I must likewise exhort your
imperial majesty to take all important affairs into consideration
yourself, intreating you to recollect the example of Julius Caesar, who,
had he not neglected to read the note presented to him as he was going
to the capitol, would not have received the twenty wounds which caused
his death."
This last remark threw the emperor into a paroxysm of terror. He had
long been trembling from the apprehension of assassination. This
allusion to Julius Caesar he considered an intimation that his hour was
at hand. His terror was so great that Prince Anhalt had to assure him,
again and again, that he intended no such menace, and that he was not
aware that any conspiracy was thought of any where, for his death. The
emperor was, however, so alarmed that he promised any thing and every
thing. He doubtless intended to fulfill his promise, but subsequent
troubles arose which absorbed all his remaining feeble energies, and
obliterated past engagements from his mind.
Matthias was watching all the events with the intensest eagerness, as
affording a brilliant prospect to him, to obtain the crown of Bohemia,
and the scepter of the empire. This ambition consumed his days and his
nights, verifying the adage, "uneasy lies the head which wears a crown.
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