But Rhodolph speedily constructed a bridge of boats, put to flight the troops which opposed his passage, drove the peasants of the bishop everywhere before him, and burned their cottages and their fields of grain.

The bishop, appalled, sued for a truce, that they might negotiate terms of peace.

Rhodolph consented, and encamped his followers.
He was asleep in his tent, when a messenger entered at midnight, awoke him, and informed him that he was elected Emperor of Germany.

The previous emperor, Richard, had died two years before, and after an interregnum of two years of almost unparalleled anarchy, the electors had just met, and, almost to their own surprise, through the fluctuations and combinations of political intrigue, had chosen Rhodolph of Hapsburg as his successor.

Rhodolph himself was so much astonished at the announcement, that for some time he could not be persuaded that the intelligence was correct.
To wage war against the Emperor of Germany, who could lead almost countless thousands into the field, was a very different affair from measuring strength with the comparatively feeble Count of Hapsburg.