two red hats for his brother and another relative at his choice, and 30,000 crowns for himself. Alarcon refused the bribe, doubled his vigilance, and forbade his officers and men to accept any of the presents with which their prisoner endeavoured to win them to his wishes. This inconvenient fidelity did not lose the brave Castilian the favour of the Pontiff, who always acknowledged the courtesy and kindness with which his jailor fulfilled his disagreeable duties. Alarcon did not approve the policy of the master whom he served so well. Regarding the imprisonment of the Holy Father with the feelings partly of a politician and partly of an old Christian who had fought against the Moor, he used his best exertions to bring it to an end. "It is an "unseemly thing," he wrote to Don Hugo de Moncada, " and it gives the Emperor a bad name, and causes the very stones of "Christendom to rise against him I believe the Pope, as a man, "has deserved at God's hands all he has endured; but as to the place "of God which he fills, that, in my opinion, ought to be treated with "more respect."

The Pontiff's release seems in the end to have been mainly owing to the apprehensions of the Emperor, when he discovered that as Alarcon wrote many other men thought, and that his own attempt to hoax God and man about his share in the captivity of his Holiness had been only partially successful. Catholic Europe began to be shocked at the Holy Roman Emperor keeping Christ's Vicar in durance, and all Europe to be alarmed at the rapid growth of the imperial power. Henry VIII. had already broken off his friendly relations with Charles, and allied himself to Francis I. Don Hugo de Moncada, the new Viceroy of Naples, was therefore ordered to Rome, to conclude, for the second time, an arrangement for the Pope's liberation. He came on the 31st of October, and was engaged in the business for several weeks. From some of the harder conditions of the capitulation, especially that which imposed retirement into the enemy's power at Naples, the Pontiff bought relief with more gold, which he obtained by a further sale of the Roman purple. Difficulties, distrust, and disloyalty marked the progress of the negotiations, from their commencement in May to their close in December. Everything, to all appearance, settled, the 9th of December was fixed for the Pope's restoration to liberty. But on the night of the 8th Clement put on an old cloak and slouched hat, and the pack of a pedlar, and in that disguise, eluding the notice of the sentinels, stole out of the castle. At a postern of the Vatican he found a swift horse and a single attendant, placed there, it was said, by his old enemy Cardinal Colonna; and riding all night, he made his way to Orvietto. Rome was not relieved of the remains of the army of Bourbon until the spring of 1528, the occupation having lasted ten months. Nor was it till the 6th of October in that year that Clement, pale, sick, and dejected, returned to his ruined and desecrated capital, over which, at the moment of his entry, burst a storm of unusual violence, which was followed by extraordinary floods.

In the winter of 1529 the Emperor and the Pope met by agreement in the Papal town of Bologna, and Charles piously kissed the foot of his late prisoner. Peace was made between them at the price

of the liberties of unhappy Florence, which the imperial troops were sent to reduce to obedience to the vile yoke of the Medici. They passed some weeks together in apparent cordiality, and on the 22nd and 24th of February 1530, the crowns of the Roman Empire and of Lombardy were placed on the brow of Charles by the hands of Clement.'

Although Charles V. passed his life in arms, and war was the chief business of his reign, it must be confessed that his military talents added little to his fame. He was not at Pavia, when his more chivalrous and martial rival, Francis, surrendered his sword to Lannoy. He was not at Rome when Bourbon sacked the city, and the Pope became the prisoner of the Emperor. It was not till 1532 that he for the first time took the command of a great army against Solyman the Magnificent, and, although the result of the campaign was successful, it was not marked by any great achievement. The expedition against Tunis was, perhaps, the most brilliant of his personal exploits, for he vanquished Barbarossa, and set free 20,000 Christian slaves. But he failed at Algiers, and the close of his reign was marked by reverses which sometimes threatened the personal safety of the Emperor. There is, therefore, a sort of arrogance in the title of a work like that of Heemskerck; and the chief victories of Charles V. were due to his generals and to his knowledge of mankind more than to his own prowess.

The great contest of his life was not so much in the wars of honour and political rivalry which he waged against France and the Turk, as in the memorable struggle against the Protestant League. Although in 1545 and the following years the physical strength of Charles was abated by his infirmities, and the idea of a premature abdication had already

There is, however, a tradition that in his boyhood he was more addicted to arms and sports than to severer studies; and Sir William has exhumed from an old Saxon chronicle by one David Chytræus, the following characteristic anecdote :-'In 1547, Charles V. sent for Lucas Cranach the elder, who was then in attendance on his master, 'the Elector John Frederick, in order that he might see a picture which 'the painter had just finished. It was there, in his camp before Wit'tenberg, that the Emperor asked Cranach if he could tell him how old 'he was when a portrait of him, by Cranach, then in his cabinet at Mechlin, was painted. "Your Majesty," said the painter," was then eight years old, and looking about you as boys will, your tutor, to "keep your attention fixed, hung up a fine sword on the wall. You never turned your eyes away from it, and I was able to finish my picture." Before he took his leave, the loyal Saxon pleaded for his 'captive master, and received a gracious reply as well as a present.'

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occupied his thoughts, he displayed in those campaigns an energy and a skill not shown in any of his more youthful expeditions. He temporised as long as possible with the chiefs of the Reformation in Germany. His policy towards them even towards Luther and his followers -was not marked by the intolerant bigotry of his less glorious son. The Protestant form of worship was tolerated in the Imperial camp. But he was resolved to vindicate the authority of the Empire and to defend the unity of the faith. Several of the princely families of Germany, already Protestant, and subsequently most attached to the Protestant cause-Joachim of Brandenburg, Frederick the Elector Palatine, even Maurice of Saxony, had been prevented by his diplomacy from joining the League. It consisted mainly of Electoral Saxony, Hessen, Würtemburg, and the Imperial cities. The mustering place was at Ulm; and the Protestant army assembled 70,000 or 80,000 foot, 10,000 horse, and 130 guns. Had they attacked the Emperor at once, before the Papal and Spanish troops joined him through the Tyrol, the result might have been different. Charles, aware of his danger and resolved to meet it, declared, 'Dead or alive, I remain in Germany.'

Although sorely troubled by his old enemy the gout, the Emperor went everywhere and saw everything. Sometimes he had to use a litter, but he was most commonly on horseback, riding with his right foot supported by a cloth bandage instead of a stirrup. One day, near Solten, it appeared that the enemy were about to attack him in force, and the Duke of Alba was preparing for a battle. "If they want to fight," said Charles, "I am sure I desire it no less," and, calling for his cuirass and arm-pieces, he caused them to be fastened on as he sat in the saddle, being unable to alight without great difficulty. One bitter snowy night, during a forced march, he was still on horseback at midnight; and once, he took the command of the troops ordered to support a night attack led by Alba. The attack was not made, because the enemy had been forewarned; so the Emperor passed part of the night wrapped in a wolf-skin cloak in a covered cart, and returned to the camp with his soldiers before the dawn of a winter's morning. When the army was encamped, he was always riding about, observing its discipline and condition, or exploring the adjacent country. At the dinner-hour he would halt and make his meal with the nearest regiment. The pious soldiery of Spain were sometimes edified by seeing, through the tent-door, left open on purpose, their Emperor kneeling in prayer before a crucifix. In spite of his infirm health, he neglected none of the arts of a popular general; and the historian of the League confessed that in times of "so great danger, the Emperor's heart and courage was wonderful good, and not only declared no token of fear himself, but also boldened others exceedingly."

'As autumn faded into winter, the weather became very severe.

Heavy rains soaked the ground, and flooded the rivers, made quagmires of the roads, checked the passage of supplies, and produced much disease and misery in both camps. Frost of unusual intensity followed; sentinels were frozen to death on their posts, and frost-bitten noses and eyes, fingers and toes, were rife in both armies. Each host hoped that the other would be broken up by the hardships common to both.'

The chief command of the Imperial forces was vested in the Duke of Alva-not then the sanguinary zealot who was stained with the blood of the Netherlanders, but a young captain of thirty-eight, known for his skill and energy in war, his loyalty to the House of Austria, and even for his taste in the polite arts. The Imperial army consisted of 35,000 foot, and between 3,000 and 4,000 horse. Again, after the socalled bombardment of Ingolstadt, the Emperor owed his safety to the hesitation of his enemies; and their subsequent division and retreat left him at liberty to open his communications with the Low Countries. But that retreat was the result of Charles's diplomacy. He had suborned Maurice of Saxony to betray the cause of his family and his faith by a promise of aggrandisement at the cost of his nearest kinsman; and it was the perfidious attack of Maurice on Electoral Saxony which compelled John Frederick the Elector reluctantly to separate from his allies, and march back to defend his own territories. The separation was fatal; the theatre of war was transferred from the Danube to the Elbe; and John Frederick stood alone in his encounters with the forces of Spain and the Empire. The result was the destruction of his branch of the House of Saxony for many generations, and the extinction of the League. The final contest, and the most memorable day of the life of Charles, was reserved for the following year, when on the 24th of April, 1547, after the battle of Mühlberg, John Frederick of Saxony was, like Francis and the Pope in former days, brought a prisoner to the Imperial camp.*

Sir William Stirling Maxwell has illustrated the tenth of Heemskerck's plates which represents this scene, with extracts from the Commentaries of Don Luis de Avila, translated into English by one John Wilkinson, and published in London in 1555. The rarity of the book and the spirit with which it tells that heroic tale, leads us to think the narrative will not be read without interest.

Heemskerck gives us no design of the battle of Mühlberg, but only of the surrender of John Frederick after his defeat. Sir William has supplied this deficiency by re-producing a very fine engraving of the passage of the Elbe, by Eneas Vico, from the collection of Alfred Morrison, Esq.

"The Elector, whose army was much scattered over his own territory and Bohemia, was neither prepared to meet them nor disposed to believe in their approach. He himself was now at Meissen, a town which he had taken from Duke Maurice, with about 6,000 foot, and 2,000 or 3,000 horse. Upon hearing that the enemy was in motion, he broke down the bridge of Meissen, and slowly retired along the right bank of the Elbe, towards his capital of Wittenberg. In that stronghold, at Gotha, and other fortresses, he possessed resources by which, in the opinion of Avila, he might have protracted the war for years. To cut him off from these places was the present object of Charles, who had therefore intended crossing the river at Meissen, and bringing him to a battle. But having arrived within three leagues of Meissen, and learning that the Elector had retired, the Emperor determined to follow the course of the stream and the Saxons, and cross the river lower down at Mühlberg. On the evening of the 23d of April, he was informed that John Frederick was in that town. He therefore pushed on, and during the night halted on the bank opposite to Mühlberg.

"This," said Avila, "is the Elbe, so often named by the Romans, " and so seldom seen of them." It is here about 300 paces wide, and the right bank, on which stands the mill and village held by the Saxons, is much higher than the left, on which the Imperialists were posted. The left bank was not only low and flat, but quite open, there being no cover except a small low wood, at some little distance from the water's edge. The stream was usually spanned by a boat-bridge, but the Saxons had divided it into three parts, and drawn it over to their own side. They had also thrown up a low breastwork on the bank to cover their artillery. On the morning of Sunday, 24th of April, the country was enveloped in so thick a fog, that it was eight o'clock before objects could be discerned. The Imperial engineers were early at work getting ready their pontoons under cover of a strong body of harquebusiers, and posting some guns amongst the trees. As soon as the troops could see, a brisk interchange of fire took place. The Spaniards, encouraged by the presence of the Emperor, approached the edge of the stream. The Saxons, to reply the better, manned their boats and pushed towards the centre. The Spaniards, not to be outdone, waded into the water up to their waists, and after a while succeeded in driving the boats back to shore with many killed and wounded, and the rest of the crews crouching down to avoid the bullets. Meanwhile the engineers, finding that they were short of pontoons, ten gallant Spaniards stripped themselves naked, and swimming with their swords in their teeth, boarded, captured, and brought across several of the enemies' boats, in spite of the efforts made by the Saxons to set them on fire. A miller, whose horses had been seized by the people of the Elector, out of revenge volunteered to show the ford, and the light cavalry had safely passed, each horseman carrying a foot-soldier behind him, before the enemy became aware of the necessity of disputing the passage. Avila, who rode with his master, has thus described the manner in which Charles crossed the Elbe ::-"Then the Emperor and "the King of the Romans, with their esquadrons, came to the river. "The Emperor rode upon a dark dun Spanish horse, presented by