Christopher, who received encouragement from every quarter, appeared before the diet on the 10th of December, 1533. He was no longer the captive prince whom Charles had led in his train. The poor young man, who not long ago had been compelled to flee, leaving his companion behind him, hidden among the reeds of a marsh in the Norican Alps, stood now before the German diet, surrounded by a brilliant throng of nobles, the representatives of the princes who supported his claims, and having as _assistants_ (that is, as espousing his quarrel) the delegates of Saxony, Prussia, Brunswick, Mecklenburg, Luneburg, Hesse, Cleves, Munster, and Juliers. The King of Hungary pleaded his cause in person: 'Most noble seigniors,' he began, 'when we see the young Duke Christopher of Wurtemberg deprived of his duchy without having done anything to deserve such punishment, disappointed by the Austrians in all the hopes they had given him, unworthily treated at the imperial court,[529] compelled to make his escape by flight, imploring at this moment by earnest supplications your compassion and your help—we are profoundly agitated. What! because his father has done wrong, shall this young man be reduced to a hard and humiliating life? Has not the voice of God himself declared that the son shall not bear the iniquities of the father?' [Sidenote: UNION TO ASSIST WURTEMBERG.] The Austrian commissioners, finding their position rather embarrassing, began to temporise, and proposed that Christopher should accept as compensation some town of small importance. He refused, saying: 'I will never cease to claim simply and firmly the country of my fathers.'[530] But Austria, fearing the preponderance of protestantism in Germany, closed her ears to his just request. At this point France intervened strongly in favour of the two protestant princes. Du Bellay, after reminding the diet that Ulrich had confessed his faults, and that he was much altered by age, long exile, and great trials, continued thus: 'Must the duke see his only son, a young and innocent prince, who ought to be the support of his declining years, for ever bearing the weight of his misfortunes? Will you take into consideration neither the calamitous old age of the one, nor the unhappy youth of the other? Will you avenge the sins of the father upon the child who was then in the cradle? The dukes of Wurtemberg are of high descent. Their punishment has been permitted, but not their destruction. Help this innocent youth (Christopher), receive this penitent (Ulrich), and reestablish them both in their former dignity.'[531]