Page:History of the Thirty Years' War - Gindely - Volume 1.djvu/113

 upon him to move with all possible energy against the insurgents.

Ferdinand and Maximilian laid the whole blame of the delay in preparing for war on Cardinal Khlesl, and as they saw no help while he remained at the Emperor’s side, they resolved upon an act of violence, of which Oñate also approved. The question was, how they could entice the Cardinal to a place where they might seize his person. To this end, Maximilian, on the 19th of July, made him a visit, which Khlesl on the following day returned. When, however, he entered the apartments which led to the Archduke he was stopped in the ante-room by confidential servants of the latter, and bidden exchange his cardinal’s robes for the ordinary garments of a priest. Khlesl, who too late perceived that violence was meant, refused to obey, but was roughly handled by Count Dampierre, and threatened with an ill fate if he refused compliance. Thus intimidated, he obeyed, and was led by a covered way to the bastion, placed in a carriage, and, with a cavalry escort under Dampierre’s command, driven away. The company proceeded with great haste in the direction of the new city, Vienna. When the Cardinal saw this city he thought that his journey would end there, and that he would there be held a prisoner. But this conjecture was erroneous; the course of the drive continued farther and still farther into the mountains. He perceived that his fate was sealed; that he was in a province over which the imperial authority did not extend, and tears uttered the anguish of his soul. The journey was by way of Styria and Carinthia to the Tyrol. Where the carriage could not be driven, a sedan-chair was used, and the party did not finally halt until it reached the Castle of Ambas, near Innspruck, where the prisoner was placed under strict guard.