Gustavus said: "I did not call you together because of any doubt in my mind, but that you might oppose me if you wished. That freedom you no longer enjoy. You have spoken. My view is this, that for our safety, honor and final peace, I see nothing but to make a bold attack on the enemy. I hope it will be for the advantage of Sweden, but I also hope, if the day go hard with us, no blame will be laid upon me, for I have no other end in view but that advantage. I do not underrate the difficulties, such as the want of means, or the doubtful issue of battle. It is no idle glory I am seeking, the king of Denmark is sufficient warning to me against that, besides the judgment of posterity leaves a man very little glory. I am satisfied with glory and want no more. Your duty is clear, to exhort all my subjects to continue in their present devoted attitude. For myself, I see that I have no more rest to expect but the rest of eternity." From this time Gustavus Adolphus met no further opposition among his own people. All Sweden at that time had only about one and a half million people, not so many as now live in New York City. Richelieu sent a wily ambassador to Gustavus, but the king was careful to enter into no hampering alliance with a Catholic power. Charnace, the emissary of Richelieu, twice visited Sweden, in the winter and spring of 1629 and 1630. He assured the king that the Protestant States would receive him with open arms. The king replied that such was not the case. Gustavus well knew that the Elector of Saxony, although a Protestant, was an ally of the Emperor simply to save his country from devastation, and that his brother-in-law of Brandenburg was a slothful glutton, wanting only to be let alone. As long as Denmark might "bite Sweden in the heel," Gustavus felt loth to leave his kingdom. He now had a personal interview with Christian IV. of Denmark and assured himself of goodwill on that side, he renewed the guards along the side next Russia and Poland, and quietly made ready his army, both by land and sea, for going to the relief of Germany. The Emperor said: "We shall now have another little enemy to fight." Wallenstein said that he could expel Gustavus, with the judicious use of a rod, as he might have spoken of a recalcitrant boy. At the same time Wallenstein offered thirty thousand dollars to anyone who would assassinate the king of Sweden, and thus save him using the rod. Falkenberg, a Swedish ambassador, visited the courts of Holland and of different Protestant German States, receiving fine verbal promises of assistance, but they utterly refused to enter into a written alliance with Sweden. Lubeck and Hamburg advanced him money and agreed to accept Swedish copper in return.