From the Diet of Worms to the Augsburg Confession - James Aitken Wylie

it, and ready every moment to engulf it; but it was
his consolation to know that a strong arm was near,
able to still these mighty waves, and rescue that
imperilled bark from destruction. The strong arm to
which he referred was that of the emperor. He ran
on a long while in this vein of rhetoric. The legate
was speaking against time. Next came deputies
from Austria, who had a long and doleful recital of
the miseries the Turk had inflicted upon them to
lay before the Diet. This scene had all been
arranged beforehand.
It came at length to an end. The Protestant
princes rose again and craved permission to read
their paper. "It is too late," was the emperor's reply.
"But," insisted the princes, "we have been
publicly accused, and we must be permitted
publicly to justify ourselves." "Then," said the
emperor, who felt it would be well to make a show
of yielding, "tomorrow at the Palatinate Chapel."
The "Palatinate Chapel" was not the usual place of
the Diet's meeting, but an apartment in the
emperor's own palace, capable of containing about
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