Page:History of the Thirty Years' War - Gindely - Volume 1.djvu/119

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THE OUTBREAK OF THE WAR
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forbade their war preparations. There was a desire in Vienna that Z̃erotín might be employed simply to check any revolutionary attempts in Moravia; for a measure of confidence having been fixed in him, the Emperor requested his good offices in the next Diet of Moravia. Z̃erotín promised these, and returned home. He arrived just in time to be present at the assembling of the Estates. The Diet was opened at Olmutz on the 26th of June.

This was the first meeting of the Moravian Estates since the outbreak of the insurrection. The Bohemians had sent an embassy thither, which invited the Moravians to attach themselves to the common cause. Those who favored the insurrection moved the election of envoys to visit Prague, ascertain on the ground the facts, and prepare the way of a union. The majority, however, rejected the proposition, and resolved to send a deputation to Vienna to advise the Emperor to the choice of peaceful measures against the insurgents. The resolution would not have prevailed but for the influence which Z̃erotín had already exerted in the interests of the government. He now advanced with decided step in the way upon which he had entered, and at the Diet, called for the month of August, favored granting the Emperor’s application for the passage of his troops through the country on their march against Bohemia. To the great astonishment and irritation of the abettors of the insurrection, he brought his efforts at this time also to a successful issue. The interests of Silesia were not as intimately, as were those of Moravia, connected with Bohemia. Indeed there had existed for more than a hundred years a certain enmity towards Bohemia, of which there had appeared at various times unmistakable signs. It might therefore have been supposed that this land would follow the ex-