Charles and his ministers gave up every idea of reconciliation, and hoped for nothing except through fear. The Protestants having arrived at eight o'clock at the imperial palace, they were made to wait an hour; the Elector of Brandenburg then said to them in Charles's name: "His majesty is astonished beyond measure that you still maintain your doctrine to be based on the holy Scriptures. If you said the truth, his majesty's ancestors, so many kings and emperors, and even the ancestors of the Elector of Saxony, would have been heretics! There is no Gospel, there is no Scripture, that imposes on us the obligation of seizing by violence the goods of another, and of saying afterwards that we cannot conscientiously restore them. It is for this reason," added Joachim, after these words, which he had accompanied with a sardonic smile, "I am commissioned to inform you, that if you refuse the _recess_, all the Germanic states will place their lives and their property at the Emperor's disposal, and his majesty himself will employ the resources of all his kingdoms to complete this affair before leaving the Empire." "We do not accept it," replied the Protestants firmly,--"His majesty also has a conscience," then resumed the Elector of Brandenburg, in a harsh tone; "and if you do not submit, he will concert with the Pope and the other potentates on the best means of extirpating this sect and its new errors." But in vain did they add threat to threat: the Protestants remained calm, respectful, and unshaken. "Our enemies, destitute of all confidence in God!" said they, "would shake like a reed in presence of the Emperor's anger, and they imagine that we should tremble in like manner; but we have called unto God, and he will keep us faithful to his truth." The Protestants then prepared to take their final leave of the Emperor. This prince, whose patience had been put to a severe trial, approached to shake hands according to custom: and beginning with the Elector of Saxony, he said to him in a low voice: "Uncle, uncle! I should never have expected this of you." The Elector was deeply affected: his eyes filled with tears: but, firm and resolute, he bent his head and quitted Charles without reply. It was now two in the afternoon. [Sidenote: MESSAGES OF PEACE.]