Beware how you take upon yourself to plunge the nation in war--to tear down the sacred barriers of peace--and open the floodgates for a thousand evil passions to deluge Germany with crime and blood! Can you foresee what may occur--what a month may develop--what new political combination the master mind of Gregory may devise for our preservation ?" "I must rather beware," returned the noble, "how I sacrifice the last hope of my country and the main support of religion by procrastination and criminal hesitation.

If I refuse the crown, I disband my party.

Men will leave us, and say we tremble, and before long we are at the tender mercies of the tyrant, for my resignation, while striking terror into our ranks, will infuse new courage into his.

Then would I see my allies--the friends whom I seduced into rebellion and then abandoned--destroyed in detail--pursued, hunted down, exiled, and martyred before my eyes.

No! come what may, I must accept." "What is your situation now," rejoined the missionary, "that you have anything else to expect than defeat and disgrace?
You know the emperor--you have seen his dauntless courage, his consummate skill, his desperate resolution.