Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 4.djvu/282

262 The result of the conflict seemed at one time so uncertain, that the fathers at the council were thrown into the utmost agitation. Some ferocious Protestant leader might stoop down upon them out of the mountains, lying out as they were exposed upon the frontier; they desired to flutter off to some safer residence; and so much disturbed were they, that in the heat of their alarm they forgot the plainest proprieties of decorum. In an excited session one venerable prelate clutched another by the beard, and plucked out his hoary hair in handfuls; and they would have broken up and dispersed on the spot, had not the Emperor sent a message, that if they were not quiet, he would have some of them flung into the Adige.

Finding himself meanwhile too weak to risk a battle, Charles had recourse to intrigue. The Protestant leaders used their strength unskilfully, and the summer had passed without an action. With the winter, Duke Maurice of Saxe, the Landgrave's son-in-law, and, if the family of John Frederick failed, the heir of the