[838] These negotiations will be found in Forstermann's Urkunden, pp. 750-793. Nothing remained but to draw the sword; and for that Charles made every preparation. On the 25th October, he wrote to the cardinals at Rome: "We inform you that we shall spare neither kingdoms nor lordships; and that we shall venture even our soul and our body to complete things so necessary." [Sidenote: CLOSE OF THE DIET.] Scarcely had Charles's letter been received, before his major-domo, Pedro de la Cueva, arrived in Rome by express. "The season is now too far advanced to attack the Lutherans immediately," said he to the Pope; "but prepare everything for this enterprise. His majesty thinks it his duty to prefer before all things the accomplishment of your designs." Thus Clement and the Emperor were also united, and both sides began to concentrate their forces. On the evening of the 11th November, the _recess_ was read to the Protestant deputies, and on the 12th they rejected it, declaring that they did not acknowledge the Emperor's power to command in matters of faith.[839] The deputies of Hesse and of Saxony departed immediately after, and on the 19th November the _recess_ was solemnly read in the presence of Charles the Fifth, and of the princes and deputies who were still in Augsburg. This report was more hostile than the project communicated to the Protestants. It bore, among other things (this is only a sample of the urbanity of this official doctrine), that "to deny free-will was the error not of a man, but of a brute."--"We beg his majesty," said the Elector Joachim, after it was read, "not to leave Germany, until by his cares one sole and same faith be re-established in all the Empire." [839] Urkunden, ii. p. 823; Corp. Ref. ii. p. 437. The Emperor replied, that he would not go farther than his states of the Low Countries. They desired deeds should follow close upon words. It was then nearly seven in the evening; a few torches, lighted here and there by the ushers, and casting a pale light, alone illuminated this assembly: they separated without seeing each other; and thus ended, as it were by stealth, that diet so pompously announced to the christian world. On the 22d November, the _recess_ was made public, and two days after Charles the Fifth set out for Cologne. The ruler of two worlds had seen all his power baffled by a few Christians; and he who had entered the imperial city in triumph, now quitted it gloomy, silent, and dispirited. The mightiest power of the earth was broken against the power of God. [Sidenote: ATTACK ON GENEVA.]