5.  It  had  been  hoped  that  the  treaty  of  Lubec  would  prove  the
forerunner  of  a  general  pacification  ;  and  the  subjects,  the  allies,  and
the  enemies  of  Ferdinand,  now  united  in  imploring  him  to  put  an
end  to  a  civil  war  which  had  been  waged  with  a  ferocity  hitherto  un-
known since  the  ages  of  Gothic  barbarism.     But,  the  Protestants
being  subdued,  and  no  enemy  left  to  oppose  the  emperor,  the  Roman
Catholics  thought  the  moment  too  favorable  to  be  neglected,  and
Ferdinand  was  urged  on  by  them  to  exercise  the  most  intolerable
tyranny  over  his  Protestant  subjects.     The  last  beam  of  hope  froni
the  emperor's  clemency  was  extinguished,  and  the  Protestants  only
awaited  the  arrival  of  a  leader  to  throw  off  a  yoke  which  m  SWEDIgH
had  become  insupportable.     A  deliverer  was  found  in    PERIOD  OF
Gustavus  Adolphus,  the  Protestant  king  of  Sweden.     The     THE  WAE*
circumstances  that   led  to   his  interposition,  —  the  opening  of  the
Swedish  period  of  the  war  —  show  how  tangled  has  often  been  the
web  of  European  politics.
