in his family. The impression made upon the grim Thurn and his
colleagues by the simplicity of these questions may be imagined. The
splendour and width of the Savoyard's conceptions fascinated the leaders
of the Union. It seemed to Anspach and Anhalt that it was as well that
Frederic should reign in Hungary as in Bohemia, and the Elector was
docile. All had relied however on the powerful assistance of the great
defender of the Protestant faith, the father-in-law of the Elector, the
King of Great Britain. But James had nothing but cold water and
Virgilian quotations for his son's ardour. He was more under the
influence of Gondemar than ever before, more eagerly hankering for the
Infanta, more completely the slave of Spain. He pledged himself to that
government that if the Protestants in Bohemia continued rebellious, he
would do his best to frustrate their designs, and would induce his son-
in-law to have no further connection with them. And Spain delighted his
heart not by immediately sending over the Infanta, but by proposing that
he should mediate between the contending parties. It would be difficult
to imagine a greater farce. All central Europe was now in arms. The
deepest and gravest questions about which men can fight: the right to
worship God according to their conscience and to maintain civil
franchises which have been earned by the people with the blood and
treasure of centuries, were now to be solved by the sword, and the pupil
of Buchanan and the friend of Buckingham was to step between hundreds of
thousands of men in arms with a classical oration. But James was very
proud of the proposal and accepted it with alacrity.

"You know, my dear son," he wrote to Frederic, "that we are the only
king in Europe that is sought for by friend and foe for his mediation.
It would be for this our lofty part very unbecoming if we were capable
of favouring one of the parties. Your suggestion that we might secretly
support the Bohemians we must totally reject, as it is not our way to do