"The emperor," said the delegation in conclusion, "is himself the
principal author of his own distresses and misfortunes. The contempt
into which he has fallen and the disgrace which, through him, is
reflected upon the empire, is derived from his own indolence and his
obstinacy in following perverse counsels. He might have escaped all
these calamities if, instead of resigning himself to corrupt and
interested ministers, he had followed the salutary counsels of the
electors."
They closed this overwhelming announcement by demanding the immediate
assembling of a diet to elect an emperor to succeed him on the throne of
Germany. Rhodolph, not yet quite sufficiently humiliated to officiate as
his own executioner, though he promised to summon a diet, evaded the
fulfillment of his promise. The electors, not disposed to dally with him
at all, called the assembly by their own authority to meet on the 31st
of May.
This seemed to be the finishing blow. Rhodolph, now sixty years of age,
enfeebled and emaciated by disease and melancholy, threw himself upon
his bed to die. Death, so often invoked in vain by the miserable, came
to his aid. He welcomed its approach. To those around his bed he
remarked,
"When a youth, I experienced the most exquisite pleasure in returning
from Spain to my native country.
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