Page:History of the Thirty Years' War - Gindely - Volume 1.djvu/90

 Burggrave, speaking for the government, informed those present of the receipt of an imperial letter, and had it read to those assembled. The Estates listened to the reading without the least utterance of applause or disapprobation.

While they were considering, on the next day in the Carolinum, what answer they should return to the paper, Count Thurn, by an utterance of anxiety, threw the assembly into no small alarm. He referred to a rumor, according to which the Regents had conceived a wicked plot against the freedom and safety of the Estates, and counselled precautionary measures. This warning caused great excitement among those in attendance, and they determined to send immediately a deputation to request from the Regents, in order to remove all suspicion, that the Estates might be allowed to appear armed in the castle on the occasion of handing in their answer. There was a usage, guarded indeed by law, that no one should appear in the castle otherwise than in the usual clothing, with the customary sword, and never fully armed. If the government had really plotted their injury, then they were indeed in danger of being overpowered by the armed guard of the castle, and this the more easily as the castle gates might be closed and all aid from the city cut off. Informed of the anxiety of the Estates, the Regents hastened to dissipate this by granting the desired permission.

Not fear, however, but a well-considered plan for the overthrow of the imperial power, led Count Thurn to resort to this measure. The hour had at last come when a work which he had contemplated for years was ripe for execution. The irritation of the Protestants towards the government of the Hapsburgs had reached an extreme