"The wretches that have endeavoured to mislead so young a prince," said they, "deserve to be hung on the first tree by the wayside!" Charles swore, in fact, that the bearer should suffer the penalty of his audacity. At length, on the 12th October, Alexander Schweiss, imperial secretary, transmitted the Emperor's reply to the deputies. It said that the minority ought to submit to the decrees passed in diet, and that if the Duke of Saxony and his allies refused, means would not be wanting to compel them.[318] [318] Sibi non defore media quibus ad id compellerentur.--(Seckend. ii p. 133.) [Sidenote: THE ENVOYS UNDER ARREST.] Ehinger and Caden thereupon read aloud the appeal to the Emperor drawn up at Spire, whilst Frauentraut, who had renounced his quality of deputy and assumed that of a notary,[319] took notes of what was passing. When the reading was finished, the deputies advanced towards Schweiss and presented the appeal. The imperial secretary rejected the document with amazement; the deputies insisted; Schweiss continued firm. They then laid the appeal on the table. Schweiss was staggered; he took the paper, and carried it to the Emperor. [319] Tabellionis sive notarii officium.--(Ibid.) After dinner, just as one of the deputies (Caden) had gone out, a tumult in the hotel announced some catastrophe. It was the imperial secretary who returned duly accompanied. "The Emperor is exceedingly irritated against you on account of this appeal," said he to the Protestants; "and he forbids you, under pain of confiscation and death, to leave your hotel, to write to Germany, or to send any message whatsoever."[320] Thus Charles put ambassadors under arrest, as he would the officers of his guard, desirous in this manner of publishing his contempt, and of frightening the princes. [320] Sub capitis pœna, ne pedem a diversario moveant.--(Seckend. ii. p. 133.) Caden's servant slipped in alarm out of the hotel, and ran to his master. The latter, still considering himself free, wrote a hasty account of the whole business to the senate of Nuremberg, sent off his letters by express, and returned to share in the arrest of his colleagues.[321] [321] A famulo certior factus, rem omnem senatui aperuit--(Ibid.) [Sidenote: MEETING OF CHARLES AND CLEMENT.]