It was Saturday, the 6th August, the day for which Philip had requested the Emperor's leave of absence. He waits until the commencement of the night, and then, about eight o'clock, disguised in a foreign dress, without bidding farewell to any of his friends,[738] and taking every imaginable precaution,[739] he makes for the gates of the city, about the time when they are usually closed. Five or six cavaliers followed him singly, and at a little distance.[740] In so critical a moment will not these men-at-arms attract attention? Philip traverses the streets without danger, approaches the gate,[741] passes with a careless air through the midst of the guard, between the scattered soldiers; no one moves, all remain idly seated, as if nothing extraordinary was going on. Philip has passed without being recognised.[742] His five or six horsemen come through in like manner. Behold them all at last in the open country. The little troop immediately spur their horses, and flee with headlong speed far from the walls of the imperial city.
Yet Philip has taken his measures so well, that no one as yet suspects his departure. When during the night Charles occupies the gates with his own guards, he thinks the Landgrave still in the city.[743] When the Protestants were assembled at eight in the morning in the Chapter-hall, the princes of both parties were a little astonished at the absence of Philip of Hesse. They are accustomed, however, to see him keep aloof; he is in a pet, no doubt. No one imagines he is between twelve and fifteen leagues from Augsburg.
ALARM IN AUGSBURG.
After the termination of the conference, and as each one was returning towards his hotel, the Elector of Brandenburg and his friends on the one hand, elated at the speech they had delivered, the Elector of Saxony and his allies on the other, resolved to sacrifice everything, inquiries were made at the Landgrave's lodgings as to the reason of his absence; they closely question Salz, Nuszbicker, Mayer, and Schnepf. At last the Hessian councillors can no longer keep the secret. "The Landgrave," said they, "has returned to Hesse."
This news circulated immediately through all the city, and shook it like the explosion of a mine. Charles especially, who found himself mocked, and frustrated in his expectations—Charles, who had not the least suspicion,[744] trembled, and was enraged.[745] The Protestants, whom the Landgrave had not admitted to his secret,[746] are as much astonished as the Roman-catholics themselves, and fear that this inconsiderate departure may be the immediate signal for a terrible persecution. There was only Luther, who, the moment he heard of Philip's proceeding, highly approved of it, and exclaimed: "Of a truth all these delays and indignities are enough to fatigue more than one Landgrave."[747]
The Chancellor of Hesse gave the Elector of Saxony a letter that his master had left for him. Philip spoke in this ostensible document of his wife's health; but he had charged his ministers to inform the Elector in private of the real causes of his departure. He announced, moreover, that he had given orders to his ministers to assist the Protestants in all things, and exhort his allies to permit themselves in no manner to be turned aside from the Word of God.[748] "As for me," said he, "I shall fight for the Word of God, at the risk of my goods, my states, my subjects, and my life."
METAMORPHOSIS.
The effect of the Landgrave's departure was instantaneous: a real revolution was then effected in the diet. The Elector of Mentz and the bishops of Franconia, Philip's near neighbours, imagined they already saw him on their frontiers at the head of a powerful army, and they replied to the Archbishop of Salzburg, who expressed astonishment at their alarm: "Ah! if you were in our place you would do the same." Ferdinand, knowing the intimate relations of Philip with the Duke of Wurtemberg, trembled for the estates of this prince, at that time usurped by Austria; and Charles the Fifth, undeceived with regard to those princes whom he had believed so timid, and whom he had treated with so much arrogance, had no doubt that this sudden fit of Philip's had been maturely deliberated in the common council of the Protestants. All saw a declaration of war in the Landgrave's sudden departure. They called to mind that at the moment when they thought the least about it, they might see him appear at the head of his soldiers, on the frontiers of his enemies, and no one was ready; no one even wished to be ready! A thunderbolt had fallen in the midst of the diet. They repeated the news to one another, with troubled eyes and affrighted looks. All was confusion in Augsburg; and couriers bore afar, in every direction, astonishment and consternation.
This alarm immediately converted the enemies of the Reform. The violence of Charles and of the princes was broken in this memorable night as if by enchantment; and the furious wolves were suddenly transformed into meek and docile lambs.[749]
UNUSUAL MODERATION.