Charles passed the whole of the 4th and the morning of the 5th August in consultation with the Ultramontane party. "It will never be by discussion that we shall come to an understanding," said some; "and if the Protestants do not submit voluntarily, it only remains for us to compel them." They nevertheless decided, on account of the Refutation, to adopt a middle course. During the whole of the diet, Charles pursued a skilful policy. At first he refused everything, hoping to lead away the princes by violence; then he conceded a few unimportant points, under the impression that the Protestants having lost all hope, would esteem so much the more the little he yielded to them. This was what he did again under the present circumstances. In the afternoon of the 5th, the Count-palatine announced that the Emperor would give them a copy of the Refutation, but on these conditions; namely, that the Protestants should not reply, that they should speedily agree with the Emperor, and that they would not print or communicate to any one the Refutation that should be confided to them.[694] [694] F. Urkund. ii. p. 179; Corp. Ref. ii. p. 256; Brück, Apol. p. 72. This communication excited murmurs among the Protestants. "These conditions," said they all, "are inadmissible."--"The Papists present us with their paper," added the Chancellor Brück, "as the fox offered a thin broth to his gossip the stork." The savoury broth upon a plate by Reynard was served up, But Mistress Stork, with her long beak, she could not get a sup.[695] [695] Gluck wie der Fuchs brauchet, da er den Storch zu gast lud. (Brück, Apol. p. 74.) [Sidenote: STORMY MEETING.] "If the Refutation," continued he, "should come to be known without our participation (and how can we prevent it?), we shall be charged with it as a crime. Let us beware of accepting so perfidious an offer.[696] We already possess in the notes of Camerarius several articles of this paper, and if we omit any point, no one will have the right to reproach us with it." [696] Quando exemplum per alios in vulgus exire poterat. (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 76.) On the next day (6th August) the Protestants declared to the diet that they preferred declining the copy thus offered to them, and appealed to God and to his Majesty.[697] They thus rejected all that the Emperor proposed to them, even what he considered as a favour. [697] Das Sie es Gott and Kays. Maj. beschlen mussten. (Urkund. ii. p. 181.)