Page:History of the Thirty Years' War - Gindely - Volume 1.djvu/172

 their King and the Estates could be dealt with as his subjects. This declaration was favorably entertained by the ecclesiastical Electors; and as it would be necessary to inform the insurgents of this decision of Ferdinand, and to have various preliminary counsellings before the negotiations with them could be opened, the spiritual Electors were in favor of proceeding, in the next following session, to the election of an Emperor, after which the Bohemian dispute should be settled under the mediation of the whole Electoral College. The envoys of the Palatinate declared themselves against this proposal, as required by their instructions; those of Brandenburg joined in this declaration, and those of Saxony declared that they were without sufficient authority. The representatives of the temporal Electors were then requested to seek new instructions from their sovereigns, and, until the arrival of these, all further business was to be adjourned.

In the meantime Lord Doncaster arrived in the neighborhood of Frankfort, which city he might not enter, on account of the imperial election,and besought Count Oñate, who had made the journey to Frankfort in Ferdinand’s company, and taken lodgings in Höchst, for an interview, in which he again urged the immediate entrance upon the peace negotiations, and again proposed his sovereign for this business. But neither this interview, nor a second one, at which the Imperial Privy Counsellor, Count Trautmansdorff, was present, secured his end; he was entertained with evasions, which showed him distinctly enough that Ferdinand reckoned upon the triumph of his arms, and was not at all sincerely thinking of the mediation of the Electoral College. The rage which seized the party of the Palatinate, as they observed this ever-increasing obstinacy, showed itself during these days, when a cavalry