Page:History of the Thirty Years' War - Gindely - Volume 1.djvu/116

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80
THE THIRTY YEARS’ WAR

terms with the imperial house, did not hesitate to arrest the Bohemian agent and deliver him up at Vienna. This act was indeed averse to the sympathies of the majority of the Hungarian Diet; still there was no one to protest against it. The majority was content at the time to assure the Bohemian Estates, in writing, of their sympathy, and exhort them to a peaceful settlement. At the same time also the Emperor’s application for aid in the contest with the insurrection was refused, and the Hungarian Estates persevered in their neutrality.

Nor was the case very different in the Archduchy of Austria. The Diet of Upper Austria, on hearing of the events at Prague, advised the Emperor to peace as early as in the month of June; prevented the march of troops through its territory; the Estates even garrisoned the defiles of the land, in order to resist this by force, and only after repeated requests showed themselves somewhat more inclined to the imperial wishes by granting a small subsidy. In Lower Austria, although there was no attempt to close the passes against the imperial troops, yet all applications for aid were rejected, and the Bohemian insurrection was viewed as a foreign matter, about which they need not concern themselves. Vienna only, whose population was chiefly Catholic, granted the Emperor a subsidy of 14,000 and a loan of 30,000 thalers.

There was anxiety in Vienna at first in regard to Moravia, while in Bohemia it was confidently expected that the Estates of this neighboring land would offer their warmest sympathies, and soon their aid, to the insurrection. If Carl von Z̃erotín, the honored leader of the Protestant Estates there, had raised his voice in favor of the movement, there would have been an end at once of the imperial authority in Moravia. But this remarkable