have not explained; that they imposed upon Charles is certain, for he still continued not only to prosecute his plan, as well concerning the Interim as the council, with the same ardor, but to place the same confidence in Maurice, with regard to the execution of both.

The Pope's resolution concerning the council not being yet known at Augsburg, the chief business of the Diet was to enforce the observation of the Interim. As the senate of Magdeburg, notwithstanding various endeavors to frighten or to soothe them into compliance, not only persevered obstinately in their opposition to the Interim, but began to strengthen the fortifications of their city, and to levy troops in their own defense, Charles required the Diet to assist him in quelling this audacious rebellion against a decree of the empire.

A resolution was taken to raise troops in order to besiege the city in form; and persons were named to fix the contingent in men or money to be furnished by each state. At the same time, the Diet petitioned that Maurice might be intrusted with the command of that army; to which Charles gave his consent with great alacrity, and with high encomiums upon the wisdom of the choice which they had made. As Maurice conducted all his schemes with profound and impenetrable secrecy, it is probable that he took no step avowedly in order to obtain this charge. The recommendation of his countrymen was either purely accidental, or flowed from the opinion generally entertained of his great abilities; and neither the Diet had any foresight, nor the Emperor any dread, of the consequences which followed upon this nomination. Maurice accepted, without hesitation, the command to which he was recommended, instantly discerning the important advantages which he might derive from having it committed to him. . .

By this time Maurice, having almost finished his intrigues and preparations, was on the point of declaring his intentions. openly, and of taking the field against the Emperor. His first care, after he came to this resolution, was to disclaim that narrow and bigoted maxim of the confederates of Smalkalde, which had led them to shun all connection with foreigners. He had observed how fatal this had been to their cause; and, instructed by their error, he was as eager to court the protection of Henry II. as they had been solicitous to prevent the interposition of Francis I. Happily for him, he found Henry in a disposition to listen to the first overture on his part, and

in a situation which enabled him to bring the whole force of the French monarchy into action. Henry had long observed the progress of the Emperor's arms with jealousy, and wished to distinguish himself by entering the lists against the same enemy whom it had been the glory of his father's reign to

oppose.

John de Fienne, Bishop of Bayonne, whom Henry had sent into Germany, under pretense of hiring troops to be employed in Italy, was empowered to conclude a treaty in form with Maurice and his associates. As it would have been very indecent in a King of France to have undertaken the defense of the Protestant church, the interests of religion, how much soever they might be affected by the treaty, were not once mentioned in any of the articles. Religious concerns they pretended to commit entirely to the disposition of Divine Providence; the only motives assigned for their present confederacy against Charles were, to procure the Landgrave liberty, and to prevent the subversion of the ancient constitution and laws of the German empire. In order to accomplish these ends, it was agreed that all the contracting parties should at the same time declare war against the Emperor; that neither peace nor truce should be made but by common consent, nor without including each of the confederates; that in order to guard against the inconveniences of anarchy, or of pretensions to joint command, Maurice should be acknowledged as head of the German confederates, with absolute authority in all military affairs; that Maurice and his associates should bring into the field seven thousand horse, with a proportional number of infantry; that towards the subsistence of this army, during the first three months of the war, Henry should contribute two hundred and forty thousand crowns, and afterwards sixty thousand crowns a month, as long as they continued in arms; that Henry should attack the Emperor on the side of Lorraine with a powerful army; that if it were found requisite to elect a new Emperor, such a person shall be nominated as shall be agreeable to the King of France. This treaty was concluded on the fifth of October, some time before Magdeburg surrendered; and the preparatory negotiations were conducted with such profound secrecy, that of all the princes who afterwards acceded to it, Maurice communicated what he was carrying on to two only, John Albert, the reigning Duke of Mecklenburg, and William of Hesse, the Landgrave's eldest son. The league itself was

no less anxiously concealed, and with such fortunate care, that no rumor concerning it reached the ears of the Emperor or his ministers; nor do they seem to have conceived the most distant suspicion of such a transaction.

At the same time, with a solicitude which was careful to draw some accession of strength from every quarter, Maurice applied to Edward VI. of England, and requested a subsidy of four hundred thousand crowns for the support of a confederacy formed in defense of the Protestant religion. But the factions which prevailed in the English court during the minority of that Prince, and which deprived both the councils and arms of the nation of their wonted vigor, left the English ministers neither time nor inclination to attend to foreign affairs, and prevented Maurice's obtaining that aid which their zeal for the Reformation would have prompted them to grant him.

Maurice employed artifices still more refined to conceal his machinations, to amuse the Emperor, and to gain time. He affected to be more solicitous than ever to find out some expedient for removing the difficulties with regard to the safe-conduct for the Protestant divines appointed to attend the council, so that they might repair thither without any apprehension of danger. His ambassadors at Trent had frequent conferences concerning this matter with the Imperial ambassadors in that city, and laid open their sentiments to them with the appearance of the most unreserved confidence. He was willing, at last, to have it believed, that he thought all differences with respect to this preliminary article were on the point of being adjusted; and in order to give credit to this opinion, he commanded Melanchthon, together with his brethren, to set out on their journey to Trent. At the same time, he held a close correspondence with the Imperial court at Inspruck, and renewed on every occasion his professions not only of fidelity, but of attachment to the Emperor. He talked continually of his intention of going to Inspruck in person; he gave orders to hire a house for him in that city, and to fit it up with the greatest dispatch for his reception.

But, profoundly skilled as Maurice was in the arts of deceit, and impenetrable as he thought the veil to be, under which he concealed his designs, there were several things in his conduct which alarmed the Emperor amidst his security, and tempted him frequently to suspect that he was meditating something extraordinary. As these suspicions took their rise from

circumstances inconsiderable in themselves, or of an ambiguous as well as uncertain nature, they were more than counterbalanced by Maurice's address; and the Emperor would not lightly give up his confidence in a man whom he had once trusted and loaded with favors. One particular alone seemed to be of such consequence, that he thought it necessary to demand an explanation with regard to it. The troops which George of Mecklenburg had taken into pay after the capitulation of Magdeburg, having fixed their quarters in Thuringia, lived at discretion on the lands of the rich ecclesiastics in their neighborhood. Their license and rapaciousness were intolerable. Such as felt or dreaded their exactions complained loudly to the Emperor, and represented them as a body of men. kept in readiness for some desperate enterprise. But Maurice, partly by extenuating the enormities of which they had been guilty, partly by representing the impossibility of disbanding these troops, or of keeping them to regular discipline, unless the arrears still due to them by the Emperor were paid, either removed the apprehensions which this had occasioned, or, as Charles was not in a condition to satisfy the demands of these soldiers, obliged him to be silent with regard to the matter.

The time of action was now approaching. Maurice had privately dispatched Albert of Brandenburg to Paris, in order to confirm his league with Henry, and to hasten the march of the French army. He had taken measures to bring his own subjects together on the first summons; he had provided for the security of Saxony, while he should be absent with the army; and he held the troops in Thuringia, on which he chiefly depended, ready to advance on a moment's warning. All these complicated operations were carried on without being discovered by the court at Inspruck; and the Emperor remained there in perfect tranquillity, busied entirely in counteracting the intrigues of the Pope's legate at Trent, and in settling the conditions on which the Protestant divines should be admitted into the council, as if there had not been any transaction of greater moment in agitation.

This credulous security in a prince who, by his sagacity in observing the conduct of all around him, was commonly led to an excess of distrust, may seem unaccountable, and has been imputed to infatuation. But besides the exquisite address with which Maurice concealed his intentions, two circumstances contributed to the delusion. The gout had returned upon

Charles soon after his arrival at Inspruck, with an increase of violence; and his constitution being broken by such frequent attacks, he was seldom able to exert his natural vigor of mind, or to consider affairs with his usual vigilance and penetration: and Granvelle, Bishop of Arras, his prime minister, though one of the most subtle statesmen of that or perhaps of any age, was on this occasion the dupe of his own craft. He entertained such an high opinion of his own abilities, and held the political talents of the Germans in such contempt, that he despised all the intimations given him concerning Maurice's secret machinations, or the dangerous designs which he was carrying on. When the Duke of Alva, whose dark suspicious mind harbored many doubts concerning the Elector's sincerity, proposed calling him immediately to court to answer for his conduct, Granvelle replied with great scorn that these apprehensions were groundless, and that a drunken German head was too gross to form any scheme which he could not easily penetrate and baffle.

Nor did he assume this peremptory tone merely from confidence in his own discernment; he had bribed two of Maurice's ministers, and received from them frequent and minute information concerning all their master's motions. But through this very channel, by which he expected to gain access to all Maurice's counsels, and even to his thoughts, such intelligence was conveyed to him as completed his deception. Maurice fortunately discovered the correspondence of the two traitors with Granvelle; but instead of punishing them for their crime, he dexterously availed himself of their fraud, and turned his own arts against the bishop. He affected to treat these ministers with greater confidence than ever; he admitted them to his consultations; he seemed to lay open his heart to them; and taking care all the while to let them be acquainted with nothing but what it was his interest should be known, they transmitted to Inspruck such accounts as possessed Granvelle with a firm belief of his sincerity as well as good intentions. The Emperor himself, in the fullness of security, was so little moved by a memorial, in the name of the ecclesiastical electors, admonishing him to be on his guard against Maurice, that he made light of this intelligence; and his answer to them abounds with declarations of his entire and confident reliance on the fidelity as well as attachment of that prince.

At last Maurice's preparations were completed, and he had the satisfaction to find that his intrigues and designs were still