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Rh But he soon shewed his real intentions, for by his craftiness and underhand movements, he contrived, with the assistance of the bishops of Hungary, to carry his point that the pope should be allowed to appoint a nuncio [hauptmann] in Hungary, who should be dependent solely upon himself. He had also the effrontery to state before Herberstein that he himself had given his acquiescence to this arrangement. But as Herberstein had the firmness to declare this statement to be untrue, the wily ambassador did not gain his object, and mainly through Herberstein’s adroitness, the adoption of a nuncio was contravened. He was very active all the time he was in Buda, and proved himself a very able diplomatist. He left that city for Augsburg, where Maximilian was holding his last diet before his death, a diet especially celebrated for the presence of Martin Luther, who had been summoned thither by the pope’s nuncio, cardinal Cajetan, on the question of the famous ninety-five propositions.

In October 1518, the estates of Styria appointed Herberstein to be their councillor at the imperial court, and the emperor confirmed his appointment. Maximilian died on the 12th of January 1519, and Herberstein was one of the bearers of the imperial pall at the funeral. Maximilian had ordered that all the affairs of the government should remain unaltered until the arrival of his successor, and therefore had appointed a special regency; but several provinces, and more especially Lower Austria, took advantage of the interregnum for introducing alterations in their con-