at Vienna. Henry was considered one
of the most polished men of his age. He remarked in his palace at Paris
that in all his travels he had never met a more accomplished gentleman
than the Emperor Maximilian. Similar is the testimony of all his
contemporaries. With all alike, at all times, and under all
circumstances, he was courteous and affable. His amiability shone as
conspicuously at home as abroad, and he was invariably the kind husband,
the tender father, the indulgent master and the faithful friend.
In early life he had vigorously prosecuted his studies, and thus
possessed the invaluable blessing of a highly cultivated mind. Fond of
the languages, he not only wrote and conversed in the Latin tongue with
fluency and elegance, but was quite at home in all the languages of his
extensive domains. Notwithstanding the immense cares devolving upon the
ruler of so extended an empire, he appropriated a portion of time every
day to devotional reading and prayer; and his hours were methodically
arranged for business, recreation and repose. The most humble subject
found easy access to his person, and always obtained a patient hearing.
When he was chosen King of Poland, some ambassadors from Bohemia
voluntarily went to Poland to testify to the virtues of their king. It
was a heartfelt tribute, such as few sovereigns have ever received.
"We Bohemians," said they, "are as happy under his government as if he
were our father. Our privileges, laws, rights, liberties and usages are
protected and defended. Not less just than wise, he confers the offices
and dignities of the kingdom only on natives of rank, and is not
influenced by favor or artifice. He introduces no innovations contrary
to our immunities; and when the great expenses which he incurs for the
good of Christendom render contributions necessary, he levies them
without violence, and with the approbation of the States. But what may
be almost considered a miracle is, the prudence and impartiality of his
conduct toward persons of a different faith, always recommending union,
concord, peace, toleration and mutual regard. He listens even to the
meanest of his subjects, readily receives their petitions and renders
impartial justice to all."
Not an act of injustice sullied his reign, and during his administration
nearly all Germany, with the exception of Hungary, enjoyed almost
uninterrupted tranquillity. Catholics and Protestants unite in his
praises, and have conferred upon him the surname of the Delight of
Mankind. His wife Mary was the daughter of Charles V. She was an
accomplished, exemplary woman, entirely devoted to the Catholic faith.
For this devotion, notwithstanding the tolerant spirit of her husband,
she was warmly extolled by the Catholics. Gregory XIII. called her the
firm column of the Catholic faith, and Pius V. pronounced her worthy of
being worshiped. After the death of her husband she returned to Spain,
to the bigoted court of her bigoted brother Philip. Upon reaching Madrid
she developed the spirit which dishonored her, in expressing great joy
that she was once more in a country where no heretic was tolerated. Soon
after she entered a nunnery where she remained seven years until her
death.
It is interesting briefly to trace out the history of the children of
this royal family. It certainly will not tend to make one any more
discontented to move in a humbler sphere. Maximilian left three
daughters and five sons.
Anne, the eldest daughter, was engaged to her cousin, Don Carlos, only
son of her uncle Philip, King of Spain. As he was consequently heir to
the Spanish throne, this was a brilliant match. History thus records the
person and character of Don Carlos. He was sickly and one of his legs
was shorter than the other. His temper was not only violent, but
furious, breaking over all restraints, and the malignant passions were
those alone which governed him. He always slept with two naked swords
under his pillow, two loaded pistols, and several loaded guns, with a
chest of fire-arms at the side of his bed. He formed a conspiracy to
murder his father. He was arrested and imprisoned. Choking with rage, he
called for a fire, and threw himself into the flames, hoping to
suffocate himself. Being rescued, he attempted to starve himself.
Failing in this, he tried to choke himself by swallowing a diamond. He
threw off his clothes, and went naked and barefoot on the stone floor,
hoping to engender some fatal disease. For eleven days he took no food
but ice. At length the wretched man died, and thus Anne lost her lover.
But Philip, the father of Don Carlos, and own uncle of Anne, concluded
to take her for himself. She lived a few years as Queen of Spain, and
died four years after the death of her father, Maximilian.
Elizabeth, the second daughter, was beautiful. At sixteen years of age
she married Charles IX., King of France, who was then twenty years old.
Charles IX. ascended the throne when but ten years of age, under the
regency of his infamous mother, Catherine de Medici, perhaps the most
demoniac female earth has known. Under her tutelage, her boy, equally
impotent in body and in mind, became as pitiable a creature as ever
disgraced a throne. The only energy he ever showed was in shooting the
Protestants from a window of the Louvre in the horrible Massacre of St.
Bartholomew, which he planned at the instigation of his fiend-like
mother. A few wretched years the youthful queen lived with the monster,
when his death released her from that bondage. She then returned to
Vienna, a young and childless widow, but twenty years of age. She built
and endowed the splendid monastery of St. Mary de Angelis, and having
seen enough of the pomp of the world, shut herself up from the world in
the imprisonment of its cloisters, where she recounted her beads for
nineteen years, until she died in 1592.
Margaret, the youngest daughter, after her father's death, accompanied
her mother to Spain. Her sister Anne soon after died, and Philip II.,
her morose and debauched husband, having already buried four wives, and
no one can tell how many guilty favorites, sought the hand of his young
and fresh niece. But Margaret wisely preferred the gloom of the cloister
to the Babylonish glare of the palace. She rejected the polluted and
withered hand, and in solitude and silence, as a hooded nun, she
remained immured in her cell for fifty-seven years. Then her pure spirit
passed from a joyless life on earth, we trust, to a happy home in
heaven.
Rhodolph, the eldest son, succeeded his father, and in the subsequent
pages we shall record his career.
Ernest, the second son, was a mild, bashful young man, of a temperament
so singularly melancholy that he was rarely known to smile. His brother
Rhodolph gave him the appointment of Governor of Hungary. He passed
quietly down the stream of time until he was forty-two years of age,
when he died of the stone, a disease which had long tortured him with
excruciating pangs.
Matthias, the third son, became a restless, turbulent man, whose deeds
we shall have occasion to record in connection with his brother
Rhodolph, whom he sternly and successfully opposed.
Maximilian, the fourth son, when thirty years of age was elected King of
Poland. An opposition party chose John, son of the King of Sweden. The
rival candidates appealed to the cruel arbitration of the sword. In a
decisive battle Maximilian's troops were defeated, and he was taken
prisoner. He was only released upon his giving the pledge that he
renounced all his right to the throne. He rambled about, now governing a
province, and now fighting the Turks, until he died unmarried, sixty
years of age.
Albert, the youngest son, was destined to the Church. He was sent to
Spain, and under the patronage of his royal uncle he soon rose to
exalted ecclesiastical dignities. He, however, eventually renounced
these for more alluring temporal honors. Surrendering his cardinal's
hat, and archiepiscopal robes, he espoused Isabella, daughter of Philip,
and from the governorship of Portugal was promoted to the sovereignty of
the Netherlands. Here he encountered only opposition and war. After a
stormy and unsuccessful life, in which he was thwarted in all his plans,
he died childless.
From this digression let us return to Rhodolph III., the heir to the
titles and the sovereignties of his father the emperor. It was indeed a
splendid inheritance which fell to his lot. He was the sole possessor of
the archduchy of Austria, King of Bohemia and of Hungary, and Emperor of
Germany. He was but twenty-five years of age when he entered upon the
undisputed possession of all these dignities. His natural disposition
was mild and amiable, his education had been carefully attended to, his
moral character was good, a rare virtue in those days, and he had
already evinced much industry, energy and talents for business. His
father had left the finances and the internal administration of all his
realms in good condition; his moderation had greatly mitigated the
religious animosities which disturbed other portions of Europe, and all
obstacles to a peaceful and prosperous reign seemed to have been
removed.
But all these prospects were blighted by the religious bigotry which had
gained a firm hold of the mind of the young emperor. When he was but
twelve years of age he was sent to Madrid to be educated. Philip II., of
Spain, Rhodolph's uncle, had an only daughter, and no son, and there
seemed to be no prospect that his queen would give birth to another
child. Philip consequently thought of adopting Rhodolph as his successor
to the Spanish throne, and of marrying him to his daughter. In the court
of Spain where the Jesuits held supreme sway, and where Rhodolph was
intrusted to their guidance, the superstitious sentiments which he had
imbibed from his mother were still more deeply rooted. The Jesuits found
Rhodolph a docile pupil; and never on earth have there been found a set
of men who, more thoroughly than the Jesuits, have understood the art of
educating the mind to subjection. Rhodolph was instructed in all the
petty arts of intrigue and dissimulation, and was brought into entire
subserviency to the Spanish court. Thus educated, Rhodolph received the
crown.
He commenced his reign with the desperate resolve to crush out
Protestantism, either by force or guile, and to bring back his realms to
the papal church. Even the toleration of Maximilian, in those dark days,
did not allow freedom of worship to any but the nobles. The wealthy and
emancipated citizens of Vienna, and other royal cities, could not
establish a church of their own; they could only, under protection of
the nobles, attend the churches which the nobles sustained. In other
words, the people were slaves, who were hardly thought of in any state
arrangements. The nobles were merely the slaveholders. As there was not
difference of color to mark the difference between the slaveholder and
the slaves or vassals, many in the cities, who had in various ways
achieved their emancipation, had become wealthy and instructed, and were
slowly claiming some few rights. The country nobles could assemble their
vassals in the churches where they had obtained toleration. In some few
cases some of the citizens of the large towns, who had obtained
emancipation from some feudal oppressions, had certain defined political
privileges granted them. But, in general, the nobles or slaveholders,
some having more, and some having less wealth and power, were all whom
even Maximilian thought of including in his acts of toleration. A
learned man in the universities, or a wealthy man in the walks of
commerce, was compelled to find shelter under the protection of some
powerful noble. There were nobles of all ranks, from the dukes, who
could bring twenty thousand armed men into the field, down to the most
petty, impoverished baron, who had perhaps not half a dozen vassals.
Rhodolph's first measure was to prevent the _burghers_, as they were
called, who were those who had in various ways obtained emancipation
from vassal service, and in the large cities had acquired energy, wealth
and an air of independence, from attending Protestant worship. The
nobles were very jealous of their privileges, and were prompt to combine
whenever they thought them infringed. Fearful of rousing the nobles,
Rhodolph issued a decree, confirming the toleration which his father had
granted the nobles, but forbidding the burghers from attending
Protestant worship. This was very adroitly done, as it did not interfere
with the vassals of the rural nobles on their estates; and these
burghers were freed men, over whom the nobles could claim no authority.
At the same time Rhodolph silenced three of the most eloquent and
influential of the Protestant ministers, under the plea that they
assailed the Catholic church with too much virulence; and he also
forbade any one thenceforward to officiate as a Protestant clergyman
without a license from him. These were very decisive acts, and yet very
adroit ones, as they did not directly interfere with any of the
immunities of the nobles.
The Protestants were, however, much alarmed by these measures, as
indicative of the intolerant policy of the new king. The preachers met
together to consult. They corresponded with foreign universities
respecting the proper course to pursue; and the Protestant nobles met to
confer upon the posture of affairs. As the result of their conferences,
they issued a remonstrance, declaring that they could not yield to such
an infringement of the rights of conscience, and that "they were bound
to obey God rather than man."
Rhodolph was pleased with this resistance, as it afforded him some
excuse for striking a still heavier blow. He declared the remonstrants
guilty of rebellion. As a punishment, he banished several Protestant
ministers, and utterly forbade the exercise of any Protestant worship
whatever, in any of the royal towns, including Vienna itself. He
communicated with the leading Catholics in the Church and in the State,
urging them to act with energy, concert and unanimity. He removed the
Protestants from office, and supplied their places with Catholics. He
forbade any license to preach or academical degree, or professorship in
the universities from being conferred upon any one who did not sign the
formulary of the Catholic faith. He ordered a new catechism to be drawn
up for universal use in the schools, that there should be no more
Protestant education of children; he allowed no town to choose any
officer without his approbation, and he refused to ratify any choice
which did not fall upon a Catholic. No person was to be admitted to the
rights of burghership, until he had taken an oath of submission to the
Catholic priesthood. These high-handed measures led to the outbreak of a
few insurrections, which the emperor crushed with iron rigor. In the
course of a few years, by the vigorous and unrelenting prosecution of
these measures, Rhodolph gave the Catholics the ascendency in all his
realms.
While the Catholics were all united, the Protestants were shamefully
divided upon the most trivial points of discipline, or upon abstruse
questions in philosophy above the reach of mortal minds. It was as true
then, as in the days of our Saviour, that "the children of this world
are wiser in their generation than the children of light." Henry IV., of
France, who had not then embraced the Catholic faith, was anxious to
unite the two great parties of Lutherans and Calvinists, who were as
hostile to each other as they were to the Catholics. He sent an
ambassador to Germany to urge their union. He entreated them to call a
general synod, suggesting, that as they differed only on the single
point of the Lord's Supper, it would be easy for them to form some basis
of fraternal and harmonious action.
The Catholic church received the doctrine, so called, of
_transubstantiation_; that is, the bread and wine, used in the Lord's
Supper, is converted into the actual body and blood of Jesus Christ,
that it is no longer bread and wine, but real flesh and blood; and none
the less so, because it does not appear such to our senses. Luther
renounced the doctrine of transubstantiation, and adopted, in its stead,
what he called _consubstantiation_; that is, that after the consecration
of the elements, the body and blood of Christ are substantially _present
with_ (cum et sub,) with and under, the substance of the bread and wine.
Calvin taught that the bread and wine represented the real body and
blood of Christ, and that the body and blood were _spiritually present_
in the sacrament. It is a deplorable exhibition of the weakness of good
men, that the Lutherans and the Calvinists should have wasted their
energies in contending together upon such a point. But we moderns have
no right to boast. Precisely the same spirit is manifested now, and
denominations differ and strive together upon questions which the human
mind can never settle. The spirit which then animated the two parties
may be inferred from the reply of the Lutherans.
"The partisans of Calvin," they wrote, "have accumulated such numberless
errors in regard to the person of Christ, the communication of His
merits and the dignity of human nature; have given such forced
explanations of the Scriptures, and adopted so many blasphemies, that
the question of the Lord's Supper, far from being the principal, has
become the least point of difference. An outward union, merely for
worldly purposes, in which each party is suffered to maintain its
peculiar tenets, can neither be agreeable to God nor useful to the
Church. These considerations induced us to insert into the formulary of
concord a condemnation of the Calvinistical errors; and to declare our
public decision that false principles should not be covered with the
semblance of exterior union, and tolerated under pretense of the right
of private judgment, but that all should submit to the Word of God, as
the only rule to which their faith and instructions should be
conformable."
They, in conclusion, very politely informed King Henry IV. himself, that
if he wished to unite with them, he must sign their creed. This was
sincerity, honesty, but it was the sincerity and honesty of minds but
partially disinthralled from the bigotry of the dark ages. While the
Protestants were thus unhappily disunited, the pope coöperated with the
emperor, and wheeled all his mighty forces into the line to recover the
ground which the papal church had lost. Several of the more enlightened
of the Protestant princes, seeing all their efforts paralyzed by
disunion, endeavored to heal the schism. But the Lutheran leaders would
not listen to the Calvinists, nor the Calvinists to the Lutherans, and
the masses, as usual, blindly followed their leaders.
Several of the Calvinist princes and nobles, the Lutherans refusing to
meet with them, united in a confederacy at Heilbrun, and drew up a long
list of grievances, declaring that, until they were redressed, they
should withhold the succors which the emperor had solicited to repel the
Turks. Most of these grievances were very serious, sufficiently so to
rouse men to almost any desperation of resistance. But it would be
amusing, were it not humiliating, to find among them the complaint that
the pope had changed the calendar from the Julian to the Gregorian.
By the Julian calendar, or Old Style as it was called, the solar year
was estimated at three hundred and sixty-five days and six hours; but it
exceeds this by about eleven minutes. As no allowance was made for these
minutes, which amount to a day in about one hundred and thirty years,
the current year had, in process of ages, advanced ten days beyond the
real time. Thus the vernal equinox, which really took place on the 10th
of March, was assigned in the calendar to the 21st. To rectify this
important error the New Style, or Gregorian calendar, was introduced, so
called from Pope Gregory XII. Ten days were dropped after the 4th of
October, 1582, and the 5th was called the 15th. This reform of the
calendar, correct and necessary as it was, was for a long time adopted
only by the Catholic princes, so hostile were the Protestants to any
thing whatever which originated from the pope. In their list of
grievances they mentioned this most salutary reform as one, stating that
the pope and the Jesuits presumed even to change the order of times and
years.
This confederacy of the Calvinists, unaided by the Lutherans,
accomplished nothing; but still, as year after year the disaffection
increased, their numbers gradually increased also, until, on the 12th of
February, 1603, at Heidelberg they entered into quite a formidable
alliance, offensive and defensive.
Rhodolph, encouraged by success, pressed his measure of intolerance with
renovated vigor. Having quite effectually abolished the Protestant
worship in the States of Austria, he turned his attention to Bohemia,
where, under the mild government of his father, the Protestants had
enjoyed a degree of liberty of conscience hardly known in any other part
of Europe. The realm was startled by the promulgation of a decree
forbidding both Calvinists and Lutherans from holding any meetings for
divine worship, and declaring them incapacitated from holding any
official employment whatever. At the same time he abolished all their
schools, and either closed all their churches, or placed in them
Catholic preachers. These same decrees were also promulgated and these
same measures adopted in Hungary. And still the Protestants, insanely
quarreling among themselves upon the most abstruse points of theological
philosophy, chose rather to be devoured piecemeal by their great enemy
than to combine in self-defense.
The emperor now turned from his own dominions of Austria, Hungary and
Bohemia, where he reigned in undisputed sway, to other States of the
empire, which were governed by their own independent rulers and laws,
and where the power of the emperor was shadowy and limited. He began
with the city of Aix-la-Chapelle, in a Prussian province on the Lower
Rhine; sent an army there, took possession of the town, expelled the
Protestants from the magistracy, driving some of them into exile,
inflicting heavy fines upon others, and abolishing entirely the exercise
of the Protestant religion.
He then turned to Donauworth, an important city of Bavaria, upon the
Upper Danube. This was a Protestant city, having within its walls but
few Catholics. There was in the city one Catholic religious
establishment, a Benedictine abbey. The friars enjoyed unlimited freedom
of conscience and worship within their own walls, but were not permitted
to occupy the streets with their processions, performing the forms and
ceremonies of the Catholic church. The Catholics, encouraged by the
emperor, sent out a procession from the walls of the abbey, with
torches, banners, relics and all the pageants of Catholic worship. The
magistrates stopped the procession, took away their banners and sent
them back to the abbey, and then suffered the procession to proceed.
Soon after the friars got up another procession on a funeral occasion.
The magistrates, apprehensive that this was a trap to excite them to
some opposition which would render it plausible for the emperor to
interfere, suffered the procession to proceed unmolested. In a few days
the monks repeated the experiment. The populace had now become excited,
and there were threats of violence. The magistrates, fearful of the
consequences, did every thing in their power to soothe the people, and
urged them, by earnest proclamation, to abstain from all tumult. For
some time the procession, displaying all the hated pomp of papal
worship, paraded the streets undisturbed. But at length the populace
became ungovernable, attacked the monks, demolished their pageants and
pelted them with mire back into the convent.
This was enough. The emperor published the ban of the empire, and sent
the Duke of Bavaria with an army to execute the decree. Resistance was
hopeless. The troops took possession of the town, abolished the
Protestant religion, and delivered the churches to the Catholics.
The Protestants now saw that there was no hope for them but in union.
Thus driven together by an outward pressure which was every day growing
more menacing and severe, the chiefs of the Protestant party met at
Aschhausen and established a confederacy to continue for ten years. Thus
united, they drew up a list of grievances, and sent an embassy to
present their demands to the emperor. And now came a very serious turn
in the fortunes of Rhodolph. Notwithstanding the armistice which had
been concluded with the Turks by Rhodolph, a predatory warfare continued
to rage along the borders. Neither the emperor nor the sultan, had they
wished it, could prevent fiery spirits, garrisoned in fortresses
frowning at each other, from meeting occasionally in hostile encounter.
And both parties were willing that their soldiers should have enough to
do to keep up their courage and their warlike spirit. Aggression
succeeding aggression, sometimes on one side and sometimes on the other,
the sultan at last, in a moment of exasperation, resolved to break the
truce.
A large army of Turks invaded Croatia, took several fortresses, and
marching up the valley of the Save, were opening before them a route
into the heart of the Austrian States. The emperor hastily gathered an
army to oppose them. They met before Siseck, at the confluence of the
Kulpa and the Save. The Turks were totally defeated, with the loss of
twelve thousand men. Exasperated by the defeat, the sultan roused his
energies anew, and war again raged in all its horrors. The advantage was
with the Turks, and they gradually forced their way up the valley of the
Danube, taking fortress after fortress, till they were in possession of
the important town of Raab, within a hundred miles of Vienna.
Sigismond, the waivode or governor of Transylvania, an energetic,
high-spirited man, had, by his arms, brought the provinces of Wallachia
and Moldavia under subjection to him. Having attained such power, he was
galled at the idea of holding his government under the protection of the
Turks. He accordingly abandoned the sultan, and entered into a coalition
with the emperor. The united armies fell furiously upon the Turks, and
drove them back to Constantinople.
The sultan, himself a man of exceedingly ferocious character, was
thoroughly aroused by this disgrace. He raised an immense army, placed
himself at its head, and in 1596 again invaded Hungary. He drove the
Austrians everywhere before him, and but for the lateness of the season
would have bombarded Vienna. Sigismond, in the hour of victory, sold
Transylvania to Rhodolph for the governorship of some provinces in
Silesia, and a large annual pension. There was some fighting before the
question was fully settled in favor of the emperor, and then he placed
the purchased and the conquered province under the government of the
imperial general Basta.
The rule of Basta was so despotic that the Transylvanians rose in
revolt, and under an intrepid chief, Moses Tzekeli, appealed to the
Turks for aid. The Turks were rejoiced again to find the Christians
divided, and hastened to avail themselves of the coöperation of the
disaffected. The Austrians were driven from Transylvania, and the Turks
aided in crowning Tzekeli Prince of Transylvania, under the protection
of the Porte. The Austrians, however, soon returned in greater force,
killed Tzekeli in the confusion of battle, and reconquered the country.
During all this time wretched Hungary was ravaged with incessant wars
between the Turks and Austrians. Army after army swept to and fro over
the smoldering cities and desolated plains. Neither party gained any
decisive advantage, while Hungary was exposed to misery which no pen can
describe. Cities were bombarded, now by the Austrians and now by the
Turks, villages were burned, harvests trodden down, every thing eatable
was consumed. Outrages were perpetrated upon the helpless population by
the ferocious Turks which can not be told.
The Hungarians lost all confidence in Rhodolph. The bigoted emperor was
so much engaged in the attempt to extirpate what he called heresy from
his realms, that he neglected to send armies sufficiently strong to
protect Hungary from these ravages. He could have done this without much
difficulty; but absorbed in his hostility to Protestantism, he merely
sent sufficient troops to Hungary to keep the country in a constant
state of warfare. He filled every important governmental post in Hungary
with Catholics and foreigners. To all the complaints of the Hungarians
he turned a deaf ear; and his own Austrian troops frequently rivaled the
Turks in devastation and pillage. At the same time he issued the most
intolerant edicts, depriving the Protestants of all their rights, and
endeavoring to force the Roman Catholic religion upon the community.
He allowed, and even encouraged, his rapacious generals to insult and
defraud the Protestant Hungarian nobles, seizing their castles,
confiscating their estates and driving them into exile. This oppression
at last became unendurable. The people were driven to despair. One of
the most illustrious nobles of Hungary, a magnate of great wealth and
distinction, Stephen Botskoi, repaired to Prague to inform the emperor
of the deplorable state of Hungary and to seek redress. He was treated
with the utmost indignity; was detained for hours in the ante-chamber of
the emperor, where he encountered the most cutting insults from the
minions of the court. The indignation of the high-spirited noble was
roused to the highest pitch. And when, on his return to Hungary, he
found his estates plundered and devastated by order of the imperial
governor, he was all ready to head an insurrection.