Page:History of the Thirty Years' War - Gindely - Volume 1.djvu/147

 the confiscations which the Diet had ordered. He could not burden himself with the disgrace of abandoning his own adherents to beggary on account of their loyalty to him.

In the midst of these negotiations death overtook the Emperor. He had long been infirm. Already, when he succeeded his brother Rudolph, he suffered from severe attacks of gout, and, as related above, it was thought in the year 1617 that he would scarcely survive the Easter festival. To these bodily ailments was added, after the abduction of Khlesl, dejection of spirit; he had lost in Khlesl not only a faithful servant, but also a companion and friend. It was not to be wondered at that he saw all things shaded with his own gloom. His sadness and sense of solitude received a fresh accession as his wife preceded him in death; he saw himself surrounded by strangers who waited impatiently for his end, and this feeling of sadness aggravated of course his ill bodily condition. His last and only diversion consisted in looking daily at the jewelry which his brother had left him, which he arranged anew, and felt pleasure in its artistic value. Having given in the last days of his life visible signs of complete exhaustion, he died on the 2oth of March, 1610.

A few months before, on the 2oth of November, 1618, had died the Archduke Maximilian. In the last moments of his life he still manifested the same anxiety for the prosperity of his house which he had so unselfishly shown in behalf of Ferdinand. When Count Oñate visited him in his last struggle with death, he so far revived as to request the Count to convey his farewell to the King of Spain, and in his name to beg of him to extend his protecting hand over the interests of the entire house. In the hope that this request would be attended to, the Archduke closed his life.