"I admit——" began the trembling Archbishop of Cologne, but his colleague interrupted him.
"We admit nothing. We shall wait upon the Emperor together, for in this matter my doughty auxiliary and I stand or fall in company. What has been done has been done after mutual consultations, and with the consent of both. If then we are to be threatened, I ask you to inform his Majesty that we shall appeal direct to the Pope, and I think the young Emperor will be ill-advised to bring on a contest between himself and the Holy Church, for such conflicts have resulted disastrously for monarchs before now, even when they were more firmly seated on their thrones than Rodolph of Hapsburg is on his."
"My Lord, I am dismayed to find that what I have said has been construed into a threat. Such was not my intention, and I beg you to believe that anything approaching a menace would bring censure on me from his Majesty, and in the launching of it I should be gravely exceeding my commission. Nevertheless, I cannot be blind to the fact that your words bear distinct defiance against his Majesty the Emperor, but as I have myself so far fallen short of my purpose, which was not to intimidate, but to impress upon you the plight in which you stand, I shall forget your words and consider them unsaid, extending to you that merciful construction of your language which I hope you, in turn, will kindly bestow upon me."
"I ask no consideration from you, my Lord of Brunfels. What I have said, I have said. I shall appeal to the Pope and place myself under his august protection. Any action taken against me is an action against the Holy Church, and the consequences must fall on whose head they may, be it that of Baron or that of Emperor."
"I the more deeply regret this decision that I have already had communication with his Holiness the Pope upon the matter in question."
"Ha! With what result?"
"When the siege was begun, I considered it my duty, in the interest of the absent Emperor, to obtain some decision from the Pope that might be an aid to his Majesty on his return. I sent an envoy to Rome and acquainted his Holiness with the cause of the quarrel, in so far as it was understood by me, informing him that the siege had been entered upon, asking him whether or not the Emperor was to believe that the conduct of your Lordships had the sanction and support of his Holiness. The reply to my message stated that it was impossible for his Holiness to judge who was in the right or who was in the wrong, as he had heard nothing of your Lordships' side of the matter."
"A most just and admirable decision."
"Commendable and cautious, as I thought at the time, but still erring, if anything, on the side of vagueness."