Page:History of the Thirty Years' War - Gindely - Volume 1.djvu/146

 it was, however, thought that evil consequences might be avoided by limiting the numbers of the levy to about 12,000 and by adding provisions against the recurrence of the difficulty of insufficient supplies. The deficiency of the taxes it was thought might be met by requiring the landholders and royal cities to bring in the products of the soil, which, indeed, if promptly delivered, would be better than money. Finally the Diet resolved to resort to the confiscation of the estates of those noblemen who were hostile to the insurrection. This proved a perilous measure, which was afterwards employed with hundred-fold severity against the defeated insurgents. The confiscation was carried out against thirty-three noblemen who had shown their attachment to the imperial cause by leaving the country. Finally the Diet selected the men who were to take part in the negotiations at Eger. It did not, therefore, as the Directors had openly and secretly done, seek to prevent these, but hampered their behests with conditions which rendered their successful carrying out impossible, and were therefore equivalent to a rejection of the mediation. The Bohemian Estates would not be content with the settlement in Eger, of the religious questions at issue, and especially that the question of the ecclesiastical domains should be adjusted according to their view ; they further demanded that the King should permit them to conclude an alliance with the Estates of all the other Austrian countries for the purpose of maintaining their political and religious liberties, and through which alliance they might control the resources of the country in case of invasions of their rights by the King. If Matthias could not yield this demand because it would make his power a mere illusion, much less could he yield a second one relating to a recognition of