At last Charles, having quitted Innspruck two days after Gattinara's death, arrived at Munich on the 10th June. His reception was magnificent. At the distance of two miles from the town a temporary fortress, soldiers' huts, cannon, horsemen, an assault, repeated explosions, flames, shouts, whirlwinds of smoke, and a terrible clashing of arms, all of which was very agreeable to the Emperor;[416] in the city, theatres raised in the open air, the _Jewess Esther_, the _Persian Cambyses_, and other pieces not less famous, the whole combined with splendid fireworks, formed the reception given by the adherents of the Pope to him whom they styled their Saviour. [416] Das hat Kais. Maj. wohl gefallen.--(Forstemann, Urkunden. i p. 246.) Charles was not far distant from Augsburg. As early as the 11th June, every day and every hour, members of the imperial household, carriages, waggons, and baggage entered this city, to the sound of the clacking whip and of the horn;[417] and the burghers in amazement gazed with dejected eyes on all this insolent train, that fell upon their city like a flight of locusts.[418] [417] Alle stund die Wagen, der Tross und viel gesinds nact einander harein.--(Corp. Ref. ii. p. 90.) [418] Finden aber wenig Frenden feuer.--(Ibid.) At five o'clock in the morning of the 15th June,[419] the Elector, the princes, and their councillors, assembled at the town-hall, and erelong arrived the imperial commissaries, having an order for them to go out and meet Charles. At three in the afternoon the princes and deputies quitted the city, and, having reached a little bridge across the river Lech, they there halted and waited for the Emperor. The eyes of every member of the brilliant assemblage, thus stopping on the smiling banks of an alpine torrent, were directed along the road to Munich. At length, after waiting two or three hours, clouds of dust and a loud noise announced the Emperor. Two thousand of the imperial guard marched first; then Charles having come to within fifty paces of the river, the Electors and princes alighted. Their sons, who had advanced beyond the bridge, perceiving the Emperor preparing to do the same, ran to him and begged him to remain on horseback;[420] but Charles dismounted without hesitating,[421] and approaching the princes with an amiable smile, shook hands with them cordially. Albert of Mentz, in his quality of arch-chancellor of the empire, now welcomed the Emperor, and the Count-palatine Frederick replied in behalf of Charles. [419] Zu morgens, um fünf Uhr.--(F. Urkunden. i. p. 263.) [420] Ab Electorum filiis qui procurrerant rogatus.--(Seck. ii. p. 101.) [421] Mox ab equis descenderunt.--(Cochlœus.) [Sidenote: THE PROCESSION.]