--Remarkable Despondency
of the Emperor Charles.--His Address to the Convention at Brussels.--The
Convent of St. Justus.--Charles returns to Spain.--His Convent
Life.--The mock Burial.--His Death.--His Traits of Character.--The
King's Compliment to Titian.--The Condition of Austria.--Rapid Advance
of the Turks.--Reasons for the Inaction of the Christians.--The Sultan's
Method of overcoming Difficulties.--The little Fortress of Guntz.--What
it accomplished.
The Turks, animated by this civil war which was raging in Germany, were
pressing their march upon Hungary with great vigor, and the troops of
Ferdinand were retiring discomfited before the invader. Henry of France
and the Duke of Parma were also achieving victories in Italy endangering
the whole power of the emperor over those States. Ferdinand, appalled by
the prospect of the loss of Hungary, imploringly besought the emperor to
listen to terms of reconciliation. The Catholic princes, terrified in
view of the progress of the infidel, foreseeing the entire subjection of
Europe to the arms of the Moslem unless Christendom could combine in
self-defense, joined their voices with that of Ferdinand so earnestly
and in such impassioned tones, that the emperor finally, though very
reluctantly, gave his assent to the celebrated treaty of Passau, on the
2d of August, 1552.
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