[Sidenote: CHANT FOR THE DEAD.] Two thousand persons accompanied him through the streets: there was a rush to meet him. The crowd was increasing every moment, and was much larger than when the emperor made his entry. Suddenly, relates a historian, a man clad in a singular dress, and carrying a large cross before him, as is usual at funerals, breaks off from the crowd, advances towards Luther, and then, in a loud voice, and with the plaintive cadence which is used in saying mass for the repose of the souls of the dead, chants the following stanzas as if he had been determined that the very dead should hear them:-- Advenisti, O desiderabilis! Quem expectabamus in tenebris![493] [493] Thou hast arrived--thou whom we longed and waited for in darkness. Luther's arrival is celebrated by a _Requiem_. If the story is true, it was the court fool of one of the dukes of Bavaria who gave Luther one of those warnings remarkable at once for wisdom and irony, of which so many instances are furnished by these individuals. But the clamour of the multitude soon drowned the _De Profundis_ of the cross-bearer. The train could scarcely proceed through the moving mass. At length the imperial herald stopped before the hotel of the Knights of Rhodes. Here lodged two of the Elector's counsellors, Frederic of Thun and Philip of Feilitsch, as well as the marshal of the empire, Ulric of Pappenheim. Luther got out of his carriage, and, on alighting, said, "The Lord will be my defence."[494]... "I entered Worms," said he afterwards, "in a covered car in my frock. Everybody ran into the street to see friar Martin."[495] [494] Deus stabit pro me. (Pallavicini, i, p. 114.) [495] L. Op. xvii, p. 587. The news of his arrival filled the Elector of Saxony and Aleander with alarm. The young and elegant Archbishop Albert, who held a mean between those two parties, was amazed at Luther's boldness. "Had I not had more courage than he," said Luther, "it is true I never should have been seen in Worms." Charles V immediately assembled his council. The counsellors in the emperor's confidence repaired in haste to the palace for they too were in dismay. "Luther is arrived," said Charles, "what must be done?" Modo, bishop of Palermo and chancellor of Flanders, if we are to receive Luther's own statement, replied, "We have long consulted on this subject. Let your imperial Majesty speedily get rid of this man. Did not Sigismond cause John Huss to be burnt? There is no obligation either to give or observe a safe-conduct to a heretic."[496] "No," said Charles: "what has been promised must be performed." There was nothing for it, therefore, but to make the Reformer appear. [496] ... Dass Ihre Majestät den Luther aufs erste beyseit thäte und umbringen liess. (Ibid.) [Sidenote: CAPITO AND THE TEMPORISERS.]