Page:History of the Thirty Years' War - Gindely - Volume 1.djvu/188

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150
THE THIRTY YEARS’ WAR

number of votes into the camp of the Palatinate. Ruppa understood, as did no one else, the relations abroad. If he spoke of the alliances of the Palsgrave with an almost apodictic assurance, as though these all existed in fact, and would be as a whole and severally productive for Bohemia, who of all present did not listen with pleasure to his words? Who did not yield himself to the belief that the finished picture of the orator was true to life, and that the Palsgrave would be their deliverer in this day of need?

The voting of the knighthood gave a still more brilliant result for the party of the Palatinate; 110 persons voted for the Palsgrave, and but three for the Elector John George. The burghers voted unanimously for the Palsgrave. But seven persons in the Diet declared themselves for John George, all the rest for Frederic—none for the Duke of Savoy.

The next day the result of the election was made known to the representatives of the other lands of the Bohemian crown, and they were called upon for their action. After brief consultation, the Moravians declared themselves unanimously with the Bohemians, and were followed by the Silesians, and then the Lower Lusatians; the Upper Lusatians alone preferred to give their vote for Electoral Saxony, although, in order not to bring discord into the general harmony, they also declared for the Palsgrave. Thus, in the sense of the new confederation, the election of the King was enacted by all the lands of the Bohemian crown. On the 27th of August, about noon, discharges of artillery announced the news to the people of Prague that the royal election was accomplished.

Ferdinand, who was now Emperor, received in apparent quietness, if it were not better to say with contempt, the