Page:History of the Thirty Years' War - Gindely - Volume 1.djvu/143

 peaceful settlement. The answer of the Moravian deputation, on its return from Prague, and the defeat of Buquoi, had convinced the Emperor that in opening negotiations he must recognize the Bohemians as more nearly an equal party. He retreated entirely from the view that he could demand of them to lay down their weapons, while he remained armed. He now directed his entire action to the conclusion of an armistice, upon the basis of the present possessions of the parties; he accepted, therefore, the proposal which had been made in Prague to the Moravian envoys. He sent the High Steward of the court, Adam von Waldstein, to Prague to give notice of his assent to the armistice and to offer a peace mediation, in which several of the prominent German princes should be the mediators, naming, on the Catholic side, Duke Maximilian, of Bavaria, and the Elector of Mentz, and, on the Protestant side, the Electors of the Palatinate and Saxony. Ferdinand agreed to this mediation, for he too was frightened by the events of the war, and had, moreover, confidence in the Bavarian prince that he would make no material concessions. The mediation itself was to begin on the 20th of January, 1619.

But earnestly as Waldstein may have labored to move the Bohemian Estates to an armistice and a definite promise in relation to the opening of peace negotiations, he did not gain his end. By various evasions, Ruppa and his friends sought to delay a definitive answer. It was equally in vain that Waldstein attempted to call forth a better feeling by the offer to exchange Jessenius, now held a prisoner in Vienna, for several less important prisoners; they continued in their ambiguous attitude. It was more difficult for the Directors to maintain their