They soon, however, saw that their only salvation depended upon a vigorous defense, and they marshaled their forces for war.

With promptness and energy which even astonished themselves, they speedily raised an army which, on the junction of its several corps, amounted to eighty thousand men.

In its intelligence, valor, discipline and equipments, it was probably the best army which had ever been assembled in the States of Germany.

Resolutely they marched under Schartlin, one of the most experienced generals of the age, toward Ratisbon, where the emperor was holding a diet.
Charles V.was as much alarmed by this unexpected apparition, as the Protestants had been alarmed by the preparations of the emperor.

He had supposed that his force was so resistless that the Protestants would see at once the hopelessness of resistance, and would yield without a struggle.