The Romish states made their report to the Emperor. They were face to face, three steps only from each other, without either side being able to approach nearer, even by a hair's breadth. [Sidenote: THE GORDIAN KNOT.] Thus, then, Melancthon had failed; and his enormous concessions were found useless. From a false love of peace, he had set his heart on an impossibility. Melancthon was at the bottom a really Christian soul. God preserved him from his great weakness, and broke the clue that was about to lead him to destruction. Nothing could have been more fortunate for the Reformation than Melancthon's failure; but nothing could, at the same time, have been more fortunate for himself: his friends saw that though he was willing to yield much, he could not go so far as to yield Christ himself, and his defeat justified him in the eyes of the Protestants. The Elector of Saxony and the Margrave of Brandenburg sent to beg Charles's leave to depart. The latter refused at first rather rudely, but at last he began to conjure the princes not to create by their departure new obstacles to the arrangements they soon hoped to be able to conclude.[792] We shall see of what nature these arrangements were. [792] Antwort des Kaisers, &c. (Urkund. ii. p. 313.) They appeared to redouble their exertions. If they now let the clue slip, it is lost for ever: they laboured accordingly to reunite the two ends. There were conferences in the gardens, conferences at the churches, at St. George's, at St. Maurice's, between the Duke of Brunswick and John Frederick the Elector's son, the Chancellors of Baden and of Saxony, the Chancellor of Liege and Melancthon; but all these attempts were unavailing. It was to other means they were going to have recourse. Charles the Fifth had resolved to take the affair in hand, and to cut the Gordian knot, which neither doctor nor princes could untie. Irritated at seeing his advances spurned and his authority compromised, he thought that the moment was come for drawing the sword. On the 4th September the members of the Roman party, who were still endeavouring to gain over the Protestants, whispered these frightful intentions in Melancthon's ears. "We scarcely dare mention it," said they: "the sword is already in the Emperor's hands, and certain people exasperate him more and more. He is not easily enraged, but once angry it is impossible to quiet him."[793] [793] Nescio an ausim dicere, jam ferrum in manu Cæsaris esse. (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 342.) [Sidenote: ALARM IN ROME.]