on the throne. Believing that the Protestants were instiga- 

 tors of this effort to undermine his power, Rudolph resorted 

 to stringent and irritating measures directed against them; 

 meanwhile an insurrection broke out in Hungary, and dis- 

 asters rapidly succeeded which led to the deposition of the 

 Emperor by the Bohemian Assembly in April 1611, Matthias 

 being crowned in his stead. Just before his abdication, Ru- 

 dolph is said to have looked out of a window of the palace 

 on the Hradschin, and to have exclaimed: 



"Prague, O unthankful Prague! Thou who hast been so highly 

 elevated by me, now thou spurnest thy benefactor; may the 

 curse and vegeance of God fall on thee and on all Bohemia!" 



The deposed monarch, now enfeebled in body and mind,, 

 was allowed to reside in Prague and was awarded a pension 

 of 400,000 florins together with certain productive estates. 

 Early in the year 1612, his pet lion Ottakar fell sick and 

 died, an event regarded by .Rudolph as a fatal omen, for 

 Tycho Brahe years before had stated that the lion and the 

 Emperor were subject to the same celestial influences. Rudolph 

 breathed his last on the morning of the 20th of January, 

 1612, and the court decided to keep his death a secret until 

 his brother Matthias had reached the Capital. Kaspar Rucky 

 von Rudz, one of the Emperor's valets and alchemists, whom 

 we met at the Rudolphine Academy of Medicine, took advan- 

 tage of this opportunity to steal all the powder of projection 

 and the alchemistical gold that he could lay his hands on, 

 ransacking the royal laboratories and the cabinet of curiosi- 

 ties. This bold theft became known to the Prime Minister 

 almost immediately, and Rucky, with several other retainers, 

 were arrested and imprisoned. 



Being threatened with the horrible torture of the rack, 

 Rucky hung himself in his dungeon by the aid of the cord 



200 



